With Family!

So on the evening of the 15th, Meg, Jason and Jonna arrived in Norfolk to spend nine days with me! The first two nights were very brief and very late, since work took so long. And Thursday evening, my Darling Michael came for a long weekend at the same time.

We spent our first night together having some of Jason's chicken curry as we watched Persuasion from Netflix. The next morning Meg and Mike dropped me off in Yorktown, then picked me up in Norfolk that evening. And while they were there, I took them on a tour of the ship, from the bridge at the fourth level to my berthing on the third deck. We were all pretty tired by the time that was over, that we drove straight to our favorite local Italian place in Ocean View, Franco's By the Sea.

The weekend was marvelous. Saturday we drove out to Cape Henry to have a look at the lighthouse and the beach near the First Landing memorial. We even saw dolphins not far off shore just before we left. There were also lots of little crabs with homes in the sand. That night we had steak for dinner, along with stuffed mushrooms and fried (or mashed) potatoes.

Sunday was especially relaxing; slept in a long time, and had another wonderful breakfast at home. I baked a pumpkin pie and a chocolate cake in the morning. Mike and I took a leisurely stroll around the neighborhood together later on (after I finished mowing the lawn), then we went and picked up dinner at the Sunset Grill on Willoughby Spit and ate while we all watched The Court Jester again together. That was the film we watched on our first visit... back in 2009!

The 21st to the 23rd, it was just Meg and Jason and Jonna again. I got home between 2:30 and 3 every afternoon, and I adored just hanging out with them. Monday we made burgers with blue cheese on top, then Tuesday, we went out to El Azteca on Little Creek Blvd for some fantastic Mexican. While we were out there we stopped at two thrift stores for poking around and Walmart for a little errand. It was wonderful fun. Our last evening together, we made spaghetti at home. Meg beat me at Phase 10, and I held Jonna as much as I could.

Jw