One Last Fling!

We just returned from Williamsburg! With the first day of school (Monday) looming alarmingly near, we decided on a whim to drive down on Saturday. Williamsburg is quite familiar to us, and is only four hours away. So it shouldn't require advance planning, right? Before this week, I would've argued that it still did (what if we can't find a place to stay? what if we forget something? who will feed the cat? how long are we staying?, etc.). Guess what? Everything went perfectly. It was so-o-o-o-o liberating!

To test the concept even further, once we were there, we didn't plan each day's activities until breakfast! There's plenty to do in Colonial Williamsburg and the surrounding areas. No matter how many times you visit, there's something new to do. But the beauty of going someplace familiar is that you've seen most of it, and you can revisit your old favorites without feeling like you're missing anything. You can also spend time really relaxing by doing absolutely nothing, which is what a vacation is actually supposed to be be about! (Yes, it is...)

The result? I feel like I've had a vacation, instead of being exhausted from four days of staying up too late, getting up too early, rushing to get from place to place on a very strict schedule, eating strange food, sleeping in a strange bed, and having absolutely no time to myself! I think I can speak for all of us- we feel great!

I took the time to watch the bees and butterflies in one of the lovely colonial gardens:

We always visit the pond on the golf course at the Williamsburg Inn. For years, we have have been good friends with all the ducks, geese, catfish and large turtles that live there (everyone who feeds them is...), and have occasionally observed this blue heron (below). Well, there must be a pair of them, because this time we saw what appeared to be a baby blue heron (sorry,no picture- baby was shy). Then, at night, the frogs come out in force!

But in all my years of visiting and enjoying that fabulous pond, I had never appreciated it as a reflecting pool. Isn't this gorgeous? (And I shot these images with a Sony Cyber-Shot one-shot camera, so imagine the actual beauty which can't possibly be adequately conveyed here...)

All that and a jar of buttons, too!

We even had time to browse one of our favorite Antiques Malls, where I found this quart Ball jar full of all white, all old buttons! I can see without even dumping them out that there are lots of beautiful mother-of-pearl buttons in there, which I just happen to collect! I'm just bursting to get a chance to play with and sort all these beautiful old buttons, but it'll have to wait- hopefully not too long! (When I dump it, I'll post...)