2022 Life Logs, Day 155: Wonderful First Day with Ziggy and Coco
Date: Saturday, June 4, 2022
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High 81, Low 57 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Gate House at the Monroe Institute, Faber, VA
An early morning walk with Justin and Jo down through the field to explore an old log barn . . .
a walk up the mountain with JJZ&C to a beautiful little lake . . .
jumping off the dock into the water (even Oma) . . .
canoeing in the lake (even Oma) . . .
having lunch at the Roberts Mountain Retreat . . . seeing the largest single quartz crystal in the world in the side yard of the retreat center . . . having Ben and Jerry’s ice cream in Charlottesville followed by a shopping spree at a thrift store for Coco, Target for Legos for Ziggy, Whole Foods for sustenance, and to Love Sushi King to pick up dinner . . . seeing lots of deer on our way home . . . seeing a deer looking in the bedroom window of the Gate House as we drove into the driveway . . . making our first entries in our nature logs . . . having sushi dinner back in the Gate House . . . later driving up the mountain to the retreat center to pick Justin and Jo up . . . seeing a skunk on the way up the mountain . . . Justin and Jo having story time with the kids and then driving them back up the mountain where they will be spending their evenings, overnights, and mornings into the early afternoon for the rest of the week . . . seeing an eastern gray fox and a deer on the way back down the mountain . . . tucking the kids intro bed and Oma writing her log. That was our wonderful day in nutshell.
It is after midnight and I just tucked Coco and Ziggy into bed. None of us really knew what the schedule would be like this week, but now we know that we will only have three hours in the afternoon with Justin and Jo. But we are welcome to go up to the retreat center and swim in the pool and walk on the mountain paths at anytime as long as we are quiet and don’t interrupt. Tomorrow we will go up around 11 am, take a walk on a mountain path, and then swim in the pool until Justin and Jo are ready to come down and have some afternoon time with us. On Monday and Tuesday, Ziggy, Coco, and I have plans to go
to Monticello and to the Grand Caverns, but we will try to get back in time to have time with Justin and Jo. We’ll just be flexible and see where the week leads us.
All of us are really enjoying our time here. The area is beautiful, teeming in wild life, and the atmosphere is just so relaxing. I don’t think Ziggy and Coco have ever spent this much time away from their mom and dad, but they seem to be adjusting to the idea. They have been so helpful and so much fun to be with. Let’s just hope the week gets even better!
