Farewell to Richmond

As luck would have it, one good thing has come about this month. We are under contract to sell our house in Virginia! It will be a great relief to be down to paying only one mortgage! It also happens that the end of last week was a teachers’ holiday in NJ. So Rob, the kids & I went down to Richmond to clean out the last items in the house and to see some good friends we made in our time there.

And the only thing warmer than the weather in Richmond is the people!

Both Vicki and David were able to spend time with their school friends and I was able to see some of the great folks I worked with at Genworth. We also saw some very good friends in the neighborhood.

We really enjoyed our relatively short time as Virginians. Having never lived outside of a large metro area (New York or Boston), it was a new experience.

I absolutely love the weather – central Virginia has a long spring (March is a spring month) and a long fall (November highs still hit upper 60’s and low 70’s) and a mild winter. Well worth the trade for a bit more heat in the summer!

And Richmond offers some gems – like good restaurants (Mama Zu’s), great BBQ (that’s a noun, not a verb in the South), good local performing arts (Firehouse Theatre), the casual summer fun of Triple A baseball (the now departed Richmond Braves), and of course the James River. The James is, in my opinion, an under-appreciated part of Richmond. But, once you hike along its banks, swim amongst its boulders or fish for its monster catfish (up to 70 lbs!), you really can’t think of Richmond without thinking of the James. At least I can’t.

In any event, that chapter of our lives is coming to a close. And, we all leave with fond memories of the time we spent there and the wonderful people we had the privilege to call our friends, colleagues and neighbors.