Indulge Your Shelf

The main reason for our trip to VA was to visit Ben at Jamboree.  We had more fun that day than I ever expected to have!  First of all, it was just so awesome to meet up with him. I was missing him more than I had thought I would.  I think I was just worrying about everything: the record-breaking heat they were experiencing where he was, the logistics of travel, the hectic schedule they were on, etc., etc.  I'm a mom, what can I say? But once I laid eyes on him I felt 100% better! The getting there wasn't so easy, but you have to hand it to the Scouts to have it organized as well as it was.  It took us about an hour to make our way from the road to the Camp, which was at Fort AP Hill near Fredericksburg, VA.  We were in a long, slow line of cars carrying visitors that would more than double the camp's population every day. Finally we arrived at the Visitor Center -- a huge tent set up to receive all the traffic.  We were each given a small back pa...

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, ...