Mountain Musings

Killing 5 Birds With One Trip!

  
This idea started hatching back in the spring....

I kept thinking of a gentleman from back in my hometown of South Boston, Virginia, whom I knew had just turned 94 years old this year. I kept thinking and thinking that I really needed to go see him this summer.

Background: his family and my family growing up used to go on vacations to the Smoky Mountains together in the '60s. He and his wife lived up the street from us for years, attended our church, and has remained a very dear friend after his wife passed away.

Now he lives with his daughter and son-in-law in the Tidewater area of Virginia. I remembered how much my mom "Granny" always wanted folks to come see her and visit. I think she would like the fact that I made this trip to see him.

Tom and I enjoyed catching up with Nathaniel...lots of memories! In fact, he drove the getaway car for us after our wedding reception!

Donna, his daughter, prepared a delicious meal for us to enjoy while there, and I brought home a new recipe--Pineapple Pretzel Salad! Here's Donna and her husband Allen:

I like to picture where folks live when I think of them and pray for them...so it was especially good to visit their home. We are saying goodbye to them here and were so thankful it worked out for us to visit!

Well, once we planned an actual date for this trip, Tom and I started brainstorming and wondered who else could we visit while on our jaunt and schedule them in.

He wanted to get together with a former co-worker in Williamsburg who is also now retired. And I wanted to get together with former neighbors who lived in our subdivision when we were there in the '90s.

Amazingly, the details for these visits came together!

Here we are with Dale (former co-worker) and his wife Kristin. It was quite an enjoyable lunch time at New York Deli! Hey guys, our place next time!

And listen to this very fun unexpected surprise!! A long time friend, whom we knew from years of homeschooling together, happened to be eating in the same restaurant and spotted us...she came over to say hello and found out about our two-day excursion to the area and invited us over to her house on our way back home after we'd visited everyone else.

She ended up being the 5th bird we killed! So to speak...LOL!

Here are our former neighbors....Harry and Anne, whom we visited next. Harry just turned 95 this year and needs some prayer for recovery from some health issues.

Harry and Anne were in our neighborhood bible study and took over leading the study when we moved away. We have kept in touch these last 22 years since we've been away from Williamsburg!

It was good to see them in person again and catch up on each other's lives.

 

Next on the docket for an impromptu meetup were our dear and long time friends, Fred and Chris. We met at Scoot's BBQ over in Gloucester and, of course, loved every minute of our time together!  Sorry no photos yet of this get together!

Okay...5th and final meetup. Christine and her husband, Darryl, whom we met at our first home school meeting in 1992 when we first moved to Williamsburg. In fact, Christine came over when we moved in and brought us a Welcome to Williamsburg cake! So very thoughtful!

On this visit she furnished snacks to tide us over for our journey back home, and of course, there was a pound cake--her specialty!

And here we are on the swing before saying goodbye and wrapping up our trip:

What a whirlwind fun time! I absolutely loved it all! Thank you to all our friends for spending time with us!

I think that was a very good idea indeed!

~ Deb

 

Next up:  Spending our 43rd Anniversary at the Beach!

Teas, Brunches, and Overnights!

I've enjoyed lots of getting together with friends this summer...celebrating a birthday, reconnecting after many years apart, and hosting missionary friends overnight.

My friend Jean celebrated a birthday last month, and I was invited to her surprise tea given by her daughter. The table looked very inviting and exquisite when I arrived:

All the ladies seemed to enjoy this special occasion. Here's a quick photo of me with Jean after the party:

My friend Adrienne and I decided it had been waaayy too long since we caught up with each other. I knew her back in 1988 and 1989 when we were in the same homeschool group together when we lived in Charlottesville.

We moved away to Williamsburg soon after....and we never kept in touch. Just recently we connected again and met up at Stella, Bella, and Lucy's for brunch.

Here I am with my friend after enjoying 3 hours of catching up! It was a good time!

Kim and Annie are friends that we knew before we got married 43 years ago!  They have been missionaries in Papua New Guinea for years, working on translating the Bible into the Tami language. They are back in the States for a few months before returning to Ukarumpa and recently stopped by for an overnight.

Kim and Annie serve with Wycliffe Bible Translators, and it's always a joy to see them again and hear an up-to-the minute update on their work there:

More adventures with friends are on the docket for later this week! Stay tuned.

~Deb

Giveaway Winner Announcement!

Today is August 1st and time to draw the name of the winner of either the oregano or rosemary from the Mountain Musings garden!

I used a Random Number Generator at 9pm this evening, and this is the comment that was selected:

Hello from Surry County, North Carolina. I usually read your blog from our home in Texas but we are spending the summer in the NC mountains (much better than the 🔥that Texas has experienced these past few months!)

Posted by: Nancy | Monday, July 24, 2023 at 05:29 PM

 

Nancy, I'll email you for your mailing address. Let me know which of the spices you would like me to send you....or....if you would rather I pass your spice on to another commenter.

Congratulations! And thank you to everyone who left a comment!

~Deb