Two Nights in Virginia

Blog About Fall 2029

Covid numbers in Texas were a little high for my sister and her family to come down and see us last August, so Keira and I flew to see her in October 2020. Unfortunately, we only had a little time in our schedule, but I'm so glad we made the trip.

We were walking around her quaint town in Virginia when she casually said, "This used to be a hotel and Lafayette apparently stayed here." 

I always forget about the history of colonial America that is at your fingertips in the northeast.

Another happy surprise was walking onto a street that was closed for fall family activities. Keira spontaneously painted a ceramic pumpkin, which the store kept and fired in a kiln. My sister picked it up, and we got it from her a year later (July 2021) when we went back.

October 24, 2020

My brother-in-law let Keira choose a creation she wanted him to make on his 3D printer. 

She chose a My Little Pony, and we also ended up taking home several other 3D printed items for Caleb that my brother-in-law just wanted to experiment with but didn't need to keep anymore.

To bless Keira, one of my nephews wore his hair to dinner Keira-style.

The next day, my sister drove Keira and I into Washington DC to see the Museum of the Bible and the Spy Museum. Both were SO fascinating!

We spent over 4 hours in the Museum of the Bible, and we could have stayed longer; however, we had tickets for the Spy Museum for a certain time, and we needed to get there (because of Covid restrictions).

I never would have imagined finding sarcophagi in Canaan!

This room was really soul-moving. The museum has a Bible for each of the languages it has been translated into. 

I know the lighting is bad, but on the right, there are just empty tan-colored books. One section says "Not Yet Acquired," one says "Portions." But there was another part of the wall (not shown) that represented all of the languages that do not have a translation of the Bible. About 2,200 languages remain without a Bible. About 350 million people, mostly in India, china, sub-Saharan Africa, and Papua New Guinea. (info from 2016)

A costumed museum worker in front of this olive tree talked about life in first century Galilee, and the video presentations were really well-done. Go see the museum, if you get a chance.

October 25, 2020

The Spy Museum was riveting. Keira loved all of the activities, watching videos, and seeing where spy equipment could be hidden. Spy activities during the Cold War was crazy! My sister and I loved reading and learning so much! We stay for close to three hours, but we didn't get to finish the last floor.

Keira really wanted to see more of the museum, so thankfully, a year later, we went back to see my sister and planned for another day in the museum, and it was worth it the second time, too!

James Bond's car was next to the gift shop area.

Some of our favorite stories were things we learned about Russia spying on the US and vice versa.  

Another thing I didn't know...This was Terry Nichols' hat. He was one of the men responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing. I didn't know that Nichols and McVeigh were angry about what had happened at the Davidian compound, and they planned the Oklahoma City bombing on the second anniversary of the raid.

On our drive home, we stopped for Ethiopian food.

The first time I had Ethiopian food was near Washington DC, when my family went to visit my sister in Virginia back in the mid-90's. I learned to love it even more when we lived in Uganda. So this was a special treat, since I hadn't had it since spring 2013!

And I just have to chronicle a school cooking project from one of my other nephews. 

He had to make churros, feed them to his family, and take a picture of them enjoying them.

I'll just leave this here :)

Thank you, Benjamin. They were wonderful!