Girls Weekend 2015-Richmond, Virginia

       

Sooo.,,,Friday morning, we both woke up around 7:30 or so and we decided to get up and start the day.  Mornings on Girls Weekends, unless we have some morning activity scheduled, have come to consist of cups of coffee, catching up on one another's lives, and catching up on the world on our computers, as well as writing up a journal of our daily events.  We have found that if we wait too long to journal our daily events, that we have a hard time remembering everything that we did, so the sooner we write about it, the better off we are!!  On this particular morning, I am not sure what all we did, but I DO know that we didn't leave our cozy little apartment until 2pm.  Since we decided that we REALLY wanted to go to the showing of The Phantom of the Opera, I called to change our Escape Room adventure from Friday to Saturday and we thought we would walk to Hollywood Cemetery early in the day.  Guided tours are offered at the cemetery, but only at 10 am and we just weren't going to be able to get their by then, so we took our time getting ready and walked the couple of miles to the cemetery.  As we walked to the cemetery we were treated with seeing many of the murals painted on buildings around the city.  Apparently this is big thing here in Richmond and there are murals nearly everywhere one looks.  It really is quite delightful. 

                                        

The weather was gorgeous and the walk was very nice, although most of the sidewalks here are bricks rather than the pavement that Kathi and I are both used to and one really has to watch one's step so no ankles end up twisted.  We ignored the directions given to us by Google maps because we were determined to get a cup of Starbuck's coffee.  

Our apartment does have a Keurig machine and our hostess has provided K cups, but it just isn't Starbuck's, ya know what I mean?  We did make it to a Starbuck's on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University then set out to complete our journey to the cemetery.  We spoke with a darling and very nice young man outside of the Starbuck's to find out the quickest route to our destination.  It wasn't long before we found it.

                  

The cemetery is 135 acres of rolling hills and paths and roads that overlook the James River.  It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places because it is the final resting place of two US Presidents, James Monroe and John Tyler as well as Jefferson Davis, the only Confederate States President, along with 22 Confederate generals, two Supreme Court justices and thousands of Confederate soldiers.  It truly is a beautiful and peaceful place and Kathi and I were happy that we decided to visit this place.

                           

We did have one of our Kathi and Lori moments while in the cemetery where we laughed at ourselves until our stomachs hurt.  We always try our best to get pictures that include both of us while on our trips and sometimes, when there is no one else around to take a picture for us, this means using the timer on my camera and making the mad dash to get into the frame.  This happened to be the case at the spot that we decided was just the right place for a photo of the two of us.  Something went wrong with our first attempt and we got no picture, probably because I mistakenly hit the on/off button on the camera before I made the mad dash rather than the shutter button.  The second time I was successful in pushing the right button, but I didn't quite make it to my spot in time to pose for the picture.  Then some folks came along that we recruited to take the photo for us, but it took a little bit of moving around to get the light just right, so I didn't look like a spirit in the cemtery.  We finally did get a get shot, after a few tries.

                            

After walking around in the cemetery for an hour or two, we realized that we were pretty hungry, thirsty and a bit tired, so we decided that it was time to make the trek back and find something to eat.  Kathi has bad ankles and was starting to have experience some serious pain so we kicked around the idea of calling Uber for ride back to Carytown, but once we started walking and talking, we were back before we knew it.  We took one of Fiona's suggestions for dinner and ate at a taco place called Don't Look Back (interesting name.....I would love to know the story behind it, wouldn't you?)  where Kathi had fish tacos and I had spicy beef tacos, and we both had margaritas.  We agreed that our food was delicious and after polishing it all off we walked across the street to the Byrd Theater for The Phantom of the Opera.  The original 1925 silent film version with Lon Chaney.  This was a unique experience because we were in this beautiful old movie theater that was built in 1928 and is the home of a wonderful Wurlitzer organ, which was skillfully played by an organist (Michael Britt) who played the score that originally accompanied this film.  I have to confess that when we decided to do this, I was fearful that this would be one of those experiences that sounded really cool, but ended up being a disappointment.  This was not the case at all.  It was a great experience and one I would be willing to do again.

         

                                         Inside the beautiful Byrd Theater in Richmond, Virginia

Once the movie was over, we walked back to our apartment (all of one block away) and did our second tossing of the states.  We did our first toss this morning.  After this morning's toss this is what was left:

                Then after tonight's toss we were down to these three:  

We each called our husbands, downloaded pictures, caught up with the world on our computers, Kathi worked on her thesis a little bit, then we turned in for the night.  Tomorrow is our Segway tour.  Until then.......