Did you know I am originally from Northern Virginia? Or as my people like to say, “the D.C. area”? That’s really how you refer to the odd little triangle I grew up in about 20 minutes outside of the nations capital. My dad is an attorney and practiced commercial litigation in D.C./NoVA most of my life but he got his start in law school at the College of William and Mary. He and my mom fell in love with Williamsburg (where the College is located) and the entire Historic Area during their three years in law school. So much so, that when I was 13 we built a second home in Williamsburg as a getaway for three-day weekends, summer vacation and the odd school break that would come up. Williamsburg became a huge part of my growing up; some of my all time favorite childhood and teenage memories are of my time in Williamsburg. For the last nine years my dad has been a professor in the Mason School of Business at William and Mary so he and my mom sold the Northern Virginia house and moved to Williamsburg full time. Over the last five years we have created a tradition where I come out for a week with one of my kids for a one-on-one mom/child trip with grandparents. My kids have been able to have all of my parents attention for that week as well as experience beautiful historic Williamsburg.

Since I had brought each of the kids once, Sophie was up again for her second Virginia trip. She and I had a truly relaxing, fun and happy week with my parents and soaked up all of our favorite Virginia things. Here are a few memories of our week.

Sophie has become a passionate student of the Holocaust (much as I was when I was her age) and so we made a trip to the Virginia Holocaust Museum in Richmond. There is a train car right in front of the museum and it was a hot, sticky day when we walked through it. It was a visceral experience to imagine being so hot and scared and cramped in that car on the way to the camps.

My parents are longtime donors to the museum so it was really special to tour this place with them. I also carefully chose a mezuzah to both commemorate our experience there and because I have always wanted one. A mezuzah is a small decorative case that contains a special piece of parchment paper inscribed with verses from the Torah. This mezuzah is then affixed to the doorpost or front door frame of a dwelling. I love this photo of my hand, my moms hand and my daughters hand as we searched through the mezuzahs to find the perfect one for my home. I ended up choosing a beautiful brass mezuzah at the conclusion of our museum tour and it became my favorite souvenir of my trip to Virginia.

We spent time in the Historic Area of Colonial Williamsburg, which is always my favorite thing to do in Williamsburg. Wandering down Duke of Glouster Street (locals refer to it as DoG street) at sunrise with my dad while Sophie went on a run was a highlight of our trip. I never tire of a walk through these old streets. I have A LOT of memories of my teenage self wandering in and out of gated gardens and tiny side streets, often sitting on a garden bench to read while munching on treats. Seriously, hundreds of moments like that spread out over my early teens. There was a time when I knew every corner of the Historic Area…but time has sloughed off some of those details.

We were able to enjoy the perfect amount of quiet, family time while on our trip. My sister and her husband and kids live about 10 minutes from my parents; my brother in another direction lives another 10 minutes away. Sophie was able to spend time with her cousins, aunt and uncle and it was so good to see her make memories with them. I know it meant a lot for my parents to see their three kids all in one place. At one point the three of us kids were randomly in my dad’s home office together and my dad said “I can’t remember the last time I had all three of you just standing here!” It was pretty special.

Sophie got lots of one-on-one grandparent time which is the whole reason for the trip! I think she reminds my parents of me at that age; she has inherited most of my best parts and brings a lot of light and energy wherever she goes. My parents had a ball with her.

Because my dad had some connections in the rare book section of the William and Mary library we were able to both see and hold an original first edition of the Book of Mormon. This early edition is laid out like a regular chapter book and does not contain verses, just chapters. Seeing it laid out this was was fascinating! I can’t really express how special this experience was. Not many people have the opportunity to see and hold a first edition Book of Mormon; we were extremely grateful.

My dad had seen an article about a monarch butterfly experience at the Williamsburg Botanical Garden and clipped it out in hopes that we may go. It was SO incredible; I’ve never seen that many monarchs at once; there were over 200 fluttering and flying all around us. We were able to hold out nector sticks and they would land for a brief moment before flitting off somewhere else. Sophie’s butterfly stuck around nearly the entire time we were in the tented area – she lucked out! I loved being able to get close and really see their lush coloring. By the way, the color blue on these butterflies was the most perfect shade of blue I’ve ever seen. Mother Nature gets it right every. single. time.

While we were on our trip my dad was responsible for a portion of the executive MBA graduation program so we tagged along to watch. It was the first time I have been able to see my dad in his full dress robes; up to that point I had only seen him in photos so this was extra special.

It was fun seeing my dad in his element at the business school. I have had the privilege of sitting in on five of his classes over the past six years and he is an extraordinarily gifted teacher. His students adore him, truly adore him. It will be very interesting to see what he does during his retirement (he will still be teaching one semester a year).

Our trip was over far too quickly. I soaked up my time with my parents and Sophie made loads of memories with both grandma and grandpa. Here’s a few other photos to round out the rest of our trip.

Thanks mom and dad for an unforgettable week and thanks Sophie for being a really fun travel buddy :). Love you, Virginia.

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