For the first decade or so of my life, my family pretty much moved every year. We finally settled in Southern California in 2005 and have been there since. But part of me has always wondered what life would’ve been like if we’d never moved and if I had grown up in a small town. Today I got to experience a bit of that and also showed hubby around one of the many places I grew up. The place I learned to ride a bike, where I ran through sprinklers with my baby brother, where I took walks in the evening to the pond and fed ducks with my aunt and uncle. It’s the place that kept me safe for a year and was somewhere I always came back to visit. It’s the place I began to form my understanding of ‘family’ as a child.

While we were in Fredericksburg, we went to a great vintage store downtown and got a couple things. Hubby picked up some great vintage comic books from an antique shop. Had delicious iced tea.

I’m sad that our time in Richmond ended so quickly. That’s the thing about traveling, you feel like you leave pieces of your heart all over the world. But moving forward also means new experiences and more people to love (and inevitably miss). I’m currently sitting in a basement in Maryland with my nieces and nephew. We’re watching Jurrasic Park and they’re trying not to give away any spoilers (but are doing an adorably terrible job).