Girls Weekend 2015, Saturday October 24

       

                                  All geared up for our Segway tour of historical Richmond

Saturday, October 24, 2015

It’s Day 3, and after having our morning chat and coffee and breakfast, we managed to get out of the apartment by 12:30. We walked along the same route to downtown that we followed yesterday, noting already-familiar landmarks along the way; the mural walls, the uneven brick sidewalks, Firehouse 12 with the really nice firemen who gave us directions yesterday. Although it was overcast and quite a bit chillier than our first two days, it was still a nice day and we enjoyed the walk. Despite all of this, after about half an hour I had to say “uncle”. My ankles have been deteriorating pretty steadily over the years from arthritis and whatever abuse I have subjected them to, and despite having had a cortisone shot in one of them only a month ago, they were screaming after the long trek yesterday. And so, I decided it was time to expose Lori to Uber. She had never used the service and was admittedly wary of the entire idea, fearing vulnerability for female riders. Also, she said there is a lot of controversy in Oregon over the use of Uber over taxis. This spurred an intellectual conversation between us the next day (OK, really it was a rant on my part about free enterprise in this technological world, and calm acceptance of my right to rant on Lori’s part).  Our Uber arrived in 3 minutes flat, and we were glad to have called it when we saw how far we still had to go to reach our destination.

And where exactly were we going on this fine, autumn morning? We arrived at Segway of Richmond at 1:30 sharp, after spotting and stopping at a Starbucks a block away. We were about to take our first Segway rides, and both of us were extremely excited. The experience did NOT disappoint. After signing all the prerequisite forms and donning the appropriate safety gear (I spotted a pink helmet and a Segway covered in pink ribbon decals, and immediately claimed them both), we all went out for instructions and practice time in the alley.

                         

                                                                    Ready to ride!!

Then Lori and I and 14 others who had the same marvelous idea, were off on a 2-hour tour of the historical and landmark sites of downtown Richmond. One of our stops was in gorgeous St. Paul’s church, where all of the stained glass windows were done by Tiffany. 

                         

                                beautiful Tiffany stained glass windows of St Paul's Church

Our guide also took us down to the St. James river, as well as to the government center so that we could roll up to the governor’s mansion to say hey!  We had a great time, and now Lori wants a Segway so she can tool around Salem on it.

                         

   

After our tour we were STARVING. There was a restaurant right across the street called the Urban Farmhouse, a farm-to-table kind of place that looked good, so we went there. We each had a bowl of delicious tomato basil rice soup, and shared a Cubano sandwich with ham, pork, and sharp brown mustard on a wonderfully firm yet flaky roll. YUM YUM YUM! With our tummies full, we called an Uber and came back to Carrytown, the area in which we were staying. There is a great vintage clothing store next to the Byrd Theater called Bygones, where we had purchased our tickets to the Phantom of the Opera the day before and we were wanting to spend some time in there, because our quick stop in to buy the tickets revealed that they have some VERY cool stuff. Since they didn’t close until 8:00, this was our chance. We spent a delightful couple of hours in this fascinating place. They had amazing vintage clothing and jewelry, and the “shopgirls” were completely dressed for the occasion, in vintage 40’s clothing, hair, and makeup.  Lori found an amazing sequined dress in a gorgeous blue that she thought looked like me, and encouraged me to try it on. With a body in the dress it took on a wonderful shape… unfortunately, I had a bit too much wonderful, and couldn’t get it zipped. So Lori tried it on, and it zipped up nicely, but as she is … uh… shall we say, almost completely wonder-free on top, it didn’t work on her either. So we mournfully gave up the dress and had to be satisfied with admiring it on the hanger.  I bought a full slip from the 50’s and a new dress that was a reproduction as my trip souvenir, and Lori purchased an awesome OLD burgundy velvet cape with a hood for her daughter Megan, who is a budding photographer and is always looking for great props and costumes.

We left the store and walked home to our little adorable apartment (which is what it’s called on Airbnb) and settled in for a cozy evening of red wine, writing, picture sharing, and internet surfing. Our old bones have been exhausted by all this fresh air and walking, and when we went to bed we were asleep within moments.

 

Kathi Ridley-Merriweather

Executive Director, Indy Youthworks,

"...where kids can act out!"

Teaching Artist, Indiana Repertory Theatre

Adjunct Faculty, University of Indianapolis

317.319.6337 cell

Girls Weekend 2015-Richmond, Virginia

Thursday, October 22, 2015 – Richmond, VA 

above the clouds on the way to Richmond, VA for Girls Weekend

(the following was written by Kathi)

It’s finally here!! The 18th annual Girls Weekend. It’s weird, the year seems to fly, then when 

GW is approaching it slows to a crawl and feels like it will never ever be time…and then, 

suddenly, it’s time! Lordy, do we love Girls Weekend. Just sayin’. 

In order for us to have the majority of the day here, poor Lori had to take the red eye. She arrived 

first at about 10:30, then I arrived an hour later. My bag actually showed up when I did, unlike 

last year, and soon we were in a taxi and on our way to our Airbnb in Carytown, an area of 

Richmond that, according to my reading, was a somewhat funky, somewhat eclectic 

neighborhood with lots of places to eat and shop, and great for walking.  We arrived before the 

adorable little basement apartment we were renting was ready, but we got to meet our host Fiona, 

and her cute little dog Squeaker. We offloaded our bags and took off for a walk and to find some 

food while Fiona completed cleaning the place. 

Lori had been doing some research and suggested we eat at the Daily, a nice little place with 

outdoor seating and a good lunch menu. After received copious amounts of directions and 

suggestions from Fiona – who could talk a blue streak – we went to find the Daily restaurant and 

had a delightful lunch while sitting outside. It was a gorgeous day – about 78 degrees and 

brightly sunny, and we enjoyed a cup of soup (curried sweet potato for both of us, yummy!). 

Then Lori had a big chicken salad and I had tofu lettuce wraps. Yep, I said tofu lettuce wraps. I 

have been ordered by my doctor to ditch dairy and carbs as much as possible for a while, and I’m 

trying to be a good girl. We’ll see what the dinner report is a few days from now, but our lunch 

was nice and healthy, and tasted good too. 

After lunch we walked about a half mile up the street looking into a few shops, and ended up at 

Kroger where we grabbed some snacks for the room. I didn’t have much sleep before my 5:45 

am flight but had been able to sleep soundly on both legs of my trip here, but Lori was starting to 

crash from lack of sleep, so we walked back to find that our apartment was just about ready. Half 

an hour and several thousand words from Fiona later, we were settled into comfy chairs in our 

cute little place and had a nice chat, until at about 4:30 Lori gave in to the great need for a nap. 

While she slept I made my picks in the football pool, submitted midterm grades for the Public 

Speaking class I’m teach this semester, and started writing this journal…none of which was the 

thesis writing I was supposed to be doing. Gotta be more disciplined than that for the rest of the 

trip. 

                         The little apartment that we are staying in is in the basement of this home.  Our entrance is on the left hand side of this picture , down the steps.  It is a truly darling little place and only one block away from all the action on Cary Street.

After Lori woke up and freshened up we set out to find some dinner, deciding on a pseudo Indian 

place called Curry Craft with a nice atmosphere, great wine, and somewhat mediocre and quite 

disappointing Chicken Tikka Masala. We decided that if we wanted Indian again on this trip we 

would try to traditional place up the street, run by real Indians. We have found ourselves several 

times over the years dining in front of a lovely or interesting window, and we have a nice 

assortment of pictures. Our table at the fake Indian restaurant was by a great window, so we 

asked the extremely willing and helpful server to go outside and take our picture.  There was so 

much glare that in the end she came back to take the shot from the inside looking out. 

       

After dinner, before strolling back home, we went into the Byrd Theater, a circa 1920s movie 

theater (I’m making that up right now, I’ll correct it later when I find out the real year it was 

built) which had “Phantom of the Opera” on its marquee, to find out if they were going to show 

the original circa 1950s (I’m making that up too, I just know I watched it as a kid) Bela Lugosi 

version I so loved as a child. As it turns out, they were actually planning to screen the REAL 

original 1925 Lon Chaney SILENT FILM version, and it would be accompanied by someone 

playing the theater’s Wurlitzer organ in the manner the movie was meant to be seen, and the 

organ was meant to be played. One showing only, at 7:30 the following night. 

                                         

Well, any of you who know me and Lori know that there was no way we were going to miss that. We immediately decided to alter the plans we had made for Friday so that we could attend this showing.  

We left the theater and went across the street to treat ourselves to scoops of homemade pumpkin 

ice cream with hot fudge (you’ll hear more about the folly of this decision later) and walked 

home to enjoy it in our little sitting area, then chatted until both of us were quite tired and went 

to bed.  The big queen size bed was quite comfy, and after spending only a fraction of our usual 

bedtime talking time, we were asleep.