We had a quick trip to DC and VA this weekend, a pleasant four hours from LA on Virgin America, our first time trying the new low-cost, high-style airline. We enjoyed the amenities – mood lighting, free TV, and the ability to buy snacks from your seat – and got into DC at 6 am on Friday, not well-rested but ready to go nevertheless. We rented a trusty Camry and headed off down 29 to Culpeper, where we stopped in for a tour of the NAVCC (or “Nav-C-C” as I heard it pronounced), the gigantic new Library of Congress film and audio preservation facility. Wow, is it big, and wow, is it empty. There’s a lot of film there, and a lot of equipment, but not a whole lot of people, yet. There was snow on the ground and a general and unexpected chill in the air, so the views that day from the banks of picture windows weren’t as spectacular and verdant as I’d seen in photos, but it has to have the best natural light of any film archive I’ve ever been in.



More photos of the NAVCC.

By mid-afternoon, we’d made our way down to Charlottesville, and proceeded to spend the next two days spending some quality time with our now eight month-old niece, who is, in a word, awesome. She was laughing and smiling and had a whole lot more personality, not surprisingly, than the last time we saw her, when she was only 8 weeks old. It was great to spend lots of time with her rolling around on the floor and playing with toys, or at least the tags on her toys, which she enjoyed so much that we got her a book that consisted of nothing but tags.



Scott and I enjoyed some barbeque at Jinx’s Pit’s Top BBQ in town, which was a true road food find, like eating homemade food in someone’s kitchen. We got to see Tim and Mari and young Simon as well on Saturday afternoon, and appreciated the opportunity to catch up again. Sunday afternoon, we drove back to Dulles and caught the late flight out of DC back to LA. We’re off to trivia now, after a miraculous 3rd place last week and a disappointing 2nd the week before, so we’ll see how it goes.

More photos of Charlottesville.