Strawberry Fields Forever

On Saturday, we drove up to the north Georgia mountains to spend the day strawberry picking in Blue Ridge, Georgia. The forecast predicted rain but we thought we'd chance it since we were afraid that waiting would mean the strawberries wouldn't be available later in the month. It took about an hour to drive up to Mercier Orchards on the outskirts of Blue Ridge. They have blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, and apple orchards but right now, they only have strawberries available for picking.

That was just fine by me since strawberries are my favorite berry. We'd gone raspberry picking before, but I much prefered the idea of eating my weight in strawberries.

They have several strawberry fields, which they rotate through as people come to pick. Since these fields are spread out throughout the orchard, we had to take a tractor ride to the fields.

It started to sprinkle as we drove out to the field, and it rained through much of our picking. We walked through several rows, finding only small, red ripened fruit to pick before they told us we could move to a different area where there were lots of big, red juicy strawberries just waiting to be picked.

Zara picked a few strawberries, but she mostly just wanted to hold the bucket and offer encouragement.

Adelaide, on the other hand, just wanted to eat the strawberries. She mostly just wandered around, getting wet and muddy, with a strawberry in each hand.

She was delighted with herself.

After filling our bucket and taking a second soggy tractor ride back to the main store, we purchased some apple and strawberry pies from the bakery and bought some strawberry salsa and apple cider. I'm think we'll definitely make a return trip during apple picking season.

We then drove into downtown Blue Ridge (all two streets of it) and ate lunch at Harvest on Main, a local/organic eatery on Main Street. I ate an organic cheeseburger (delicious) and David had some pork sandwich monstrosity.

We wandered a bit through the stores before deciding we'd had enough of the rain and weather (and the kids were in desperate need of naps) and we headed home.

We came home with 2 gallon buckets full of strawberries. We quickly consumed one, but I'm hoarding the rest to use for Adelaide's birthday cake tomorrow.

Suyom, International Cat of Mystery

This is a post about Suyom, international cat of mystery and mayhem, with ninja skills and built-in cloaking devices. This is a post about how a pet can weave their lives so indelibly into your own that when you think about life's grand moments--both big and small--there's a cat perched in the corner, sharing it all with you. This is a post about my love for my unlovable cat and how she is no longer here.

Suyom when we first adopted her, Hawaii, 2009

Three weeks ago, Suyom escaped the house. I don't know how or when, probably at some point during the day when the kids were outside playing and running in and out, leaving the screen door gaping open in their wake. I didn't see her get out--or if I did, I didn't think much of it because Suyom is afraid of her shadow and never stayed out of doors for long before being spooked and racing back inside.

Testing out the Bumbo, Korea, 2010.

Apparently not that day. And as it would happen, it was an unusual day in that it was a day when there were guests and visitors and early arrivals, and I was not downstairs much to notice Suyom's absence. I ran errands with the girls, went to the park, and then my sister-in-law had the missionaries over for dinner. David arrived home early enough from work to join us for the meal and help put the girls to bed before he headed off to a game night with his brother-in-law. His sisters, meanwhile, came over here for a girls night. It was a good day and Suyom, who so often kept to herself, was not missed until very late.

Suyom under the Christmas tree, Provo, 2012

So it was past midnight, before I went downstairs to finally rest my weary head and I realized that Suyom was no where to be found. I searched the whole house for her, and went outside and called around as much as I could, but no cat appeared. She'd never spent this much time out of doors and I would have assumed that she'd be close at hand. I thought that maybe the constant flow of visitors must have frightened her from approaching the door. In the morning, I hoped, she'd come home.

When morning came, Adelaide woke me up early and I wrapped in her some blankets and went looking for Suyom in the neighborhood. No sign of her. Georgia is a hilly place with dense forests and trees, and the backyard, such as it is, and much of the surrounding neighborhood, is really just an overgrown forest, dense with fallen trees and crawling ivy. Suyom could have been anywhere in the brush and bracken.

This was so unlike Suyom, an indoor cat with little natural hunter instincts left in her. My fear for Suyom's fate wasn't helped when my sister-in-law said that she had heard a rather loud and prolonged cat fight the night before, right around the time when I was downstairs putting the girls to bed. She'd had no reason to think Suyom was involved and so hadn't gone to investigate.

Suyom has always  had an unnatural dislike of other cats and I was not surprised to hear that she had had a rumble with some other felines. What I fear, though, is that she was injured during this fight and ran off far from home and hid herself where she couldn't be found and laid down to die. My only other hope is that she ran so far that she couldn't find her way home again. My even slighter hope is that someone found her and took her in.

But it's been three weeks now since she disappeared. I put up signs around the neighborhood and visited the County's Animal Control shelter multiple times in the hopes that she would have been brought it, but no such luck. I did receive a few calls about the cat, but each time, it was for sightings of the other resident black cat in the neighborhood. My Suyom is gone.

Suyom thinks she'd make a tasty dish, Korea, 2010

My grief for Suyom's disappearance has surprised even myself. She was often a troublesome cat who mostly disliked other people and especially other cats. She was jumpy and scared, and constantly getting underfoot. Her black hairs found their way into everything (our food mostly) because she always wanted to sit on the table while we ate. But all her faults aside, I loved that cat and miss her terribly. She was our first baby--David and me--and she saw me through many long days and nights, gave comfort and companionship, and was a silent, but capable confidante. When sad, or depressed, or lonely, I needed only to find Suyom and her reassuring purr almost always made me feel better.

We had many (MANY) cats as a child and so I am familiar with the process of losing a beloved pet. In a life largely devoid of many tragic or unexpected losses, the death of our numerous pets taught me the realities of grief and loss. Three weeks have passed and I can finally think of Suyom without crying or a sense of immense guilt. 

We adopted Suyom 5 years ago from our friends in Hawaii. Although Suyom was only about a year and a half at the time, she had gone through many homes already, being passed from one person to the next. I assumed that her jumpiness and fear was a product of a traumatized kittenhood. I had hoped--and tried--to provide Suyom with a sense of safety and security and though it took time, she finally came to love us in return. 

So it eats me up that Suyom should have met her demise in so traumatizing a fashion, that her absence was not sensed or felt for so long, and that she probably died alone and scared, not knowing that we cared and that we desperately wanted to find her. That we haven't yet found her allows me, however, to hold on the tinniest little shred of hope that she's alive and well and romping through the forested hills of Georgia, feasting on the copious birds, mice, and squirrels the populate the area and embracing her survival feline instincts. 

Suyom in our Provo house, 2013

I still live in hope that one day I will return home and Suyom will be there. I often think I see her out of the corner of my eye, but most often it's just my black sweater or David's black computer bag. Everytime I hear a cat's meow from the TV or computer, I think it's Suyom. When I open the door to the basement, I think I'll find Suyom perched on the first step as she so often did. 

As I went through our photos of the last 5 years, I was surprised and amused to see all the ways and places that Suyom was there, watching us and joining in as our family grew. She was there during our first year of marriage, when we were learning how to be us and shape our new identities as husband and wife. We packed her along--much to her annoyance, I'm sure--on the long plane rides from Hawaii to California, California to Georgia, and then finally from Georgia to Korea. 

Suyom sleeping in our bed in Seoul, 2009

Part of the reason we were so eager to adopt Suyom in Hawaii is that her presence meant that we wouldn't be allowed to live in on-base housing at Yongsan. And since we most definitely wanted to actually live in Seoul, she was our ticket to our beautiful apartment in Huam-dong, which we absolutely loved. And I loved telling our Korean friends and neighbors that our cat's name was Suyom, which is Korean for whiskers. 

About 20 weeks pregnant with Zara, 2010

She was also there when we decided to have our first child. In fact, I swear that she knew when Zara was conceived, because that night, Suyom came and slept on my stomach, which she had never done before. In fact, she mostly stayed at the foot of our bed, if she slept with us at all. But after that night, she slept in the space right next to my pillow and head. Even when there were babies there, she'd find a tiny spot for herself and sleep with me.  

She was there when we brought Zara home from the hospital and they were roughly the same size. (That didn't last long.)

She was there as our baby grew bigger and we grew closer together. She allowed herself to be dragged back onto an airplane (which she hated, we had to drug her) and move her from Korea to Utah. And then again from Utah to Virginia (4 days in the car) and from Virginia to Georgia. We put that cat through a lot. I doubt you'd meet a more well-traveled cat.

I worried how Suyom would treat the girls, but she was surprisingly tolerant and patient with them. She didn't let the girls maul her (which they would have loved to do), but she did let them pet her and touch her. But all bets were off if they pulled her tail. She kept a close eye on them, especially when they learned to crawl and walk.

Her presence was the reason that for a long time, Zara thought she WAS a cat and that her first word, aside from mama and dada, was cat. (Dat!)

Christmas and cats, December 2012

She was there for holidays, and birthdays, anniversaries, and moves, cold winter nights, and summery afternoons. She used to always be there and now I look for her, and she isn't there.

I had thought we'd have many more years with Suyom. I feel like I failed her somehow. But I at least can console myself with the fact that while she was ours, she was loved and I'm pretty sure she knew it.

So I don't forget, David and I composed several verses of a song about our cat. Here are some of the ones I can remember:

Suyom, the kitty cat.
Spends all night a-chasing rats.

Suyom, the kitty cat.
Sleeps all day then takes a nap.

Suyom, the kitty cat.
All dressed in black just like a bat.

The Returned Check

So remember how we went through every parent's rite of passage with our trip to the ER with Zara back in February? And remember how we didn't have insurance at the time so we had to pay for out of pocket and it was ridiculously expensive?

Okay, maybe you don't remember that part. I didn't blog about the costs associated with our trip. I thought I had. As luck would have it, we had just canceled our insurance the week before Zara's accident because we could no longer afford it and we hadn't really needed it anyway.

As soon as we had Zara's stitches removed, we asked to pay the bill right then. It came out to roughly $1500, $972 for the first ER visit to have the stitches put in and $500 for the stitches to be removed. They waived the fees for the second visit so we wrote a check for $972 and went on our way. (Thankfully we had just gotten our tax return so we had the money.)

A few weeks ago, completely out of the blue, we received a check from the hospital for the $972 we had paid them. I was positive it was some sort of mistake, so I called the hospital to figure out what was going on. It took me nearly an hour to get through to someone, but once I finally got ahold of someone in billing, she told him they were calling it an "overpayment" and that we would not be charged for our ER visit, except perhaps for a small doctor's association fee. 

I don't know why or how this happened. Call it a tender mercy, miracle, or clerical error. All I know is that I am incredibly grateful for a returned check and for the money we still so desperately need. 

Washington, D.C.

As soon as we got the news that we'd be leaving Virginia for more southern pastures, I told David that there were two things I had to do before we departed. The first was to make one last visit to Colonial Williamsburg--which we did for my birthday--and the other was to spend a few days in Washington, D.C. to visit my old haunts and catch up with old friends.

Once upon a time I did live there.The truth is, I've lived a lot of cool places: Washington, D.C., Seoul, Hawaii, Rome. But the other sad truth is that with each passing year and each new location, I forget what it was like to live in some of those places and it all begins to seem like a dream. Going back always brings back memories--both good and bad--and reawakens a new understanding of my former life. My Washington, D.C. years were fun years and an intensely transformative period of my life. I was eager to experience it just one more time while we were so close. (Not that I won't be back again, but who knows when.)

Since we only had 3 weeks from getting the job offer until David's start date, we had to make our plans rapidly. We decided to visit from Thursday, February 13th to Saturday, February 15th, which was the last weekend we'd have in Virginia. We thought of staying with friends but I didn't want to inconvenience any one too much so we ended up booking a room at the Embassy Suites near the Convention Center in downtown D.C. Since it was the off season, we got great rates and we were within walking distance to all the major spots which was pretty fun. We contacted our local friends--both David and I have friends in the area--and made plans to meet up.

I'm a happy baby......sometimes.

As luck would have it, our trip coincided with the massive winter storm Pax which threatened to ruin all our plans. Most everything had shut down on Thursday, but the storm hadn't impacted southern Virginia as much so we decided to take our chances and drive up to DC  as planned. The roads were wet and there was a little bit of snow on the drive through Newport News and Williamsburg. Once we hit Richmond, there was definitely a lot more snow but the roads were still clear. As an added benefit, there was hardly anyone on the road so we made great time.

But once we hit NOVA and especially once we got into the District, the roads were slushy and mostly unplowed. We carefully made our way to our hotel and checked in around 3pm. Though the sky was clear and bright that afternoon, another snowstorm was predicted for the evening.

We had made plans to have dinner with three of my GW friends at a trendy restaurant near Logan Circle, but one by one, each had to decline as it became clear that more snow was going to wreak havoc on the already slush-filled streets.

When in doubt, eat your finger.

Since our hotel was within walking distance of the pig, our chosen eatery, David and I decided to head there anyway regardless of the fact that all my friends had canceled. I was sad that they wouldn't be joining us, but the walk was cold and slushy (David's shoes were soaked by the time we made it to the restaurant and Zara's stroller was useless) and the snow started falling shortly after we arrived, so I had to admit that they were all pretty wise to stay home and safe that evening.

The restaurant was quiet and empty since not many other people wanted to venture out that night either. We ordered food to share including bacon-wrapped apples which were far more delicious than you'd think. But our shared food was not quite enough so we ordered a massive banana split for dessert (served with bacon brittle which Adelaide sucked on) which we ate while watching the snow fall.

After trudging back to our hotel and getting the girls to bed, David and I watched the Olympics because I am an Olympics junkie.




Friday dawned bright and clear. Most of the snow that had fallen the night before had melted and most of the museums and other attractions were opening once again. After a huge breakfast at our hotel's restaurant, we set out to see a few sights until meeting my friend Kate for lunch (to make up for the canceled dinner the night before). We were only a few blocks from the National Portrait Gallery/American Art Museum....but they didn't open until 11am. No problem. We can just go to Ford's Theater. Also closed until noon.

I didn't want to walk to the Mall since I knew we'd have limited time before we needed to meet up for lunch, so we took a scenic tour of DC as we walked from 10th Street to Foggy Bottom, stopping by the White House to snap this picture, mostly so I could prove to Zara that she'd been to DC sometime in her life.

The compositional stylings of a 3-year-old.

I also wanted to re-visit GW's campus. Not that it's a particularly attractive or impressive campus--it is in the middle of a busy city--but I wanted to see how much it had changed (a lot) and remember that yes, I used to attend this school. Sadly, I got a little turned around as we made our way to the American Studies building where I used to spend all my days. Zara desperately wanted to take tons of pictures with our camera, so we finally let her get a family shot. 

She, however, did not want to have her own photo taken. Adelaide remained unimpressed with the proceedings and requested more milk.

The building in the middle, mostly blocked by the tree, is the American Studies building where I once had all my classes. It's still just as decrepit as ever, but boy, does it bring back so many memories. If I thought any of my professors would remember me, I would have gone inside but I felt really lame.

After our GW excursion, we went to Potbelly's at 19th and Eye to meet my friend Kate for lunch. (I really wanted their chicken salad salad which wasn't as great as I remembered.) We had a great chat and after our good-byes, David and I headed to the Mall for a little museum time. Since we'd done the American History museum on our last DC visit, we hit the Natural History museum. I thought Zara would like their exhibits.

She once again insisted on taking my photo in the Hall of Mammals. not bad for a 3-year old who can barely lift the camera to her eye and push the button at the same time. We stopped at one of the museum's gift shops afterwards and I told Zara she could pick any one thing that she wanted. She, of course, wanted a bag of pretty rocks. Being the mean and heartless mother that I am, I told her no because who wants to pay for something you can find for free outside (albeit less colorful) and redirected her to a set of African animals.

I feel bad now because she did really want to pick out her own rocks, but I was afraid of her leaving them out and Adelaide trying to eat one. Adelaide, on the other, got a long, stuffed snake as her gift. I jokingly wrapped her around her in the gift shop but she loved rolling around with it and got such a kick out of it that we ended up buying it for her. David rightly pointed out that she was born in the year of the snake, so it's a fitting toy for her. (I'm trying to come up with a good snake name for it. David vetoed Salazar, which was my first inclination.)

All tuckered out with her stuffed snake after a long day.

That evening, we had dinner with my best friend Jen and her roommate Regina at their apartment in Alexandria. We haven't seen each other since my wedding 5 years ago and it was great to catch up.

On Saturday, we had breakfast at our hotel again, check out, and then drove up to Arundel Mills, to visit David's friend Alicia. Alicia is one of his Navy friends who still lives in Hawaii but was visiting the Fort for work purposes. We went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. Their food is always surprisingly good but I can never decide what to eat because their menu is just so dang long. I need places like In & Out and Chipotle who limit your choices so you can actually make up your mind and order your food in a reasonable amount of time.

After our lunch, we packed back up and drove back to Newport News to prepare for our impending move. Though the snow put a damper on things, it was a great little mini-trip and vacation and I'm so glad we made it up there, if only for a little bit.

This Week in February

Last week was a very eventful week for the Malones. Since I don't want to forget how everything went down (it's already started to get pretty muddled in my mind), here's a run-down of our crazy week.

Monday, Feb. 3 - Zara falls down the stairs and gets a gash above her left eye. We spend some time in the ER and she gets 3 stitches.

Tuesday, Feb. 4 - Today was my nephew Ian's first birthday. Zara and I went to Target to buy him a present and then stopped at Costco for one of Zara's favorite lunches: pepperoni pizza and berry smoothie. We then enjoyed a birthday celebration in Ian's honor.

Wednesday, Feb. 5 - Realizing that his Georgia driver's license was about to expire on his birthday, David went to the Virginia DMV to get a new license while me and the girls attended an afternoon tea at the house of a friend from church. At 4:41pm, David receives an offer of employment from SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. (They sent his offer letter in an email which is why I know the exact time it came through.)

Thursday, Feb. 6 - David's birthday. David calls the HR recruiter to ask questions about the job and frets over whether to take the job or not, especially since another offer was pending. We celebrate David's birthday with minestrone soup and apple crisp with ice cream.

Friday, Feb. 7 - David is still fretting and stewing over the job in the morning and so he calls his Dad for advice. With his Dad's blessing, David sends in his acceptance. We begin our plans to move to Atlanta. (And David will just have to replace that new Virginia driver's license with a Georgia one again.) David and I go out to celebrate his new job and our birthdays. We eat dinner at Olive Garden, do a little shopping at the mall, and bring home some cupcakes. We watch a documentary together after putting the girls to bed.

Saturday, Feb. 8 - My birthday! We spend the morning in the ER once again to have Zara's stitches removed. We drive to Colonial Williamsburg for one last visit. We visit the Decorative Arts and Folk Art Museum and Bassett Hall. We eat lunch at Chipotle and do a little shopping at the Outlets.


ERs and birthdays and job offers! We won't forget this week for awhile.

David starts his new job in investment banking on the 24th so we're moving to Atlanta next week. We'll be staying with David's sister until we find a home of our own. We're very excited for this next chapter. Stay tuned for more updates.

The Emergency Room

Life is full of a million little mundane tasks, inconsequential and uneventful, but each with the potential to turn to disaster in a split second. Being a rather accident-prone person, I am well aware of the potential pitfalls of everyday life. I racked up quite a number of ER visits as a child and had my fair share of stitches (3 sets) and broken bones (2, not including toes). Since becoming a mother, I have been dreading my first ER trip with a child. I knew it was inevitable. I knew it would happen. But you still never expect it and it's still a little bit traumatizing. (Though apparently more for me than for Zara.)

On Monday afternoon, Zara and I went to the grocery store--as we often do, Zara loves to go shopping--to purchase supplies for the week's meals. We got back around 3pm. Zara went upstairs to take off her shoes, while I went into the kitchen to unload the spoils of war. Then Zara was downstairs talking about how she wanting some animal crackers (which are kept in our room upstairs). I told her to get a bowl and take it upstairs to ask Daddy for some crackers since David was in our room. My sister came into the kitchen as I continued to unload the groceries and we discussed dinner for the night and our plans for meals for the week (being that we switch off cooking and we have 3 birthdays to celebrate this week).

I heard the door close upstairs and the sound of Zara walking down the stairs. I thought nothing of it and continued my conversation until the most awful, horrible sound you can hear interrupted us--the heavily thud of something small and precious tumbling down the hardwood stairs. Cassy and I rushed to the foot of the stairs and David sprang out of our room above to find Zara sprawled in a sea of broken animal crackers, with blood gushing down her face from a cut above her eye.

Zara was still wearing her socks and carrying a plastic bowl of animal crackers when she tripped. Since none of us saw the actual event happen, we can only assume that she slipped on one of the stairs (from the length of time it took her to fall, I think she fell from the middle of the staircase) and went tumbling down. We're not sure if she cut her eye on one of the stairs or perhaps from the impact of the bowl hitting her eye as she tumbled down.

Cassy and David performed triage while I busied myself with cleaning up the animal crackers. I'm a little bit squeamish around blood. It's a wonder I've been able to have children. They checked her over and determined that the cut was the extent of her injuries but the gash was too deep to be dealt with at home. We'd have to go to the ER.

When you never need urgent care, you don't really think of what to do in case of an emergency. We don't have a doctor here--in fact, we just canceled our insurance last week because we could no longer afford it--and we weren't sure where to go or what to do. We finally decided to just got to the nearest hospital down the street and hope we could somehow find the money to pay for an ER visit out of pocket. (No bill yet so that remains to be seen.) We left Adelaide with Cassy and sped away to Riverside Hospital, with Zara laying down in the backseat, with David popping up her legs.

Thankfully, ER staffs tend to take sick and injured children very seriously, so we were able to go straight back to a room without waiting. We were first taken to a small exam room where two nurses checked over Zara and got information about the accident. They then went to consult with some doctors and prepare an actual ER room for us.

Meanwhile, we tried to keep Zara still but awake. David played her videos on his phone or we played games on the Kindle.  She was obviously growing tired and wanted to fall asleep. About 30 minutes after arriving, we were shown back to an actual ER room where the doctor finally came to see us. She examined the wound and left to get the suturing kit she'd need to stitch the brow back together.

In situations like these, it always feels like time stands still. It felt like we waited forever in between each visit of a nurse or the doctor, but it only took about an hour and a half from the time we walked into the door until we left. Shortly after the doctor left, a nurse arrived to help us prep Zara for her stitches. She cleaned the wound and applied a gel to help numb the area. We wrapped Zara up in blankets in order to keep her still.

The doctor re-appeared and gave Zara a shot of lidocaine to fully numb the eye. This was the only point at which Zara really cried out, except for when she first fell. Otherwise, she had been silent and watchful, though obviously scared and in a little bit of shock. Once the area was numb, the doctor quickly put in three stitches while the nurse, David, and I held Zara down.

We cleaned her up, applied and band-aid and were sent on our way with instructions to return on Saturday to have the stitches removed. (What a nice birthday gift!)

It could have been so much worse. I know that. We're glad it wasn't worse and that she only needed 3 stitches. Vainly, I hope it doesn't leave too much of a scar, but I'm sure it won't be the last.

An 8 Month Old's Guide to Eating a Cracker

Step One: Convince an older sibling, adult, or other innocent bystander to supply the desired cracker.

Step Two: Bang acquired cracker on nearest hard surface to determine freshness for maximum taste enjoyment.

Step Three: Guide cracker to mouth for one delectable nibble.

Step Four: It's important to be dainty and ladylike when eating to prevent getting crumbs all over your face.

Step Five: Once you come to your senses and remember that you are 8 months old, just go ahead and shove that whole thing in your face.

Step Six: Swallow. Cutely.

Step Seven: All done!

Anyone have another cracker?

Colonial Williamsburg

We currently live about 20 miles from Williamsburg and since Colonial Williamsburg is the history nerd's Disneyland, I have been dying to go. But, the price of admission is currently out of our price range, I couldn't justify a visit. Then I learned that you can actually visit the city without a ticket, you just can't go inside any of the homes or partake in many of the extra tours, demonstrations, and programs. That was fine by me, I just wanted to wander around the city and breathe in the history.

We actually visited the city briefly a few weeks ago to meet one of David's oldest friends, Renee. We ate a late lunch and then wandered around the "Revolutionary City" for about an hour. We even got to see their military review that they put on every day at 4:30. Since it was outside, we didn't need a ticket and we could to watch them shoot muskets, cannons, and march to a fife and drum band. It was pretty cool.

 That first visit (however brief it was) whet my appetite for more, so I convinced David to go back for another visit last Wednesday. We packed ourselves a little picnic lunch and strolled through the town, enjoying the old buildings and soaking in some of the history.

 

Of course, I would love to go back again sometime soon and actually pay to go into the houses. I might just go back by myself and visit the decorative arts and folk art museums (which you can pay to visit on their own for a much lower fee). 

 We still had fun with what you can do, though. You can go into all the shops (of course) and I lusted after the old soaps, candles, dolls, clothing, toys, and slateboards. And to his credit, when I told David that someday I'm going to have to buy all that stuff, he just nodded his head and said, "I know."
 

 It was a relatively chilly day (and a Wednesday), so there weren't many visitors which made for a very pleasant visit. It warmed up in the afternoon. 

 This tree was awesome and twisty.

 And of course, this is the cutest baby bear ever.

 I just love Zara's big grin in this photo.

Yup, I definitely want to go back again soon. I would seriously spend a week here, just enjoying all the tours and programs. It also reawakened my desire to go to William and Mary. Maybe some day.