A Wedding and Visits with Friends in Virginia

September 1-8

Martha and I spent a week in Virginia, attending the wedding of a close friend of mine's daughter near Richmond, VA.  I've known Lee S. since we were both ROTC cadets together at the University of Miami, FL back in the early 80s.  Joining us for the wedding was Otto B., another long time friend from my cadet days.

The venue was in the country but our hotel was in the NW portion of the Richmond, VA Metro area called "Short Pump".  So all the wedding guests were transported by chartered buses:

Father of the bride: Lee beckoning us to the buses

The lovely bride Jennifer, whom I've known since a toddler,

and her husband Kevin M.

Otto B. and Joanna

After a great wedding and reception, we left the next day in the company of friends of ours from our Fort Bragg days.  Larry and Jane transported us to their awesome home in Williamsburg, VA and we'd spent the rest of the trip with them and their awesome hospitality.

We've traveled with Larry and Jane before, first on my first ever Cruise Ship to Alaska and later on a trip to Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands.  

Trained BBQ'er Larry proudly displays what would

be a really delicious Texas Brisket.

Larry and Jane's "Boomer"

A very well trained and friendly

Labrador Retriever

Though we got to the area in time for a "heat wave", forcing to stay indoors a lot, we did manage to get out a couple of times.

One day we went to see Virginia Beach and its boardwalk:

Located about the midpoint of the really long boardwalk, is this statue of King Neptune:

As part of the VA Beach outing, we came home via a more scenic route to avoid construction traffic and enjoyed a quick car ferry trip along the way:

The car ferry would let us off near Jamestown, and you could see the replica sailing ships that the colonists used to get to America:

The obelisk marks the actual landing site,

still an active archeological area.

A crappy zoomed photo of the ships.

Here's a link of a previous trip when Larry and Jane took us to Jamestown:  LINK

It's got better pictures of the ships and the associated museum/visitor center.

Our final outing was a lunch meetup with Terry H. and her sister Karen L.  Terry is another longtime friend from my cadet days.  She's married to Mike H. who was the best man at my wedding!  Mike wasn't there however as this was a "sisters vacation" trip.

Still, we had a great time, good food and it was nice to see Terry and Karen.

Today, we flew back to Colorado and to less humid climes.  A very good trip overall and Martha ensured I had a good seat with lots of leg room on the return flight:

And what makes this trip so great is that it's Martha's first big trip since retirement and she didn't have to worry about getting back to work on time!