Leaving the Jefferson and visiting the Library of Virginia

October 29 and 30: Tuesday, after our last luxurious breakfast at the Jefferson, we take photos and then their driver takes us to the Marriott. We stay at the Marriott because it is only three blocks from the Library of Virginia. My breakfast yesterday in TJ's, the more casual dining room downstairs, was Bene Bene, smoked salmon, egg whites and salsa on an English muffin. Today I try the shrimp and grits with sunny side up eggs.....yummy, but cannot eat it all (fortunately). Below shows the dining room. Lemaire, at the Jefferson, where we have breakfast today and where we had a wonderful dinner a few nights ago.

Below is the Palm Court with the statue of Thomas Jefferson. This is where there used to be fountains where the alligators lived, but the last one died in 1948.

The alligator by the autum display outside the front door

An alligator in the fountain by the motor court

The Jefferson Hotel

After we check into the Marriott, we walk down the street to the Library of Virginia. It is huge, takes up a full city block. The staff cannot be more courteous, friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. We are here to do some genealogical research. Unfortunately in spite of the staff's tremendous help, we do not break down any brick walls. Nevertheless we thoroughly enjoy this library and we learn there are no easy answers to our questions and perhaps there will not be answers!

A funny thing happened on the way to the blog...we took a great picture of the interior of the two story library and when I tried to insert it in the blog, a message said that I needed a password from the library. In lieu of that, just picture a huge first floor with a dramatic wide staircase going up to the second floor which has stacks and stacks of bookcases on either side of a central open area. On one side there are state of the art viewers of microfilm and microfiche. The other side is filled with books. Behind these are rooms of map books, one room dedicated to Virginia authors, and other rooms for archives. I remember having to hand turn a viewer at the Mormon library in Los Angeles...in this library the viewers are all computerized. We have not recently been to the LA Library, so perhaps their viewers are also computerized.

The library has a very nice cafe, pretty simple, but we have had our share of fine dining and this works for us. At the hotel, we have our breakfast in the executive lounge and in the evening their snacks (pasta, lamb chops, fresh veggies, fresh fruit, cheese cubes, etc. and later cookies...and tonight, the 30th, tiramisu!) certainly more than suffice for dinner. We play Mexican gin, write our blog, and enjoy the "snacks".

Thursday, October 31, Halloween, we fly home, Richmond to Dallas to Los Angeles! Hopefully no tricks! It has been a wonderful trip.

I am flying out of Richmond in the future. We left the Marriott at 9:30, 20 minutes to the airport, maybe 5 minutes to walk into the airport, 5 minutes to check our bags, 5 minutes to walk to security and 5 minutes to go through security. At 10:10 we are at our gate with two hours to boarding time. Also there is free wi-fi in the airport, for economy passengers, for everyone! We have a lot of reading material with us to while away the next two hours.

Our flight home was uneventful, as flights should be. Since it is Halloween, many people are in costume, both employees and travelers adding to the merriment of the day. Actually with some, we are not sure if they are in costume or always look and dress that way! First we flew to DFW, three hour layover in Dallas where we had lunch-dinner at TGIFriday's, then flew to LAX arriving at 7. Our driver, Edward, met us and brought us home. Always good to be home. Our daughter, Caroline, welcomes us. She has done a terrific job of taking care of our home while we were away.

Thanks to the person at the Mayflower in DC who pulled out the handle of my suitcase (which the airline broke en route to Washington) so we could roll it, thanks to Danny, our Tauck driver, who took care of it on our tour, and thanks to my husband who carried it when necessary, I managed to get through the trip without having to buy a new suitcase. Now I can see about fixing it, if possible, or choosing a new piece at my leisure after researching the options.

My final words - our tour director, Stu Warren, was outstanding. His knowledge of the area and of the Civil War is terrific. His sense of humor was delightful. Our driver, Danny, was excellent. The coach was always immaculate. He and Stu worked together extremely well. The 36 people on our tour were a great group to travel with, all very bright, and most importantly, compatible, caring and cooperative. Tauck does an excellent job of putting together a tour and, in this case, they worked with Ken Burns to create a marvelous and meaningful tour of the Civil War and of showing our country and its struggles between Northern industry and Southern plantation life raising necessary raw materials, as well as the moral question of slavery. The Ken Burns vignettes we saw on our coach rides added tremendously to our knowledge of the times. The lecturers and local guides are all extraordinary in their knowledge and presentation, each giving a different aspect of the serious questions that tore our country apart one hundred and fifty years ago, and kept it together.

Our very comfortable coach

 

Posted with Blogsy