Visiting Virginia

Since moving to Atlanta, one of the things I have really been wanting to do was drive to Virginia and visit people I know there from my internship in summer 2010. While I am much closer than I was in Utah, it's still about a ten hour drive each way. Or eleven hours if I split it into two drives and spend a night in North Carolina. I tried it both ways.

I had decided to go up on Presidents Day weekend, because I need the extra day for the long travel time. And then I decided in order to see everyone I wanted to, I needed another day. Luckily my boss seemed to have no problem giving me that Friday off as well (it's our slow season right now, so that helps).

I actually stayed in Durham on Thursday night with Mindy and Jeran's friends, Mary and Adam, since Mindy and Jeran were in Utah visiting. It was kind of nice having the drive split up in two, and talking to my mom all the way through South Carolina helped, too. I really enjoy the bluetooth feature in my car that allows me to talk to people while I drive. Legally. Talking to people really makes the driving time disappear - on the way home I had plentiful time to talk to many people, so that was very fun. This was the first long solo road trip, and I was quite happy that it went so well and really didn't seem that difficult.

There were four main groups/people that I visited with: The Care of Trees office in Dulles (where I interned), the Anderson family (where I lived), Ryan Royston (best friend), and the Jenkins (good friends of the Andersons and now mine).

My visit to TCOT was rather impromptu and unannounced. I just drove over for fun, to see the once-familiar route and hopefully be able to chat with some old coworkers. Luck was with me, and I arrived at the office just near the end of the day, so I was able to surprise everyone with my random visit. I talked with Jeremy (boss and friend) for a while, but also Dave, Dean, Mark, Doug, and Ron as they were coming back from their work days. It was fun to see them again, and to know that I could go work there whenever I wanted - according to Jeremy.

I spent a lot of time at the Andersons', since that's where I was staying for the weekend, but we didn't really do anything together. It was more casual than that, like I belonged there and it wasn't at all different for me to stay there. It was a whole lot of fun memories though. Like the picture frame on the wall with the store-provided photos, or the chocolate crispies for breakfast.

Ryan and I spent quite a lot of time together. Dinner on Friday night at IHOP, where we compared our nice new cars and dealership stories (he'd gotten his car that day, so it was fun to compare notes. Our cars are quite similar). Saturday afternoon we went to McKay Used Books, Inc in Manassas. SO FUN! They have so many books, movies, music, everything. We spent hours there. I ended up buying some movies, a famous buildings of the world book, and a beautiful big book of Sherlock Holmes - it has every single Conan Doyle story, and it looks like it's never been opened before. Fun! Then we had dinner and watched some movies (including the home video his little brother had just finished editing together. I rather liked Thor, but watching Count of Monte Cristo just makes me upset at how completely inferior it is to the book. In every way. It was so good to see Ryan again - it's been almost five months since I've seen him, and two months since I've spent significant time with a close friend who's not also a family member. It was sad to leave because who knows when the next opportunity to visit will be.

I spent Sunday evening with the Jenkins' at Pemberley (that's what their house is called. They're both very big Jane Austen fans). We had a nice pot roast dinner and visited for a while.

I really loved my visit to Virginia, it felt a lot like being at home. Not home home, but a home. Very familiar and comfortable, lots of friends and family type people. I wish I could visit again soon, but it's a really long drive and I have so many other places to visit and explore.

Fall Creek Falls, TN

Last Friday after work I drove up to Tennessee for a YSA Retreat at Fall Creek Falls State Park, hosted by one of the stakes nearby. It was an interesting adventure getting there. I missed an exit in Tennessee, and the recalculated route took me on a little highway through the sticks of Tennessee, and it seemed to last forever. I finally got to the town that the address used, but I couldn't find the state park anywhere on the TomTom. So I had to stop and ask. "Turn left, and go straight up the mountain, and after a while it will be on your left." It's pitch dark - I can't see any mountains! So I turned left and drove...and drove...and drove up this windy little mountain road. I'm already late for registration and quite probably lost, so I'm laughing at the situation. Battling hysteria. Did I mention it was twenty-five degrees outside, no cell reception, and a storm blowing in?

Anyway, I finally found the park, and finally found the conference center and inn. I didn't find the dance all that exciting, so I went to my hotel room and watched NCIS and Say Yes to the Dress (with Alyna, though we didn't know it at the time). The other girl who was supposed to be in my room never showed up, so I had it all to myself. On Saturday, they had three classes in the morning - Tennessee Mormon History, the Atonement, and Perspective. All were pretty cool. Then they provided sack lunches, and we had free time until dinner and the stake president's talk to us. I had really hated driving in the dark the night before, and I wasn't having that much fun anyway, so I decided to leave early. But not before I saw some of the park.

It was snowing on Saturday when we woke up, big flakes swirling down onto the lake. It was quite beautiful. I found I was quite excited by the snow and the refreshing cold (mountains are okay to be cold, beaches are not). This was the view from my balcony in the morning:

I went to see the main waterfalls (Fall Creek Falls), and then the two small waterfalls (Cane Creek Falls, I believe). It was beautiful. Absolutely freezing - like 20 degrees - but I had two jackets including my Scotland sweater. And I ran some, to keep warm. I loved this area, and I definitely plan to go again sometime when it's warm and green.

So it was a good little retreat, even if it wasn't particularly social. I didn't really meet anyone, although I did say hi to Sam Briscoe. We think we're related, but it's rather distantly. His family did live in Idaho, though. He also knew Matt from his mission in Houston.