Vacation time

My daughter, Heidi, aka Red, and I will be flying to Richmond, VA early Wednesday morning. We are planning to visit Jamestown, Yorktown and Williamsburg Thursday and Friday.

Friday night we'll probably stay in Fredricksburg so that early Saturday morning we can attend a birding tour at Washington's Ferry Farm. The tour begins at 8 a.m. and lasts for 2 hours. It will be led by Paul Nasca, a birding enthusiast. There have been over a hundred species sighted at this location, so I hope to see a few that I can add to my life list.

After the birding tour we will drive up to New Jersey (southern end) to attend our family reunion. This family reunion is on my mother's side where the majority of this family has lived and stayed in the Norristown-Philadelphia area for many decades.

Last week I went shopping for a new piece of luggage. My old luggage does not have wheels except for the largest piece. I think it's a 29-inch bag, large enough for a two-three week trip. But this trip is only for one week, and I don't need anything that big. So I got myself a Samsonite 21-inch upright.

It certainly has plenty of pockets on the front, as well as several more pockets and pouches inside the bag. And there still seems to be plenty of space for clothes, too.

Sunday we will drive in a southerly direction. We are hoping to visit Annapolis before heading to Washington. Can you believe this native of Baltimore has never visited the capital of her home state?

When we get to Washington we are hoping to visit the Museum of Natural History (a favorite of mine), and the Library of Congress. We also want to visit the memorials on the mall and hopefully will visit one of the Smithsonian buildings. I'm also hoping we'll get the chance to visit Arlington National Cemetery. I haven't been there since I was in high school, the year after John F. Kennedy was buried there. There's always so much to see and do in Washington and the surrounding area.