Our Christmas gift to Gina, Tom and the boys was a trip to Williamsburg to visit Busch Gardens and the Historic Streets of Williamsburg…

The entrance of Busch Gardens is at England…The park has a theme of European countries!! The boys got a kick out the height chart…can’t believe how tall they both are getting!!

Another theme of the park are their roller coasters, the one on the left is Loch Ness Monster, which is the world’s only double interlocking loop roller coaster…Aaden and Tom went on that one!!! The middle picture is Verbolten, a tamer roller coaster for intermediates…Gina and Parker went on that one!! And Victor and I didn’t go on any roller coaster…but we did go on the Aeronaut Skyride on the right and below…

Gina, Parker and Tom on the Skyride!!

This is a rope bridge, at the elaborate three story tree house, it looked pretty easy to walk on for Aaden and Parker on the left…So I thought, “I could do that!!” Well it wasn’t so easy, I was tipping all over the place and had to hold onto the sides to make it across!!😂

This was the very best part of Busch Gardens!! The Clydesdale horses were absolutely beautiful!! When this picture was taken, the handler gave the horse a signal and he turned his head and kissed me!!! What a delight!!

🏛

After a day at the amusement park, we had a day surrounded in history, but also fun!!

This is a depiction of Colonial Williamburg’s main street, The Duke of Glouster…

As we leisurely walked down the Main Street of Williamsburg, we were transported back to the 1700’s. Not only the houses and businesses depicted the history, but there were people dressed in period attire of that era, who were answering questions and giving us interesting facts!!

The picture on the left is a gardener working in their beautiful vegetable and flower gardens. The middle photo is a local barber in front of his shop. The right photo is local woman answering questions from people passing by, she even taught some of us how to curtsey!!

This jewelry store had an inscription on the front of the building that I typed above, I thought the “Golden Ball” was very interesting!

Enjoy watching these short videos of horses and carriages carrying passengers for scenic rides, which you can book ahead of time!

Aaden was quite taken by the minuteman vibe in town, so he bought himself this colonial tri-corner hat and then we bought him a souvenir musket, he was in boy heaven!! Parker was happy with this little wooden cannon!!

Aaden enjoyed guiding the family as we were leaving…

Colonial Williamsburg was so wonderful, lots to do there, for young families or adults…besides the history, the shopping and restaurants were excellent!! Click here if you interested in visiting!!

🌸

Last year Victor and I tried driving into DC for the cherry blossom season, but we didn’t make it because of so much traffic…I posted what we did see, but it didn’t compare to the real thing…

But this year we left early, during the week and were successful in getting to the heart of DC!! So when we drove by the bank of the Potomic River Tidal Basin, we were awe-struck by how beautiful it was and the amount of trees in bloom!! Mostly around DC and Virginia are white cherry blossoms, but these around the Potomac are pink!!! This is The Jefferson Memorial surrounded by cherry trees, a beautiful sight…

This picture does not do the Cherry Blossoms justice, but I tried to get a shot of how dense the trees were, it was like looking at a pink wonderland…it was an abnormal freezing cold day and we just drove by, next year we will get out and walk!!

🥒🌶🥦🥕

Veggie Platter

These are the vegetables that you will need to make this veggie platter…

There is no recipe…just cut and place the vegetables on a wooden cutting board, it truly went so fast once I had the vegetables cut!! Start on the outer edge, for the cucumber flower and layer, working your way into the middle. I put olives in the middle but you could use cherry or grape tomatoes. The small flowers are sliced from the top of a pepper, take out the stem and there is a hole in the middle. Cut off the bottom of the pepper and place the round end in the center of the pepper, or you could use a cherry tomato in the center. Use a celery stock for the the stem, broccoli florets for the grass and carrots to add color and interest!!

I brought this to my niece Christy’s house for Easter and used the dip recipe from another post…click here for the recipe!! Everyone enjoyed it…it was easy and looks impressive!!

♥️💛♥️

This is a picture of my mom and dad from the 1940’s. They had been married for about a year…they were so happy to be together. My dad was in the Army and as the story goes my mom was pregnant with my brother, nearly 80 years ago, and my father was going overseas, so my mother was going to live with her mother, while he was away. I put this photo on my Facebook page when it would have been my mom’s 104th birthday. My high school friend, Toni, from California, who is an amazing artist, saw the picture and asked me if she could make a painting of it!! So of course I said YES, and this is the result! Stunning!!! She captured the joy they shared in being together and the love they were celebrating, in starting a family! However, bittersweet because he was going so far away, to a war.

♥️

When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.

Jimi Hendrix

🕊