Thanksgiving, Part Two
Friday began with a trip to Tea Time Farm, home of Sneaky Pie and of course the author, Rita Mae Brown. John and Mikel were friends of hers and they actually worked as her personal assistants for a few years before she unceremoniously dumped them. This was Mikel's first time back there since that event transpired but I had been invited to see the blessing of the hounds.
Before a fox hunt, someone actually blesses the hounds and in this case it was Judy, the sweet lady and priest who had attended Thanksgiving dinner with us the day before. It was a very interesting once in a lifetime experience, unless of course one lives or grew up in Virginia I guess :)
After the hunt began, Mikel and I headed for Monticello. It was interesting, although expensive for only getting to see about 5 or 6 of the 20+ rooms in the house. The view was amazing though.
We had lunch at an interesting little place called the Mikkhi Tavern (not sure of that spelling), it was basically fast food 18th Century style. Over lunch, we overhead some tourists from Canada discussing the Civil War with their server...
After our visit to Monticello we had to head back to Mikel's home and get ready to head to their church for their last Friday free dinner. They had just started it and didn't want to skip one since it was their turn to bring food. The idea is to have a free meal for anyone who wants to come. There are lots of poor people amongst the area's 15,000 residents, but so far no one except for church members has turned out for a free meal. It was nice though, it was basically the same cast of characters from Thanksgiving.
Then it was home for some more chamomille tea and some much needed sleep.
Before a fox hunt, someone actually blesses the hounds and in this case it was Judy, the sweet lady and priest who had attended Thanksgiving dinner with us the day before. It was a very interesting once in a lifetime experience, unless of course one lives or grew up in Virginia I guess :)
After the hunt began, Mikel and I headed for Monticello. It was interesting, although expensive for only getting to see about 5 or 6 of the 20+ rooms in the house. The view was amazing though.
We had lunch at an interesting little place called the Mikkhi Tavern (not sure of that spelling), it was basically fast food 18th Century style. Over lunch, we overhead some tourists from Canada discussing the Civil War with their server...
After our visit to Monticello we had to head back to Mikel's home and get ready to head to their church for their last Friday free dinner. They had just started it and didn't want to skip one since it was their turn to bring food. The idea is to have a free meal for anyone who wants to come. There are lots of poor people amongst the area's 15,000 residents, but so far no one except for church members has turned out for a free meal. It was nice though, it was basically the same cast of characters from Thanksgiving.
Then it was home for some more chamomille tea and some much needed sleep.