Play time, UVA tour, bagel lunch, and swimming at the community pool

I started the day folding paper airplanes with Carolyn's son and flying them around the room to see how well different designs would fly and who could fly them the farthest. We then had a nice breakfast of homemade waffles.

I saw online that the University of Virginia has a historical tour that starts daily at 11 am at the rotunda on campus. The website says the tour runs whenever school is in session, so I assumed it would be available during the Summer session.

Carolyn, the two younger children, and I piled into their van and drove to campus. The oldest daughter didn't want to come, so she stayed home. We planned to meet Nathan for lunch after the tour. 

When we got to the rotunda, we saw a sign telling us he tours are not available during the Summer. However, the rotunda has a visitor center room with historical information on the wall. Carolyn gave me a quick summary of the history before the children got too restless.

Jefferson envisioned the University as an academic village, where professors and students lived near each other and intermingled. The main campus building he envisioned is shown in the middle of the drawing, below. Small student rooms and larger faculty homes surround a central grassy area. The central historical part of the campus still looks like this, and people still live in some of the rooms.

One of the students who lived there in the early 1800s was Edgar Allen Poe. His dorm room has been restored with a bed and desk from the time period, and the front door has been replaced with plexiglass so everone can look through the doorway and see what the old dorm rooms looked like. There was no indoor plumbing at the time. 

We did our own form of self guided tour of the rotunda building. Many of the rooms are oval shaped. The main doors are flat, but there are some "hidden" curved doors built into the walls. The two children opened whicever ones were unlocked, to see what was behind them. They found closets, a control panel, a passageway between two of the rooms, and even a hidden restroom behind one of the doors. They had fun discovering what was behind each unlocked door!

We went upstairs into the rotunda. The rotunda had an open main floor where meetings can be held, and stairs to a balcony that circles the room. The balcony is supported on the inside by pillars and has some study chairs and desks around the outside. One student was studying at a desk.

As we walked around the balcony, the kids held back and hid from us by ducking behind and running between pillars. The student watched and was amused!

We went outside onto the front steps, and the children ran down onto the field, around pillars, and through the pathways under the building -- playfully running around and hiding from us.

It was a hot day, and we caught up with them by a marble pool of water, where they got their arms and shirts wet while testing how deep the water was. Carolyn's daughter dipped her hair in the water to cool off. Oh, to be a child again! They enjoyed themselves, and it looked like a good way to cool off!

We met Nathan for lunch at "Bodo's Bagels" on the UVA campus. We all had bagel sandwiches. The bagels were realy fresh and the sandwiches were delicious! It was fun meeting for lunch and eating together. Their oldest daughter had to fare for herself at home.

I was sleepy after we got back to the house, and took a nap. The sky had dark clouds and I think it might have rained while I was asleep. When I woke up, the storm had passed and the kids were excited to go swimming at the community pool in a nearby town. Their family has a monthly membership that expires today (the last day of July)! Since school starts in a few weeks, they won't be renewing next month. So today was their last chance to go swimming!

We had a great time playing together in the pool. All three kids wanted me to lift and throw them forward while we were in the water. They also took turns holding onto my back while I swam underwater like a submarine.

Eventually fun time was over,  and we went home for another great dinner -- this time, curry chicken over rice, with a side salad. I told the kids they're lucky to have a mother who is such a good cook!

After dinner, we went onto the back deck and watched the humming birds fly around the humming bird feeder and a couple of  bright yellow goldfinches flitting between plants in the garden.

Their oldest daughter worked on a posterboard calendar project today. She has a monthly calendar with a different color paint chip for each day of the month. Today she stuck clear contact paper over each paint chip, to make it easier to erase things written on her calendar when they are no longer needed.

Carolyn and her oldest daughter went for a run outside, while the younger daughter and I played the skipbo card game on the living room floor. 

After the kids went to bed, Carolyn and Nathan and I stayed up and talked about several different topics... mini-homes, housing and utilities, cars, and some of the airplanes and the space shuttle that I will see at the Smithsonian "Steven F. Udvar Hazy Air and Space Museum" (located near the Dulles airport), when I go there tomorrow.

I'm really glad I stayed the extra day and got to spend time with everyone today. I had a great time and love those kids! Too bad we live so far apart and I don't get to see them very often. They are good kids and fun to be around! I enjoyed spending time with Carolyn and Nathan, too.