Vacation Day 0: Rain

I am on vacation, which is easy to spot because I have internet access. (It's only been 37 days since I had internet at home, and I've only got 5 more to go!) The theme for today has definitely been rain: I woke up this morning to somebody spraying water at my window with a hose (which turned out to be Mother Nature), left in the rain, drove in the rain to Richmond where there was 10 minutes of sun (I even put on my sunglasses!) followed by clouds and intermittent rain until five miles from Staunton when the sun started shining again.

I did the rest and relax thing for a bit when I got here, then wandered off for a walk. We're at the edge of downtown here, it looks like, so I headed that way. Definitely a lot of old buildings that have "Valley Bank" and "Library" and "YMCA" etched into them but are now things like a BB&T and an apartment house and a hotel. Downtown had the usual: some shops, lots of trendy coffee stores and restaurants (including the Zynodoa of Matt Gaffney fame, which didn't look like it would appreciate me in a T-shirt and jeans even if the T-shirt had a parody of "The Scream" on it (which it does)). A zillion lawyers' offices, although since one of the streets (just shy of the courthouse) said Barristers' Row I guess we'll allow it. I'm not much of a picture taker, but there were a couple shots I might have liked to get, but the camera is in NN so never mind. I was out for about 45 minutes and was just getting back when the thunderstorm let loose. We'll see how long this one lasts.

The stated goal of the expedition was to find the ASC since I have tickets for tonight, which didn't actually happen. I suppose if I had looked it up on the map before I left I might have had better luck -- I was thrown off by the fact that, at least according to the map, it is not on the same street as its street address (the street address is Beverley St while the building appears to be on Market St).

We'll see what tomorrow holds -- I might go exploring the other way, depending on the how the weather shapes up (supposed to be hot, which is unfortunate, and not raining, which is fortunate). If worse comes to worst, there's always the Woodrow Wilson birthplace. (Never been a fan of such: even if you grant greatness to Wilson, and I don't know why you would, none of it would really attach to the building where he was born. I walked past it, and it is definitely a building (red brick); more than that I need not know.)