Life of Wry

Kelly and I checked out of our Airbnb in Norfolk, and drove north to meet another of the Sister District statehouse candidates, Lashresce Aird. She’s someone our local SD has raised a lot of money for (and postcarded and phonebanked). She’s terrific and should serve as a Virginia State Senator. We thought it’d be fun, as we passed through her district — a bit north of Michael Feggan’s — to meet for breakfast. So we met at a Cracker Barrel in Ashland, VA. Had a lovely time! (And I did some gift shopping for Diana.. our niece who we’d be visiting later in the trip. Score!)

Then Kelly and I continued north toward Dulles, where I’d pick Jim up and drop Kelly off. We planned that very well!

We had a couple hours to spare, so we stopped in Fredericksburg, VA for a quick tour of an area that George Washington hung out in during his formative boyhood years. He was born elsewhere and died elsewhere and is buried elsewhere, but he spent a good portion of his childhood here (mostly across the Rappahannock River at a place that became known as Ferry Farm).

Fredericksburg is cute and has several stops of a living museum along a main street in town. We stopped at this place and took a little tour. The women there assumed the roles of apothecary workers of the day. The first, for example, welcomed us all (about 10 of us on the tour) and asked what ailed each of us. She then proceeded to recommend an herb or fungus or bark to address our problem. It was cute. The other described how surgeries or tooth extractions worked before anesthesia. Also how leeches were used for bloodletting and for treating rheumatic pains, gout, all types of fever and hearing loss. They had a jar of real leeches.

Some nice buildings, including the home where George’s mother Mary lived:

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The drop off of Kelly and pick up of Jim went smoothly. Then Jim and I drove to our VRBO, about a mile north of the White House.. just south of Adam’s Morgan, a bit east of Kalorama.. a nice location right next to the 14th Street corridor. Lots of professionals, families and bike commuters!

Here’s the hood:

Here’s the place:

It was a super comfy, very clean, well-stocked and reasonably priced place to stay! Would do that again. Along 15th, lots of restaurants to choose from.

We had dinner at a place called Compass Rose.. eclectic, global cuisine. Loved it. This was a Georgian bread dish filled with cheese, called: khachapuri. The server cracks a raw egg on the hot cheese then mixes it up. Full of spice and flavor. Wonderful.