We had another quick weekend visit to Charlottesville, most likely our last for awhile, as my brother and his family were in the middle of selling their house there. It was a whole family get-together – I’m trying to think when the last one of those was, and it was probably Thanksgiving 2006? – for my niece’s first birthday, and it was a great visit. We took the Virgin America red-eye, and zipped down to Charlottesville by mid-morning in our rented Hyundai (with only 87 miles on it, as we were reminded by the Hertz clerk). We spent the day hanging out with Camden and had a great dinner at Bang!, the tapas bar where we’d gone a few years ago. We tried to visit our favorite C’Ville places – the various used book stores, the cute shops with letterpress cards and pricey kids’ clothes, the Food Lion… – and also had a chance to check in on Tim and Mari and young Simon, knocking over blocks and playing with the Salad Spinner like a pro.
On Saturday, we celebrated Camden’s first birthday with an afternoon in the park and her first introduction to cake, which was priceless. We also, despite a missed appointment on one side, some bad directions on the other, and other various types of confusion, managed to get a family photo (or 200) taken, another in a long line that stretch back to the ’80s, and one that now includes the first of the the third generation, which is pretty exciting. We’ll see how those turn out in a few weeks, I guess. We had sushi with Scott and Sarah at the Corner, and watched the Wahooptie roll by outside a few times before heading over to Tim and Mari’s for dinner and music, 507-style.
On Sunday, we had another great breakfast at Cafe Cubano and then headed out for the airport, with a stop at the brand new Nationals Park (really, no corporate name yet? Impressive) for the afternoon matchup between the Nationals and the Braves. It was a surprisingly chilly day, but we stuck it out for most of the game, taking in the sights of a new ballpark, some crazy presidential mascots, and topping it all off with a George Stephanopoulos sighting. Doesn’t get much more Washington, D.C. than that.
The legendary Tom Glavine only lasted 16 pitches, and the Nationals, after losing nine in a row, came out strong against the Braves’ reliever and ended up winning the game, though we had to take off in the seventh. The visit marks my 25th baseball park, leaving eight both old and new parks left to go, which will be ten by next year with the two new fields in New York. I’ll get there eventually, but I’m sure I’ll always be playing catch-up.
