A Little R&R

LBB and I have been talking about a weekend away for a good long time, but we've had too much going on to make it happen. So this weekend we headed to Greensboro for a couple days. Greensboro isn't really a place I had thought of as a destination, but LBB and some hens came here last year and stayed at the O Henry Hotel. They had a fine time. After my father's death last month, some good people got together and gave us some gift certificates to stay there.

Beats flowers or a casserole, if you ask me. Also, since we've never gone away without the boy, it was a much needed break. He's gone on a few sleepovers where we had the house to ourselves, but then we still had the house and things to do, dishwasher to unload, etc. Here we can just relax and have fun. And you know what? I'm quite taken by this city.

Just to mix it up a bit, we chose to stay at the Proximity Hotel, which is the sister hotel to the O Henry. Very modern, very green, very nice. Here's a picture of the window in our room. For some perspective, the little thing sticking up in the middle is a beer bottle.

The big X in the window did make it feel a bit like there might have been a missile aimed at us, but otherwise it is a fantastic hotel room.

Having never been to Greensboro (except for the airport), I found myself very pleasantly surprised. It's about twice-and-a-half the population of Roanoke. In many ways it reminded me of Richmond's West End, except that the streets are laid out in the most twisted arrangement I've ever seen. Except for the most immediate downtown area (and even there) there are very few streets that run it a straight line for more than a block or two. There are a lot of diagonals and cut-throughs. Actually, I had fun finding my way around.

They have a fantastic farmer's market (one of two, but extra crowded this weekend because the other suffered extreme storm damage). We loaded up and filled a cooler to bring home.

Saturday night we took a shuttle downtown to an area rich with restaurants, clubs, and other interesting sights to see. Only hitch was that LBB's cell phone slipped out of her pocket in the car and we had to call the shuttle driver back once we noticed it missing.

Our son had a great weekend, too. Birthday party, sleepovers with friends, teeball game, an evening downtown seeing Monkey Fuzz. The kid has got it made. Of course we worried about him while we were gone, but not too much, because he always has a good time and he had lots of good people taking care of him.

Thanks everyone. We had a blast!