Virginia, Part Two

Raquel was quickly warming up to the pups. Here she is with Sam and the dogs the next morning, still in her pajamas.


On this, our first full day in Williamsburg, we didn't have much planned except last minute things we needed for Halloween night and surprising my mom, aka Grandmama, at her new apartment about a mile away from Sam's house. My mom still didn't know Raquel had come with me! All day Sam kept calling Mom to see if she was home but she was mostly busy, out getting prepared for the baby shower (she was the hostess). So we mosied around town doing a little grocery shopping, a bit of sight-seeing in nearby Colonial Williamsburg (the home of the country's oldest university, The College of William & Mary), picked up Susan from work (at Walmart) and had some drinks at Starbucks.

Finally it was time to surprise Grandmama and my brother Norman. When we got to her apartment she wasn't there but was on her way shortly. So we had Raquel (in her Little Red Riding Hood costume) hide behind the shrubs on Mom's porch, waiting for Grandmama to step up to her front door. She was feeling under the weather, not much for the game we were playing. I told her to wait until Grandmama walked up to where she was and then to say, "Trick or treat!" to surprise her. But it didn't work out that way, haha! When Mom showed up with Norman, Raquel didn't wait quietly like I had asked. She blurted out (too early), "Can I come out now?" Samantha, Susan and I started laughing because Mom and Norman stopped and looked confused like, "What? What was that?" She thought I was throwing my voice! Hahaa! Then I told Raquel she could come out and BOY was my mom surprised!

So, it still worked out. We surprised Grandmama good!
We visited for a little while inside her apartment. She couldn't wait to show us her diaper cake she made, which took 3 hours to finish. The big deal? My mom has NEVER done anything crafty as long as we can remember. We were thoroughly impressed. I told her a lot of people make diaper cakes for a living and charge a lot. She had no idea this was an "industry". We told her she should start a business.

Afterward, Mom took us all out for a nice dinner at a fancy place called 2nd Street. Raquel wasn't herself. She fell asleep on Aunt Susan's lap for the entire dinner. I wondered if she'd even want to go trick-or-treating later on.

Part Three to come!