Two days away

Relatives of mine came to visit for nine days. They left last Saturday and Rocky and I decided to take two days for just the two of us to relax. He's really the greatest and he put up with my ..... well, eccentric uncle and aunt like the true knight that he is.

We stayed at Foursquare Plantation in Smithfield and it was heavenly. The owners were lovely hosts and the breakfast was fit for royalty. We took the ferry from Surry and visited Jamestown, Williamsburg and Smithfield. We toured St. Luke's the oldest Protestant church in America (1632) and then we visited Good Shephard the town's only Catholic church. It's a very nice little church. They have no priest so they only have one Mass on Sunday. Priests from the military base come to celebate Mass for them. I guess the parishioners go to Suffolk or Williamsburg for confession or the priest hears it when he comes to them on Sunday. They're doing a great job but I was struck by how sad and a little strange a parish is when there is no priest at the center. I was also struck by how kind and friendly the parishioners we met were. They put the folks in Northern Virginia to shame and although they have just 200 families I noticed that they have more parish groups than my own parish. That's devotion.

Our last activity was to visit the Great Dismal Swamp but Rocky realized that I forgot to buy insect repellant so he decided that he wasn't going to risk taking me on the trail. He was right; the bugs are huge and very intent on biting so I didn't argue. Just hanging out on the driving portion of the park we saw wild turkeys. It's a great place and the next time I'm in the area I'm going back but covered in repellant.