Out of the Mainstream in Fauquier: family

Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

Sunday, July 26, 2026

The Blackburn Inn Recap

Third floor gallery in the Blackburn Building

Spiral stair to the cupola

The Chapel (still under reconstruction) as viewed from the cupola. The facade has a giant crack in it.

The Lofts & Penthouse. Note the location of the circular window.

The Bindery in the foreground with a view of a defunct power station smokestack.

Architectural details

More buildings in the complex.

Fountain and gazebo

Central bay of the Lofts

The Penthouse

Here's the circular window again, in one of the penthouse bedrooms.

The penthouse patio

Thursday, December 25, 2025

Merry Christmas!

Below are some larger images of the pictures from this year's Christmas card with brief explanations of them.

In March we traveled to Florida to watch a rocket launch at Kennedy Space Center. A SpaceX rocket launched the NROL-69 payload. We spent most of the day out at the launch viewing area.

In July, Preston and Jordan got engaged at the cabin in West Virginia. This picture was taken in Hawai'i Volcanoes Park in September.

At the end of September, we all traveled to the Big Island of Hawai'i. David and Kanoa were celebrating their 30th anniversary. The background of the front side of the card is sunset from the Royal Kona Hotel's oceanfront restaurant, where we stayed a couple of nights at the beginning of the 10-day trip.

David and I visited Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park, a place of refuge and royal grounds. While there I found some kanoa, which are bowls carved into rock. These may have been used to dye kapa (bark cloth), to tan fishing nets, or to pound 'awa root. Here I am posing with them.

We attended the obligatory luau at the Hilton in Waikoloa. After a miscommunication about the time which led to a wait in the reception area, it was a nice time with good food and an entertaining show.

On September 29 we visited Hawai'i Volcanoes Park and were rewarded with volcanic activity at Kilauea.

On October 1 we traveled to Maunakea. All of us went to the visitor's center (at 9,200 feet above sea level), and later the guys drove up to the summit, which is over 13,000 feet above sea level, and attended a star talk at the visitor's center. Maunkea is home to several telescopes.

For the bulk of our trip we stayed at Castle Resorts' Hali'i Kai at Waikoloa.

We spent many mornings and evenings at the oceanfront pool and restaurant, where there was a nightly sunset ceremony.

The background picture on the back of the card is sunset on our last night at Hali'i Kai.

After checking out of Hali'i Kai, David and I drove north from Waikoloa to Kapa'au in search of the famous statue of King Kamehameha I which is in front of the North Kohala Civic Center. We continued to drive the whole way around the island, stopping in Waimea for lunch, and then continuing to Hilo to walk in the Lili'uokalani Gardens before returning to Kona to spend one more night at the Royal Kona.

We enjoyed many other things on the big island such as touring a coffee farm, trekking to South Point, stopping at a local chocolate factory store, stumbling across a local farm store, and finding a great local beach to watch a final sunset.

We enjoyed many good meals. We enjoyed fine dining at Merriman's and a couple of local spots: Hawaiian Style Cafe (just down the road from Merriman's) and K's Drive-In near Hilo, and many types of restaurants in between.

In the fall Ian moved back to Virginia from Maryland and is currently working at a bakery in Warrenton. There were many other good times and fun events throughout the year, too many to include in a quick recap.

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

43/365 Picture Today Post

43/365 | Wednesday, February 12, 2025 | #365PictureToday

Message | Color Pink

We had a snow day today, and I finished up a new Lego project. This is the Family Tree, which the little plaque on the front notes. It has lots of space for pictures or note cards. I personalized it to have some pink flowers and a minifig to represent myself. It included a little camera and book, which are things I love.

Monday, January 27, 2025

27/365 Picture Today Post

27/365 | Monday, January 27, 2025 | #365PictureToday

Basket

I keep napkins in a little basket made by one of my son's at Scout camp on my dining room table.

Friday, January 24, 2025

24/365 Picture Today Post

24/365 | Friday, January 24, 2025 | #365PictureToday

Game

My family discovered this game a few years ago, and it has become a favorite. The reader reads an event and you have to place it correctly between the other years in your own chronology. If you guess correctly you get the card. If you don't get it correct, the person next to you has a chance to guess. It's a fun game for fans of history.

Friday, January 10, 2025

10/365 Picture Today Post

10/365 | Friday, January 10, 2025 | #365PictureToday

Spices

My husband made steak for dinner tonight, and he always puts Montreal steak seasoning on it.

Thursday, December 26, 2024

361/366 Picture Today Post

361/366 | Thursday, December 26, 2024 | #365PictureToday

Glisten

Due to my children's schedules, we did our big Christmas celebration today. All of the china, silver, and crystal glistens on the table as we prepare to eat.

Wednesday, December 25, 2024

Merry Christmas!

Hoping everyone has a merry Christmas! Here is our card from this year:

A little bit more about the pictures. In April we traveled to New York to see another total eclipse. As part of the trip we spent a few days in Cooperstown and visited the Baseball Hall of Fame. I got to see the San Diego Chicken! In May we enjoyed a lovely lunch and tour at Prince Michel with my mom and kids. The remainder of the pictures are from our anniversary trip in September, which we dubbed the Idaho Circumnavigation Tour. We flew to Salt Lake City and stayed overnight. The next day we drove east of the city to explore and ended up taking a tour of Olympic Park in Park City. Next we drove west past the Great Salt Lake into Nevada to spend a night. From there we drove north through Nevada (aka the surface of the moon) to Ontario, Oregon, to spend another night. The next day we headed for Idaho where we took in various sights in Twin Falls (the falls and Evel Knievel's ramp) before heading to Spokane, Washington. In Spokane we walked around Riverfront Park and ate lunch. Kanoa had visited this same park during a family trip to Idaho in elementary school and had fond memories of the Loof Carrousel. We continued on to Bonners Ferry, Idaho, to visit Kanoa's cousins for a couple of days. We had dinner with them the first night and stayed overnight in the Northside School Bed & Breakfast, a former school converted into a wonderful B&B. After a delicious breakfast the next morning we met up with Kanoa's cousins to have lunch and hike to a few scenic locations. Following that we headed out to cross the border into Canada. We stayed for a few nights at Copper Point Resort in Invermere, British Columbia. While there we enjoyed obligatory Tim Horton's and traveled to Banff in Alberta (background picture as well as bottom center). Following a relaxing few days we drove south to Waterton Lakes for one night. In the morning we headed back across the border with Glacier National Park in Montana as our destination. We experienced the scenic drive through the park along the Going-to-the-Sun Road. After exiting the park, we traveled through a lot of great scenery and interesting towns to our overnight stop in Missoula, Montana. The next morning we got up to finish our last leg of the trip back to Salt Lake City. We spent one more night there and flew home the next day.