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SO YOU KNOW that I took off on a trip somewhere to be with family on Thanksgiving Day. And you know it was out of state. Just in case you do not know this bit of skyline, include the fact that it's down there below the Mason-Dixon line...yep, this city was definitely a part of the Old South. Hey, it even got burnt to the ground during the Civil War.

Need more?
The James River runs right through this state capitol.
The state was one of the original thirteen colonies.

Okay...this clue should give it away: It was the Confederate capitol during the Civil War.

Now you know, don't you, that Richmond, Virginia, is where I spent my Thanksgiving holiday. Whew. I wouldn't want to think you forgot everything you learned in American history class!

My son, his wife, and Nora the cat live there, and they cooked and cleaned and hosted quite generously (well, Nora didn't do any cooking or cleaning, but she graciously put up with the influx of the whole kit and caboodle).


The Feast of Thankfulness included all the turkey-trimmings food and three days of lovely togetherness and delightful game-playing and going about. I relished such things as...


The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, with its large collection of Faberge works (no photos allowed in that room)...


and enough paintings and sculptures of horses to keep one member of the family engrossed far longer than we'd anticipated!


Not just one, but two parks to keep us all happy and occupied...

...this one containing such treats as a small lake,

..lots of flora for me to rave about: just look at the inside of this enormous, spreading magnolia tree!

...and quite a bit of interesting fauna, as well!


Possibly just as well that I had only my camera-of-little-memory or I'd be simply inundating you...and we still have another park to go...

This one is an island in the James, where we have to traverse an ever-so-high and long pedestrian walkway (oh, gasp, my legs are melting and heart thumping, this better be worth it) which brings us to a trail that leads around the perimeter of the island.

We can walk out into the river...not the James I've known, but still charming in its shallow, rocky way.


And (oh, it was worth it!)... many old tumble-downs and historical remains.

This wall...what beauty in decay!


And another...



Moving along now...to a little stress-free shopping (it's Black Friday, but we're in shops, and there's no grabbing, no snatching, not even the faintest suggestion of a stampede).

Then some engaging architectural sights...and a camera too full to hold another byte!



Except this one more I've just got to have... of two new friends! Clara and Helen made me want to get out of bed early and trot down to the hotel breakfast room each morning so as not to miss their lively conversations. Turns out Clara's got a son in Richmond, too... (he's a rabbi at a synagogue near my son's apartment)... and a more animated and upbeat octogenarian I've never met. Would that I'd have this much joie de vivre, should I live to eighty-four! The same is true of Helen, though she's no octogenarian (Shhh...Helen doesn't know her sister told me... she's a decade older than Clara!)


We hope to meet again next year...when we'll all travel over at least one river, and perhaps through the woods (flying from Manhattan?), for another Richmond Thanksgiving.

It was a first-rate day... a definitely first-rate stay!




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