Let Me Take You Down...

While our primary purpose for visiting Virginia this spring was to celebrate the graduations of my awesome sister Hope and my stellar brother Mason, we did get to indulge in some other experiences. We spent part of the week with Pap-Pap and Sandi, and on one of those days we got to go strawberry picking. Nobody tells you this going in, but one of the great things about having a Sandi who is a kindergarten teacher is that you get to go on the odd "field trip" during visits. [I put field trip in quotes because it wasn't really a "field trip" per se. It was an activity that a bunch of people who have kids in Sandi's class happened to show up at with their kids. Quite by coincidence. Really.]

As we have in past years, we took the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry over to Surry and went to the College Run Farms (Sandi will have to confirm the name of the farm for me). The other time we went, it was just family. That was cool. This time there were other kids. This was far cooler, especially for the five-year old who had been stuck on a plane with me for several hours.

We met the other parents at the Piggly Wiggly, or some such wonderfully named Virginia convenience store, and then proceeded to convoy to the ferry. As we just missed the outgoing boat, we turned off our cars and let the kids pile and and play for a bit. Kiernan had many pressing Gormiti questions to ask of the boys. Gormiti is the toy collection he was obsessing over at that time, and if you don't know what it is, consider yourself lucky and move on (or turn to Google).

So the boys all looked over the railing at the water and made various references to bodily functions, and the girls all joined hands in a circle and jumped up and down and did a cute little dance. And no...I'm not making that up.

Eventually the next ferry came and we all drove onto it. Once the boat was away from its moorings the kids clambered out of the cars and got together to create a ruckus, which is to be expected I suppose.

To his credit, Kiernan did stand still long enough for me to get at least one okay ferry picture. I chose to post this one instead, however, since it shows the other ferry boat in the background and that makes me feel nifty.Once the ferry docked on the Surry side of the world we drove the couple of miles out to the farm, gathered our baskets and hit the strawberry field. Kiernan got right to work, which consisted mainly of picking strawberries, putting them in his mouth, and sprinting with his new friends up and down the rows. Beautiful. Just beautiful.


Actually, to be fair, Kiernan did contribute some to our strawberry haul. He hung with me for a bit and helped fill our basket. Aided by his main new friend for this trip, Eben (again, Sandi will have to confirm/correct this name). Eben was very helpful in educating Kiernan in the finer points of picking berries. According to him, you wanted berries that were a nice deep red. But not too dark. "If they're too dark," Eben warned gravely, "They are evil." He said this last word somberly at first, but as he continued to give this advice the word got more and more portentous, and the 'e' got more and more drawn out, so that by the end of the picking it was, "Don't pick the dark ones. They are eeeeeeeeeevil!"

Hold on a second. You know what? I just posted that picture there on the left, and it reminds me of something. Be right back...

...Yep. There it is. I was hoping I could get that. Over there to the right is the picture that one above and to the left called to mind. Another fruit picking adventure. This one was blueberries, in 2006. Great googaly moogaly...where does the time go.

After all the baskets were full we all headed over to the farm's shop to pay for our bounty and get some ice cream. I know, I know. We've just filled our baskets--and some of us our bellies--with sweet sweet strawberries and we're rewarding ourselves with ice cream. Allow me to quote one of my favorite philosophers in my defense: There is never a wrong time for ice cream.

The ice cream at this farm is just fantastic. Simple and good. My only gripe was that I was hankering for vanilla and they were out of vanilla. What? Come again? You're out of vanilla? Bizarre. But okay, because the strawberry was delicious.

Ice cream polished off we headed back to the cars and the ferry. Again on the ferry the boys got out to play, climbing up onto Eben's family's pickup truck from which they could wrestle and overlook their watery kingdom.

Remember what I said above about the girls gathering in a cute little circle, joining hands, and jumping around and dancing happily? The boys? Not so much.


Upon reaching land the boys engaged in a tearful farewell, as new BFF's are wont to do. We boarded our cars and headed for home. As we drove, Kiernan contemplated the address of his new friend Eben, whose father approached me about the boys becoming pen pals. I think it's a great idea.

Great day.