Our trip to VA: days 1 , 3, and 4

Besides, of course, visiting Ben at Jamboree, we had two other people to see while in the DC area: Karen and Stephanie.   The three of us had been together 23 years ago at a language school in Dortmund, Germany, as part of an exchange program for young professionals.  I've seen Steph a couple of times since, as she used to travel to CA on business when we still lived there -- but not in the last 10 years.  I've seen Karen only once since Germany -- and, again, it was more than 10 years ago.

Here we were in 1986:

Left to right on bottom row: Steph, Karen, me (the girl above is Kim); this was taken in Amsterdam, if I'm not mistaken.

And here we are having dinner together on the sidewalk of a Virginia restaurant last week:

Karen and I are holding little bottles of Jaegermeister schnapps that Steph gifted to us!  (Sorry for the blurry photo -- it was very dark!)  We had a lot of fun catching up that evening -- for about 4 hours over drinks, appetizers, dinner, dessert, and a waiter who had just about given up on us ever leaving!


I also had a chance to visit Stephanie at home with her lovely family:

Her husband, who is a blogger and writer, cooked paella for dinner!  It was awesome!  Here's the happy family...they also have a son:

Karen lent us one of her cars for the week -- we tooled around in her Prius Hybrid, and it made a believer out of my husband!  The day she picked us up at the airport, we had a lovely lunch in a small, historical town near where she lives.

These condos are new, but look old.  They are on a street with lots of little shops and antique stores = bliss! 

The city, Occoquan, has restored all of its gas lamp streetlights.  Very cute.

They're real proud of them.

I saw this pink bike on the wall and sent my husband to investigate while Karen and I checked out another store.

Aha.

Karen and I also got together for some antiquing mischief a few days later:  my pal Jenni, who used to live in Fredericksburg, VA, told me about this place and I knew I had to go!

(Unfortunately, I really did need a restroom, so this sign was a bummer!)

The store gets its name from being at a railroad junction -- if you ask at the cash register, they'll give you a penny squashed by the train that goes by next to the store!

I must say, if you are claustrophobic, this is one store you might want to skip!  Tiny, crowded, winding aisles.  Dark and dusty, too.

I had to photograph this kinda cool set of catalog drawers; it's mounted on a turntable and the drawers are on all sides -- it was at least five or six-sided.

I also really liked this improvised holder for every size of paper bag -- probably from an old general store.

If you are an ephemera lover, you would love this store for sure.  This is a bunch of old seed packs, and they had some that were printed and unfolded, too.  Plus every kind of notepad, game piece, receipt, booklet, bag, tag, etc.  The prices were a little high, though -- it is the east coast, after all.  I'm waiting for the sun to come out here so I can photograph what I purchased myself, but that's going to have to be another post!

Another shelf full of stuff -- interestingly, the blue bowl on the top left is full of the squeakers that used to be built into dolls, antique of course.  I set one next to the bowl so you can see it.  Fun!

They have a lot of cool artsy pieces on display outside of the store.  If you want to visit this place, it's the only thing (besides a convenience store), I think, in Doswell, VA. 

Another fun part of the day was riding in Karen's mini with the top down!

We had to stop here on the way back to F'burg -- it was junky, though.  Man, I really learned the meaning of the word "junking" when I was in this neck of the woods!