Day Three

On to Fredericksburg.

After our last evening show of Papa Said, Mama Said (and yes Mom it was fantastically entertaining as well as interactive) we drove up to Fredericksburg where we stayed at a Days Inn and had our first internet connectivity since we left home. Although it was late at night, I slavishly checked my email and bounced to a couple of my usual sites and skimmed the posts. I was too tired to keep my eyes open any longer so I shut off the laptop and went quickly to sleep.

Boy, how quickly one adjusts to the east time zone!

Next morning we got up early to go birding at Ferry Farm. Now I am no birder by any stretch of the imagination, but it was enjoyable. After all, it was a walk around a large bit of acreage amidst nature and I am a nature lover to be sure. I saw nothing in particular to take a picture of, save one butterfly on a bush in the gardens there at the end of the walk.


It is a Tiger Swallowtail - very common in that region, and probably across the eastern half of the country. Not something I see very often though.

All in all it was a great morning. The guide, Paul Nasca, not only was very knowledgeable about the birds on the property, but could make calls of them and could pick them out by their sounds. I'd say my favorite I saw (and that was only a few) was a Cardinal. It is a very pretty bird. Additionally, Paul Nasca showed us all the project they were currently digging on the property. I believe he's a field supervisor at Ferry Farm, being an archaeologist by trade. He said that it hadn't been released to the public and they would shortly be sending out a press release on that so I won't divulge. It's a pretty cool bit of info and I'm happy to have heard it straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak, and on site no less!

From there though, we had to bug out and drive up to South New Jersey to meet up with some of our relatives who were having a DiMartino family reunion that afternoon. Long, long... did I mention long yet? ... long drive filled with backups at EVERY toll booth. The drive would have been quite pleasant without having to stop dead 5 miles in front of every toll booth and crawl at a snails pace until we got the privilege of handing over every small bill and quarter we had left. And there were too many tolls to count. Couldn't they have just made it a turnpike? It was simply an interstate we were traversing - complete with limited access and exit points.

We had a pleasant evening - although it was incredibly hot and sticky - 99 or 101 degrees and incredibly high humidity. It never cooled off that whole night. I was very happy to meet my mom's first cousins and their families and two of her aunts. I am just entranced by her Aunt Lena... she is so full of life and she's 84? years old where I could swear she looked only 75 at most. She also goes out dancing every week - more than once in a week too.

Now I know where my mom got her young looking genes... it's the DiMartino side... they all looked younger than they were. I am blessed to have it on both sides, because my dad and his sister and parents also look way younger than they are.