paper crowns

a little reunion.

My cousin Courtney was driving back to Ottawa on Sunday after spending the weekend in North Carolina for a wedding. Courtney was my maid of honor in my wedding and my partner in crime for a year in South Korea, and is one of my best friends in the world. She was driving home with her dad, and we arranged a little rendezvous point just off the highway, in Staunton — a town about 45 minutes from where I live. We got to hang out for about half an hour, and seeing her made my entire month. I missed her a lot.

She's the main reason I went to Korea. She went six months before I did, got me a job at her school, and a month after graduating college, I was there. I never would have met Kyle if she hadn't gone on this crazy adventure in the first place. Summer 2007 to summer 2008 remains my very favorite year ever, for a million different reasons, and Courtney is a huge part of that. She makes me laugh until I can't breathe, and sometimes vice versa, and I hope that one day we can again live in the same place.

After our brief little meetup, Kyle and I explored the town of Staunton a little bit. It's quaint as can be, and we can't wait to go back when we have a bit more time. A rare commodity these days!

We drove home through a light rainfall. The tops of the mountains engulfed in swirls of mist. Summer on the cusp of fall, if only for a fleeting moment.

a few summer days in dc.

We spent the weekend in DC with my brother Nick, who came down from Toronto to see us! We walked probably a hundred miles, ate lots of good food, did some touristy stuff (since Nick had never been to DC), and hung out in some shady parks to escape the almost 100-degree heat. Nick surprised us with tickets to see the musical Memphis at the Kennedy Center. It was really good. I'm a bit of a musical junkie, and it had been awhile since I'd been to a show, so it was such an awesome surprise! I was also able to meet up with my friend and fellow blogger, Amanda, for lunch one day. She's just wonderful and I'm so happy our schedules worked out and we could connect!

It was really, really great to see my brother. It's not all that often that I get to see my family, and it's been that way for years now, since I've spent the majority of the past five years living abroad as an ex-pat. Because of that though, I've been lucky enough to do some pretty wonderful travelling with my parents and brothers over the past few years. Tokyo with my brother Nick. Shanghai with my brother Alex. Hong Kong with my mom. Paris and England with my dad. I'm lucky that my family loves to travel just as much as I do. I guess my brothers and I got it from my dad, who has travelled more than almost anyone else I've ever met. I can only hope I'll be able to do even a fraction of the traveling he's done over the course of my life.

I sadly didn't take many pictures, and these mostly consist of us just lying around on the grass, but I figured I'd share anyway!

As wonderful as it's been to have my mom and brother visit and do all this adventuring over the past two weeks, I'm really looking forward to finally have some downtime to focus on the work I have to do, which I am very behind on after a couple weeks of such a busy and inconsistent schedule. We're pretty much staying put for the rest of the summer, aside from some day trips here and there, and honestly I'm really, really excited about that. My last two summers have been full of lots of moving/life-change chaos, so I'm really looking forward to the change of pace for this summer.

Do you have any big plans for the next couple of months? Maybe you're keeping it low-key too? Happy Tuesday!

a day in virginia wine country.

Last week was a busy one, because my mom was down visiting from Canada! It was so great to see her, and we spent the five days she was here exploring Charlottesville and Richmond. The highlight of her visit was a trip around the Monticello Wine Trail, a fairly loose network of beautiful, sprawling vineyards all over the mountains and countryside surrounding Charlottesville.

It seems like it's impossible to grow a grape in a place that isn't totally beautiful. Every major wine-producing region in the world that I'm aware of is downright awe-inspiring—Tuscany, practically all of France, Napa Valley, and on and on. Virginia's wine country is no exception. So many of the vineyards around here stretch across gently rolling valleys in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, with nothing around them but horses trotting in sun-kissed meadows, little trickling streams, and blue, blue sky. There are dozens and dozens of them, so we had to limit our tour to just one part of the wine trail, but we did manage to hit four over the course of our aftrernoon. They were all magical.

I only managed to pull my camera out for a few quick snaps here and there, so my pictures are a bit of a disappointment and don't do the vineyards justice, but hopefully you'll get at least a bit of an idea of how tranquil and lovely they were. Kyle and I are already planning our next little trip around the wine trail, so I'll definitely be revisiting it here, with pictures that I hope will more thoroughly capture its beauty.

Kyle and my mom :)

Now to start the week with a lot of work to catch up on, before we are off to DC later in the week to meet up with my brother for a few days! Yes, my family is awesome and is really great about coming to visit us. We figured that it'd be fun to spend a few days in DC for my brother's visit so we'll head up there on Thursday.

Happy Monday! Hope you had a wonderful weekend :)