Hanging Out, Shopping, Touring, and the Rehearsal

On Saturday we did some shopping on Cary Street, the wonderful "happening place" within walking distance of where Tom and Anastasia live. I found a two-person version of the Settlers of Catan and Chris and I spent some time familiarizing ourselves with it. Other people shopped, toured, and hung out.

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Joe and I visited one quilt shop; I was looking for some Civil War Gray Repros for the basket swap my friend Molly is running. Surely one would expect to find Civil War Repros in abundance in a Richmond Quilt Shop. This place had a lot of batiks and other lovelies, but not what I needed. Not to worry; there will be another quilt shop!

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The rehearsal was very casual. Dana, the pastor/celebrant, is just the nicest person! We all took to her right away and she put everyone at ease. Since the cellist wasn't available for the rehearsal, Keith sat over in the place where he would be and intoned the Bach piece for us. Anastasia carried her ribbon bouquet.

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After the rehearsal, Joe and I took the group to dinner at La Grotta, a terrific Italian place that T and A had suggested. Unfortunately, Amy and Andrew weren't with us; he was struggling on and off all day with a migraine and she elected to stay at the hotel to help him recover. The rest of us had a five-course Italian dinner in the wine cellar. The food was good and, of course, there was way too much!

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On Sunday morning, Andrew was completely recovered and the Stevens clan all went to Aunt Sarah's Pancake House for a late breakfast. We then split up -- Tom had a last-minute errand, T and A had shopping in mind; Sherry, Chris and Sam did some history exploration; Joe and I visited Agecroft Hall, a huge manor originally built in the 15th century and later moved to this country. Here's a link: http://www.agecrofthall.com/