There’s Nothing Like a Visit With Old Friends

I am sitting on the train for what should be a five hour ride. Plenty of time to think and reminisce about the weekend. What started out as a crazy, long, rainy ride down led to a fun, relaxing…(and exhausting at the same time), weekend!
Jen, her husband JP and their daughter Mary had flown in from a whirlwind vacation around Europe and since they landed in Newark, the kindly offered to let me ride down with them instead of taking the train down alone. The ride took longer than expected which gave Jen and me plenty of time to catch up on life! The insane rain storm made traffic slow down and Jen and JP, (who have witnessed typhoons), said it was some of the worst rain they had seen!
Jen has an exciting job that takes her all over the world for work. She has lived in so many exciting and interesting places. She has always offered an open invitation to visit, yet we’ve never taken advantage of it! Perhaps our next big get together will find us in some exotic, exciting place where she winds up living. That could be so much fun!
We arrived in Alexandria at Brooks’ home several hours later than anticipated, but she and her husband Mike, where both still up and waiting for us, ready to welcome us into their beautiful home. Jen and JP were staying in a hotel but Brooks’ kindly invited me to stay with them so we could spend more time together. We did not stay up too late that first evening. It had been a long day so she set me up in her beautiful guest room.
Brooks has always been quite the entertainer. “my room”, had fresh flowers and photos of us from my wedding in frames on the desktop. She even had our 1988 freshmen directory in there for me to look at! I do not even remember that from college, but of course Brooks had held into it and remembered to bring it out. I just love that about her! If it weren’t for her, I am sure a lot of these little reunions we’ve had wouldn’t have happened.
The next day we met up and headed off for lunch at an adorable restaurant called “Cheesetique”.  Yum! With cheese being my favorite food…what could be better?!? Jen met up with us there and we enjoyed such a delightful lunch! No children pulling on us or needing us to drive them somewhere. No time constraints…just a long leisurely lunch where we could catch up, and learn about what’s been going on. We shared family stories. We all knew each others’ parents and siblings from being together in school so it was really nice to hear what everyone has been up to.
The entire weekend seemed to be focused around eating, (another favorite thing if mine), so while at lunch, we got in touch with Deb and tried to decide where to go later on that evening. At first we decided to go to some of our old “hangout places” and after some discussion, we decided that none of us wanted to go somewhere where we’d have to yell above music or a crowd. Brooks’ husband, graciously offered to cook for all of us back at their home. What a feast he created! It was better than a restaurant. Amazing steaks, potatoes, salad, asparagus, wine and cheese appetizers… We couldn’t have asked for anything more or for better service, as he served us and did all of the dishes as well! Another leisurely spent meal, this time with Deb too, which made it even better. There was so much laughter and happiness, (and lack of responsibility), at the table, I almost felt like I was back in college for awhile!
We missed Mary Lynn a lot but knew that she was happily spending her birthday on a beautiful island so hopefully at our next get together she’ll be there.

After another great night sleep in that comfy, quiet bedroom, I woke up and had breakfast prepared for me by Mike!  It was really like I was on a mini-vacation for a few days.  A morning of shopping in quaint Old Town Alexandria with the girls, ended with lunch at The Chart House before heading to the train.

I needed this weekend away.  It was quick, but it was great and I appreciate them all so much for making my weekend away so much fun.  Love you girls!!!

Tagged: amtrak, Cheesetique, friendship, getting together, making memories, memories, monsoon, Roommates, train ride