As North as the South gets, and as South as the North gets.

We never realized how wonderful this State is. It has produced the most Presidents of any State, and has so much history it makes our heads hurt. It has mountians and seashores. We are talking Virginia here.

Northern Virginia is one of those places we knew little about. OK, we knew it was steeped in History- Jamestown, Revolutionary War, Civil War were very much centered here. Lots of commerce in the early days so that the money here is old money… you can just feel it. The homes are large and stately. Even the new ones are “old”.

We heard a saying “ How many Virginians does it take to change a lightbulb?… Two. One to change the bulb, the other to talk about how much better the old one was”

Riding through the countryside you get the feeling that not much has changed here in a long time, except new roads. All the expansive lawns are very well kept, and the fences are very white. It is truly a serene and relaxing ride, rolling hills, with farms, vineyards, and horses. No junked cars sitting around, everything is proper.

Being about halfway through our trip, and realizing how diverse this place was, we booked a Home Exchange for 11 days in Richmond. A good place to cool our heels and a great central location for exploring. This city was a different Virginia, a bit gritty, the neighborhood we were in was called Church Hill. It’s a mixed bag here, a lot of age worn, wood framed homes that have seen better days, but many restored ones as well, though its a long process. We saw people on the street of many different backgrounds and many different colors. There was a fantastic French Bakery around the corner that had great pastries, as good as you would get anywhere. They lined up early in the morning for coffee and crossiants, we noticed they were all white yuppie-type. Still wanting to eat the local fare, we went to a restaurant down the street called Mama J’s… the food was excellent, We were the only white people there (except the dishwasher, which made us chuckle…) We saw this the whole time we were here, segregated, not by laws, but by culture and daily life.

We checked out Jamestown and saw what the fort looked like, some functioning replicas of the ships that the pilgrims came out on ( they were brave souls! ), and a series of demos depicting life back then. We also went to Williamsburg which was much the same in its depiction of life there in that time. They fired muskets and cannon. There were blacksmiths, and woodworkers, and costumed townspeople plying their trade as if it was back in that time. This may sound kinda hokey, but it was anything but. They were giving speeches among the original 18th century buildings, plus a few replicas thrown in. It was fun.It also rained a lot.