This is a Random ONE Friday since there was only one momentous event this week.
Bert and his beautiful wife, Rita, came for a visit!
Bert is my “long lost cousin.”
How did so much time go by?
I haven’t seen Bert in about 40 years.
But time stopped this week, and there they were!
And it was as if we were still children, talking, talking, laughing, laughing, and eagerly reliving visits to each others’ homes, silly summers, beaches, feeding the pigeons, and rehashing old family stories.
We didn’t forget Bill of course, but Bill is a wonderful listener.
And we didn’t forget Rita either. Rita is a wonderful talker.
We went on tour of our rural Virginia neighborhood with a stop to visit a lonesome horse.
And onward we meandered down a country road along the Buffalo Creek.
It was a one lane road with the creek on one side and steep cliff walls on the other.
And then it was off to downtown Lexington, Virginia to the old Robert E. Lee Hotel.
The old girl is now upscale and POSH (not me – the hotel). It was a rundown place before but has recently been restored to modern day glamour.
There are New York style revolving doors at the entrance and the only thing missing is a doorman! And in the lobby are original recessed telephone booths to retain the historical flavor of the place.

Photo of Robert E. Lee Hotel by http://www.expedia.com
There is also a jewelry store in town (Hess & Co.) in a rennovated building that was once a bank. I often take folks there to see the old thick vaults from the good old days. Above the vaults at ceiling level, are little inside windows. Bank guards used to sit behind those windows with rifles pointed and ready to shoot at potential robbers!
Can you see the ceiling-high windows in the back? I love it that Hess is not only a wonderful jewelry store in the middle of Lexington, Virginia, it is also a historical fixture.
Anyway, there just wasn’t enough time to see all there is to see and do in my part of the world, but the visit was fast (maybe too fast) and so much fun.
And that’s my Random One. And it was all about my long lost cousin!
Notes:
The Robert E. Lee Hotel is a six-story luxury hotelbuilt in 1926 in Lexington, Va. The recently restored classic hotel has thirty-nine guest rooms,
Looks like a neat place.
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Wow! 40 years!? You had a LOT to catch up on….. isn’t it nice to take out-of-town guests to neat places in town?
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Sounds like fun!
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Sounds like a happy reunion!
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It was amazing Eliza!
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Thanks for visiting my blog Gary! A pleasure to meet you and thanks for the nice comment. 🙂
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It is a grand thing to escort favorite people around town. You and Motorman haven’t seen half of it Dianna…. so head on back. 🙂
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40 years…??? That’s a lot! I love your pictures.
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Hi! What did you think of this Virginia summer? Pretty good, I think. It was more rainy than usual…I didn’t have to worry about my plants drying up in the hot sun, while I wasn’t watching. Sadly, summer is almost over.
I have never been to Lexington. It looks very interesting!
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How nice you were able to get together. And I beg to differ. I think upscale and posh describe you just fine.
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It’s so hard to see family on a regular basis now with everyone living so far from each other isn’t it? It sounds like you had a perfectly wonderful reunion. I’m so happy for you :). And you took them to my favourite jewellery store LOL.
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Wonderful ! Wonderful !!! Its fabulous meeting up with old friends and relatives especially when you have photo’s of each other as youngsters “giggles all around” and of course plenty of emotional hugs. Fancy having a Rita among your gathering, for a minute I thought you were referring to me being a chatterbox. ” just kidding” great photo’s Dora.
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It is fun to reconnect with old friends and family. SOmetimes, you have to wonder if there will be anything to talk about; but with some it is just hand in glove.
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Lovely reunion.
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I thought of you too Rita, when the other Rita came to visit! Are you a chatterbox too?
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So when are you coming back my friend? There is more to see.
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Patti, you are one of my “gem” friends. Thank you!
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Hard to believe the summer is giving way – and so quickly. And yes, it was different in many ways. But I still hear the cicadas chirping and it was almost too warm to walk on the sunny side of the street this morning. Lexington, Virginia is a truly delightful place -an image of a small town in America that is actually thriving. I hope you will come to visit one day.
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I can be when the subject is something I am interested in…..but not politics I steer clear of those conversations. Johns the chatterbox in our household, so we always have something to talk about to each other Before we moved to Crete, it seemed there were not many people named Rita, but here in our village there are 4 Rita’s.
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We definitely want to come back, but it may not be as soon as we would like because we just booked a trip for January to Costa Rica. I actually convinced Mikey to go. Yayyyy!!!!
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Rita is a beautiful name. I have only known one other (my cousin’s wife), except for Rita Hayworth of course. 🙂
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Uh oh! I think you two have contracted the travel bug! Cost Rica! Wow! And a good place to get warm maybe in January. 🙂
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Yes :). We were originally going to go to Cuba but it’s not warm enough there in January. I need hot!!!
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Woohoo! Something to look forward to. 🙂
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Exactly 🙂
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What a wonderful re-connection. I haven’t seen many of my relatives for decades. A few years ago, my cousin Ruby and I became Facebook friends. Now we “talk” and swap posts almost every day. I wish I hadn’t let so much time go by before we got in touch. 😉
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I hope that is true of my new cousin-connection. They are anti-computer stuff though, so I won’t see them on FB. Maybe, email though. 🙂
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Looks like you had a fun-filled long-lost visit! The Robert E. Lee Hotel and the jewelry store? Beautiful! Love those restorations. And I bet the cousin restoration was so good too!
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Thanks Cindy! The cousin restoration was excellent too. 🙂
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