A Tale of Two Chemists: Williamsburg and the Bionic Woman

Williamsburg and the Bionic Woman … Mon13 - Tues14 May, 2013

Monday …

The journey to the airport was more challenging than expected due to road construction at nearly every bend in the road. The traffic congestion over the first few miles was so severe, I thought that two hours was not going to be an adequate amount of time. As it transpired we arrived in plenty of time, only to discover that the flight was late. Hanging around the baggage hall of Dulles Airport seems unlikely to be the highlight of our trip. Eventually we had our guests in hand and were able to return via those dug-up roads. A cup of tea revived us. Dinner, at a local Italian restaurant, was delicious. I think our guests were very happy to turn in early.

Tuesday …

This morning we made our way to Williamsburg. After checking into our hotel, we had a walk around the campus of the College of William and Mary. The lovely buildings and grounds were looking fantastic in the spring sunshine. Classes must be finished for the semester as the average age of those walking around was nearer 50 than 20. We had visited William and Mary in the spring of 2009 when Tash was looking at colleges and we had all really liked it, so much so that Tash and Gloria came back early the following year to take another look before making a decision. In the end Tash decided to go to Pomona, which seems to have worked out well so far, but we still think this campus is terrific.

It seemed fitting to start our trip by looking round the college because it was the prospect of Tash studying here that really inspired the idea of Edyth coming over to visit. This is a place that Mike's mum has wanted to visit for a very long time and we have been trying to arrange a trip for the past three years. However, she suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and spinal stenosis and has really struggled with her health, and more specifically with problems with her joints and back. over the past 15 years she has gone through countless operations, including two hip replacements plus one revision, a shoulder replacement, elbow replacement, knee scrapes and at least three sets of major spinal surgery. We think of her as the bionic woman. The past two years have been particularly difficult and we had begun to think that this trip would never happen. But Edyth is a very strong-willed lady with an incredibly optimistic and positive outlook and in recent months she seems to be doing quite a bit better. So we are all very happy to have the opportunity to spend time together here.

Tomorrow we hope to begin our visit to Colonial Williamsburg. The key question seems to be ‘where should we start?’