Hello Everyone,
Sorry I didn’t get this post done last week, but it’s been a busy time since I got home at the beginning of the month. I wish I could say it’s been a fun kind of busy, but it has mostly been continuing to clear out my uncle’s house in Virginia and dealing with my dad’s estate (tasks my good friend, Gillian, refers to as “sadmin duties”). Last week I took a whirlwind trip to West Virginia to drop off my dad’s probate papers at the court, go to the bank, pick up some of his things that I want to get to my brother’s house next week and come back. I hit some serious snow in the mountains, but it was beautiful and didn’t slow me down too much. In other exciting news, I’ve also been to the dentist, several doctors and the Department of Motor Vehicles, all thrilling adventures for sure (but thankfully all routine, so I am counting my blessings). I have been able to spend a little bit of time with my friends, gotten together with my Monday night music group and had some good times with my family, so I’m grateful for that. I also took a nice trip to Delaware last weekend which I’ll tell you more about below.
In the midst of the chaos, I have also started to get to some of the photos I had yet to edit and publish from my time in Washington State. Everything kind of stalled in October when my dad died as I needed to keep busy and occupied and moving and also had ground I wanted to cover before flying home. Although the San Juan Islands are beautiful and amazing, it was really hard to look at those photos and know that I took some of them when my dad was alive and the rest when I was in shock from his death and trying to heal and think and sit with nature and figure out what came next.
As I mentioned above, we did get out of town last weekend to take a short trip up to Delaware. I was very happy to get my mom and stepfather out of the house and out of the city for a few days and I think it was good for all three of us. We headed north on Friday and spent most of the day in New Castle, a wonderful little historic town on the Delaware River. We had a delightful lunch in Jessup’s Tavern, which is a great little colonial themed pub in the middle of town. Then we headed over to the old county courthouse to hear fascinating stories about the town and its role in the founding days of the country. This is one of the units of First State National Historic Site which we had visited many years ago right after it had been designated. It has improved since then and we all found it really interesting. From there we headed on to Wilmington for the night which included a delightful dinner at Le Cavalier in the Gilded Age Hotel Du Pont. The food and service were excellent and it was really a lovely place to pass some time. A nightcap at the Nomad Bar finished the night off well.
On Saturday we had a great breakfast at a little local spot called Libby’s and I was happy to tuck into some scrapple (a breakfast meat only really found in the mid-Atlantic states). From there we headed down to Odessa, another old colonial Delaware town. We went on a wonderful guided tour of some of the historic homes there, watched a colonial cooking demonstration on the open hearth of one old house and then had lunch at the Cantwell Tavern. After a stop at the Dew Point Brewery, we headed back to Wilmington. That evening we enjoyed a wonderful performance of the The Nutcracker by the Wilmington Ballet in The Playhouse on Rodney Square. While the lead dancers came from the Dance Theater of Harlem (and were amazing), most of the performers were from the local ballet school. It was such a joyful performance as the little kids in it were having fun and smiling and giggling and the teenagers were dancing their hearts out and living their dreams of being dancers on a big stage. I found myself smiling through the whole thing. Afterwards we went for a late dinner at Torbert Street Social, a beautifully appointed bar right up the street from our hotel.
It was sleeting when we walked home that night, but the sleet turned to snow overnight and we woke to a city blanketed in white. It was less than an inch of accumulation, but it clung to the trees and left them looking magical. We went for breakfast at a chrome two-story diner called Goober’s and then tried to visit some of the museums in town, but they were all hopeless in the snow. You would have thought we were dealing with a blizzard. We did enjoy driving around and looking at the pretty scenery though and then hit the road south to Baltimore. We went for a couple of beers at the Ministry of Brewing, a tremendous brewery located in the old St. Michael’s Catholic Church. Then we went to the Anabel Lee Tavern in the Highlandtown neighborhood for dinner. This is a cute Edgar Allan Poe themed neighborhood bar with great food, a good bartender and even a real fire burning on the patio. It was cold out so I had a nice, big, steaming bowl of chili which definitely warmed me up. It was tough to come back to Washington, but we at least we had a wonderful weekend away.
The rest of the time has just been working and sorting and cleaning and errands, but I’m looking forward to heading up to my brother’s house at the end of the week and staying there through Christmas. New Hampshire is usually really nice around Christmastime and I’m really excited to get there. I hope you get the chance to check out my photos from the San Juan Islands and the cute little Old West town of Winthrop, and I will be getting through more photos in the next couple of weeks in an attempt to get caught up before heading back to Idaho at the end of the month. I hope you’re all enjoying the festive season and staying warm out there. I’ll check back in with you next week and until then, take care out there. Thank you, as always, for reading.
-Mike
