Connie and I went to Lexington to attend Bob and Barbara Priddy's daughter Kendall's wedding at their house on Brushy Hill on the 7th.
Reservations for wedding guests were saved at Col Alto, the local Hampton Inn. Connie and I learned from our Greenbrier weekend that Teddy and Ann Parker G's new venture, the Georges in Lexington, formerly the Alexander Withrow House, had 5 bedrooms open and we jumped over there at Teddy's invitation. We were supposed to be kind of guinea pigs and try things out.
The link, which I will have to come back to later to establish because the web site is not quite ready, will take you to Gordon's beautiful photos of the Georges. We were on the third floor in room number 4 which is high enough off the street so there isn't any car noise and had great views of Old George and a bit of the Lee Chapel.
I had scheduled a meeting late Thursday afternoon with the current W&L students holding the Elisabeth S. Gottwald Scholarship at W&L, who both happened to working in the same psychology lab this summer. We met them at Elrod Commons and had a great chat about why W&L for these two northerners, about student life in general, and about their various activities. Lindsay is in the class of 2015, a psychology major, and a key player on the women's field hockey team. She found W&L from Maine thru her sister who went to VMI. Emily is in the class of 2016- these are the first two students to be awarded the scholarship. Emily is a neurosciences and music major and is in charge of the lab where they are working this summer. She was attracted to W&L because it would let her pursue both of her interests and do real research as a freshman. Both came across as wonderful girls and made me pleased that they hold the scholarship.
After that meeting, Connie and I went back to the Georges where we had made dinner reservations at Haywood's (named after AP's Dad) restaurant and where the chef had told us he wanted to try some new things on us. It was a small plates dinner of about 6 or 7 courses and with all kinds of new tastes and combinations of things which I could never have conceived of. My two favorites were the shrimp taco and the pate (I would never order pate) made from pork and with home made mustard.
We were the only diners in the restaurant- there was a VMI alumni association board or something similar to that cocktail party going on at the same time.
One last comment about the Georges- the staff was super friendly and helpful. Thomas Burke is the manager, Tina is helping them get started. Our waiter is a student at Southern Virginia U, formerly known as Southern Sem, and is having his second child on the 4th of July, so Connie knitted him a baby blue baby hat. Later I ran into the chef on the street and asked him how he was doing. His response- "living the dream".
The next day (Friday) I went fishing on Buffalo Creek with my super fishing guide John Roberts (see Part Two) while Connie made a road trip up toward Raphine and then Brownsburg to visit a knitting store.
Dinner that night was at the Southern Inn- very good, and very casual, but a step down.
Saturday was a work day (getting ready for teaching English to the Russkis in Siberia) for Connie so she went to the library in Bridgewater while I went to the Project Healing Waters fishing event for wounded warriors at the 3 contiguous properties on Mossy Creek (mine, Stump's, and Bob Fitch's). This was my second year attending and it is very heartwarming. Beyond that, this little effort has raised about $750,000 for Healing Waters and veterans in 7 years!!
Saturday evening was the wedding. It was a perfect night and a perfect setting.
The wedding took place on the east side of the house and then the west side was set up for the buffet and there was a band stand where The Hot Nuts, or some group which licensed the famous name were playing. It was a clear night and there was a long hill up to a beautiful view of the valley, VMI and W&L. Connie and I caught up with several old friends. There were wedding dogs, multiple wedding photographers, and even a drone circling overhead taking pictures. Bob and Barbara were very happy.
On the next morning there was a getaway breakfast at Evans Dining Hall at W&L complete with W&L trident waffles. Kay and Richard Clary and several others were the hosts.
Part Two- Fishing Journal Buffalo Creek, Friday June 6
There had been rain earlier in the week and John was a little worried about muddy water but it cleared as the day went on. John and I had our usual equipment problems as we got started- slipped knots, broken leaders, lost flies. I think I missed 20 fish, and, in a variant of Dennis' accusation that I missed the bonefish because of a "trout strike", John accused me of using a "bass strike". we tried 5 or 6 different spots on his stretch of the creek, including a couple of very deep holes, some ledges and some still water with success at every one. In sum, I probably caught 20 fish between 11 and 4 pm, all up from 14 inches, the biggest a good 22 inches, using nymphs and streamers.
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I got a couple of bites on a dry fly but no catches. In addition I caught a few smallmouth bass, sunfish and a rock bass.
Part Three- Wild and wonderful West Virginia, June 8-10
John and Deborah invited us to come with them after the getaway brunch to the condo in Glade Springs, WV. Glade is about 70 miles further west from White Sulphur, so about 255 miles from Richmond. It's a long haul but well worth it. Glade has three golf courses (John and Deborah's condo is on one of them), is owned by Jim Justice, owner of the Greenbrier too, sits on a big gorge of Glade Creek, and has an 80 acre lake in addition to many ponds as water hazards.
The first day we just lazed around and had some great burgers from the grill for dinner.
Connie and I took a long walk around the property the next morning and then DJ and I went paddle boarding and kayaking on the big lake.
More lazing around for the rest of the day capped by a serious corn hole game in which the Gs came from way, way behind to win- probably the pinnacle of my lifetime athletic achievement. For the evening's entertainment John and I got on the internet and googled old bands like Jay and the Techniques and watched what You Tube had to offer. James Brown and Little Stevie Wonder looked good and Joe Cocker is still stoned.
In the morning Connie and I took a longer walk in the opposite direction and then hit the road for home.
All in all, a varied but very much enjoyable, very long weekend.
