Raleigh, NC

Catching Up with Friends

Around the weekend of April 11, Scott and I met some friends in Raleigh. Lauren and Kristin are friends from college, and over the years, we both have gotten to know them and their husbands and families. Over the April weekend, we visited the Arboretum in Raleigh, which is sponsored and supported by NC State University. The Arboretum is a facility with indoor rooms and activities as well as many outdoor displays of unique plants, shrubbery, trees, and bushes.

Aaron & Kristin of Kristin Byrum Photography & Bamboo Studios

...................Bennett, Aaron & Lauren

The Arboretum .............................................Aaron, Aaron & Scott

Most of the photos were taken at the Arboretum, but the group photos were taken in Aaron and Lauren's front yard. Check out more photos of Raleigh and the Arboretum here.

Visiting Relatives in Virginia

Just after Christmas 2009, we visited relatives in the Northern Neck area of Virginia, which is along the northwest coast of Virginia. It is a rural but historical area with coast line, bodies of water, large forest areas, and many old churches. We spent a little time sightseeing but mostly just visiting with family.

The Streets of Kilmarnock, particularly Lee's Restaurant (serving excellent, homestyle cooking)

Uncle Jim, Cousins: Elizabeth, Melvin, Bill, Mindy, Mike

St. John's Episcopal Church of Warsaw

Hanover Baptist Church

Ella, Colin, Scott, Clare, Cindy, Cathy (more cousins) in Westmoreland Park

Chris is helping the kids hunt for fossils in the sand!

The wind was cold coming across the water and between two cliffs.

The Northern Neck of Virginia and general northern Virginia area covers several small towns and communities. For the most part, it is flat; you can see land, water, and forests for miles and miles. George Washington was born in this area, and Robert E Lee lived in this area as a child. It is an area with traditional cultures and dialects reflective of "southern gentlemen and southern belles." For more information on the Northern Neck of Virginia, see our older post here.

UNCG vs ASU

Scott and I visited Appalachian State University on Saturday, January 16th to see the Spartans take on the Mountaineers. Although the game was very close, tied at many points, and the Spartans were in the lead a few times, ASU Mountaineers won. We had a blast, even as the visiting team and smaller crowd, and we displayed our blue and gold, Spartan pride, despite the fact that we had an upset.

RJ Reynolds Homestead

Early Fall 2009

Scott and I ventured to Critz, Virginia, not far outside Martinsville, VA and in the Spencer, VA area, to visit the Reynolds Homestead. The Reynolds Homestead was the boyhood home to RJ Reynolds. Richard Joshua Reynolds was born in 1850 to Hardin and Nancy Jane Cox Reynolds. Hardin was a farmer, merchant, banker, and tobacco manufacturer. The homestead, Rock Spring Plantation House, is fully-restored, after being built in 1843 and is considered a state and national landmark. On the grounds, we also saw the family's original brick kitchen, milk house, icehouse, granary, and cemetery. R.J. Reynolds left Critz in 1874 and began his tobacco company in Winston-Salem, NC.

The Reynolds family has been very influential in southern Virginia and northern North Carolina. The family built and donated a school, Nancy Jane Cox Reynolds Elementary School, to the Westfield, NC community in 1923. The school was built on the site of Nancy Jane Cox's homeplace.

The Reynolds Homestead is currently owned by Virginia Tech as a research facility, using the grounds and forest surrounding the house. Click here to visit the Homestead website.

Click here to find out more information about Richard Joshua Reynolds' tobacco company.

Click here to find out more information about Reynolda House, the home of RJ and his wife Katharine, built in 1917, which is now a tourist attraction and art museum in Winston-Salem, NC.

A view of the Left Side

The child's chair folds from a highchair into an upright chair.

Thanksgiving Weekend

November 2009

Over Thanksgiving Weekend, Scott and I attended a wedding in the Dale City/Woodbridge area of Virginia, which is half an hour outside of DC and near Alexandria, VA. On the way to the wedding, we stopped in Guinea, VA, just off Interstate 95, and toured a plantation office building in which Stonewall Jackson died.

As I am sure most of you know, Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson was a Confederate general during the American Civil War. He was accidentally shot at the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863. He survived but had his arm amputated. He died 8 days later, on May 10, 1863, from pneumonia complications.

The bed is the actual bed in which he died. The clock on the mantle was present then as well.

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After our stop on Friday, a wonderful rehearsal dinner, (by the caterers for the Redskins,) and some time with family, Scott and I attended his cousin, Larry's, wedding. (The bride's sister is the official caterer for the Washington Redskins.) Check out a few details of their evening wedding with red, black, and white trim...