Virginia - Charlottesville

We went from one luxury pad to another... it was great! We had left Chicago and gotten cheap internal flights to richmond in Virginia to stay with my relatives - Eimear and Khalil and their 2 wee boys. It was great we were getting used to being spoilt, picked up at the airport was even a big thing!

We arrived late at night as our flight had stopped over at Pittsburgh so when Eimear had picked us up and brought us home the boys were in bed but Khalil had prepared a gorgeous afghan meal and we all sat chatting and drinking wine to the wee small hours. It was great to see Eimear, i felt like i was at home with my own family and again their house was massive so we were enjoying every minute.

The boys were up the next morning and i didnt recognise them as they had gotten so big - Ronan 3 and Lorcan 1 and a half.
Charlottesville were they lived was a quaint university town and the nighbour was so peaceful and quiet we feklt as if we were in the countryside. We went to the pool the first morning and chilled out the kids were a laugh and kept us all going.

Khalil came home exhausted as his hangover was still lingering from the night before but we got our the beers and wine again and sat chatting and catching up. We were staying with the guys for only four days, so teh next day we got a picnic packed and drove up to the Thomas Jefferson house. It was really lovely and totally different to what we expected as it was a massive estate and the gardens and vegetable patches were fab and still going strong.

Ger felt right at home with the gardens and could have stayed there all day!

With the kids exhausted we all headed home but stopped off to do some fruit picking at the local market place, the place really was gorgeous and it felt as if we were in Italy somewhere..

The following day we all headed out to the university Rotunda and the great Lawn to meet Khalil for a picnic lunch with the kids, and they were great even though Ronan the eldest could win hands down in a " how many why questions can you ask in 1 minute!" but he was very helpful with the housework later!

On our last night we all went out for a great Thai meal in their local restaurant.. i had forgotten how much craic it is taking young kids out for dinner and seeing just how much they can get on themsleves and the floor!

One of the gifts we left for the kids was a New Zealand game we picked up called the crazy kiwis, however myself and Ger had spent many a night in the campervan trying to work it out we were eager to see if eimear and the lads could do it... they tried but as yet we still havent managed to crack it!
We left the following day heading for New York for a week - back to hostels, fast food and packing rucksacks! Ger even let me shave his hair before we left .... We had been thoroughly spoiled again and it was sad to say goodbye to everyone.