Roadtrip to Richmond, Virginia

We decided to hit the road for Richmond, VA on Saturday. The town is full of museums and several plantations. Also, my good friend Lindsey lives there and it was the perfect excuse to stop in and say hello. Richmond is about 1.5 hours away and since we have a boy who loves to ride the highways, Dan and I knew it would be a piece of cake. William watched the big rigs with great joy, and fell asleep for the last hour.



We rolled into Richmond around noon and decided to make our first stop at the Lewis Ginther Botanical Gardens. In 1884, Lewis Ginter bought the property and built the Lakeside Wheel Club, a destination for Richmond bicyclists. The land passed through several hands until 1981 when it became the Lewis Ginther Botanical Gardens. The gardens are among the prettiest I have seen too.

Getting a kick out of the waterfalls (they are to the right and left of him)

There is even a large lake and on the other side of the lake is the children's garden. The children's garden has a large tree house, a room for crafting and other art projects, a spray park in the summer, entertainment areas and small gardens where children can plant seeds. William had a great time walking around and seeing the water. He LOVES waterfalls and bridges. There were plenty of both and he was quite excited to explore it all!

At the Botanical Gardens glass house

After lunch, we headed the the Children's Museum. We stayed about 2 hours and William had a blast. This museum is wonderful. I only wish D.C. had something similar because it would make for the perfect winter destination. The mission: Pretend, Build, Climb and Explore. There is a dinosaur area with a slide and a pit where you can dig for bones or play with trucks (all in one large sandbox with tiny rubber tire chips), a room for climbing through tunnels and different slides, a section for pretend play where you can dress up in costumes and role play doctors, grocery clerks, bankers, etc.

William's favorite part - the race track at the water table.

CHEESE!

There is also an ambulance for kids to explore and sit in the driver's seat, a huge crafting room, an outdoor play area with a shaded beach, music instruments, a tree house to climb, an apple tree where you can "pick" apples (red balls) and then feed them back into the tree and watch the balls fly around the branches (clear tubes). It went on, and on.

The water table waterfall. Note the soaking wet shirt.

Driving the car

But the highlight for William.......the ENORMOUS WATER TABLE! I bet he stayed at the water table for 1 hour or more. He LOVED it. We'd go over to try something new, and he'd say, "Mama, go back to water table!" At one point, he looked at me and said, "all wet!" and yes, his shirt was soaked! You can see it in the pictures. He just had a blast running around the table and selecting which boat he'd sail, filling up his bucket in the waterfall, climbing the set stools to get a better look at the table, running from one end to the other just to make sure he'd covered all there was too see and do.

Mommy and William doing shadow puppets in the butterfly room

After that, we headed to dinner. Lindsey and Stan the man met us for dinner at 3 Monkeys. We had a great time catching up and meeting Stan. They graciously took us over to the Richmond canal afterwards where we walked around and enjoyed the views from a bridge. William had a great time because this part of the trip included 4 of his favorite things to do: walk, pick up rocks, stand on bridges (mom's least favorite activity to do with him), and throwing rocks into the water. We headed back to Arlington around 8 p.m.

Hi Lindsey! Great to see you and meet Stan the man. He's a keeper!

One rule I have is that William isn't allowed to wear his pjs in the car. It sounds rediculous, but there was a time (see past blog entries) a few months ago when ALL he wanted to do was wear his wheels jammies ANYWHERE and EVERYWHERE we went. He was so passionate about wearing his wheels jams, that I had to make a rule for my own sake or else he'd never get dressed. Since this happened in the winter, I didn't care that much as the jams were under his street clothes (sometimes 2 layers of jams before real pants I might add) and so he could go about town since he was dressed. The phase has now subsided.



That said, we were traveling at night and wouldn't get home until about 10pm, and I thought it might be a good idea to have William "bed ready" upon our arrival home. So, I threw the rule out the window......William got to wear his beloved wheels jams all the way home while watching a Mickey Mouse movie. He keeps talking about that part as if it were Christmas. I think the ride home gave the water table a real run for first place!