Happy New Year!
I have just come back from the U.S. and I want to share the wonderful experiences I had there with you! I have many things to tell you, which will take a long time. Thank you for your patience reading my travel story.
I flew to Washington D.C. via Tokyo/Narita, but my first flight was with a domestic airline from Osaka/Itami to Narita. I enjoyed the view from the airplane. I was lucky enough to see Mt. Fuji whose top was beautifully covered with snow. As the airplane was approaching Narita, I also enjoyed the scenery of the Boso Peninsula with its rice fields and small towns.
I arrived at Washington D.C. Dulles Airport in the morning after a 12-hour flight from Narita. My BFF and her husband picked me up at the airport. I had not seen them in 17 years! You can easily imagine how moving our reunion was! My BFF and I were international students and ”roomies” in Austria in 1996. I had already been to Washington D.C. and Virginia twice in 1996-97 and in 2000, so it was my third visit.
First, they drove me to Tappahannock, Virginia. We ate lunch together at a restaurant called “NN Burger.” (NN refers to the Northern Neck, which is the northernmost of three peninsulas on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay, where the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers meet.) After having yummy hamburgers, we went to the Rappahannock River to take some photos of a bridge. This is the place where Captain John Smith landed in 1608. (There was no bridge at that time, though.)
Then, we went to my BFF’s parents’ home on the York River near West Point. We met my BFF’s parents, and her daughter who is in her early teens, her son who is in the 5th grade, and two dogs―a Labrador retriever and a cairn terrier. We had a nice teatime. I enjoyed delicious tea and the pecan cookies my BFF’s mom had baked. We shared our memories of the days during my last visits. I love their home. It has a warm atmosphere, and all the family, including the dogs, are warm-hearted. I always appreciate their kindness and hospitality.
We went outside and took a walk around the yard with the cairn terrier. The children played on tree swings and ropes. The view of the York River was fantastic. That was where Pocahontas had been around. I remember my BFF and me picking up some arrowheads on the beach 21 years ago, which native Americans had made and used a long time ago.
Every moment was so precious that I wanted to imprint them in my memory.
