Peace Hill Press Weekend ~ Day 3

After a night of spectacular thunder and lightning, we had an early breakfast. The French toast with orange butter sauce was scrumptious!! Sarah had just received the first copies of her new poetry book, so we celebrated with her and she autographed copies for each of us. (More about her book later!)

We drove down the road to the Bauer farm.

 

Susan greeted us and invited us inside. We made ourselves at home and spent quite a bit of time asking all our burning questions about life, homeschooling, business, and writing. Her husband, Peter, joined us for part of the time. (I'll share more details about our conversation in a future post.)

After a while we made our way outside where we were treated to a farm tour by Susan, Peter, Daniel, and Emily. The weather was perfect!

 

Daniel showed us his observatory.

We toured the church. They built it using lumber from the property. I loved the salvaged stained-glass window.

This next stained-glass window was made by Sarah! She was a stained-glass apprentice in Italy!

Susan invited us in to her ‘chicken coop’ office.

More conversation. More questions. More answers.

We said goodbye to Susan and headed back through the woods to the B&B where Mike and Tanya served up a fantastic lunch.

It was late afternoon again when we made it back to Colonial Williamsburg. We had time to see a few more sights, including speeches by “George Washington” and “Thomas Jefferson.”

We spent some time at the dress shop while the clouds let loose and the rain poured.

After a long walk through the warm rain, we met up with Susan for dinner at the Blue Talon Bistro. The French decor and atmosphere was fabulous, and the food was excellent. (It goes without saying that the conversation was stimulating.) It was the perfect ending to an unforgettable day! (I’m running out of adjectives…)

Peace Hill Press Weekend ~ Day 2, Touring

We finally meandered next door through the muggy heat to the Peace Hill Press headquarters to meet Susan Wise Bauer. She was very gracious, especially considering we (still on Pacific time and after a late, late night) were interrupting her lunch hour. She gave us a tour of the offices, answered questions, and introduced us to the staff.

We browsed and plundered the shelves of books. Justin chatted and answered more questions.

Justin’s wife, Mel, brought us chocolate-dipped strawberries.

Sarah’s husband, Charlie, came to visit with us.

We wrapped up our visit to Peace Hill Press and let Susan get some lunch since we would be seeing her the next day. Back at the B&B, Tanya and Mike had packed up snacks for us to take on our afternoon adventures. I was starting to really appreciate being spoiled.

It was late in the afternoon by the time we made it to Colonial Williamsburg, but we enjoyed every minute! We walked and enjoyed the gorgeous surroundings and then took a tour of the Governor’s Palace.

 

We ended our evening with a delicious meal at Chowning’s Tavern to complete our historical experience.

Peace Hill Press Weekend ~ Day 2, The B&B

 

We caught a few hours of sleep. I woke up to a knock letting me know that hot tea and homemade chocolate biscotti were waiting for me outside my door. Sunlight poured in when I opened my curtain. Yes, it was paradise. The Bed and Breakfast at Peace Hill.

Fresh flowers on the dresser and one of my favorite books. Lovely.

I met Stephanie, whose delayed flight had arrived just an hour or two before ours. I also met Mandi, who had driven in just that morning. We all headed downstairs for a late breakfast.

Tsh had also arrived late at Sarah’s house just down the road, and they both joined us for breakfast.

Breakfast was delicious. Fruit plate, egg and sausage casserole (local sausage and eggs from the Bauer farm), and out-of-this-world homemade scones.

We leisurely ate, talked, and shared travel stories.

Then it was time to head over to Peace Hill Press to see Susan Wise Bauer!

Peace Hill Press Weekend ~ Day 1

I booked the ‘perfect’ schedule. My flight didn’t leave from Portland until almost 11 am, which meant that I didn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn. Russ decided to pack up the kids, drive me to the airport, and make a day out of it. We left the house a little after 7:30. It takes us about an hour and a half to get to the airport. It was 49 degrees and raining.

I told the kids to look sad as I was leaving. Lola was the only one who was sad, and only because she wanted to get down and run around. (Russ then left and took the kids to IKEA and OMSI, because he’s awesome like that. They had a great day hanging out in Portland.)

Many of the flights to Virginia were LONG. I didn’t want a long travel day. So I found a travel itinerary of only seven hours, which had a one hour layover in Chicago. I think that was my first mistake. But I was thrilled that I would be getting in at 9 pm (Eastern time) rather than midnight like the other flights. And I would be able to meet up with Jessica for the second leg of our flight. Her sister planned on picking us up at the airport in Richmond. (Very handy that she had a sister close by!)

The flight arrived in Chicago on schedule. But I had a bit of walking to do to get to the correct gate, and Jessica’s flight was a little late. I had a few extra minutes to grab a bite to eat, but I decided to wait for Jessica. Then the flight started to board. They made me check my carry-on bag, which was annoying. I packed light so that I wouldn’t have to check bags. Jessica managed to get on at the last minute. She had to run to make the flight on time, and her heart was pounding like crazy. We introduced ourselves (we had never met!), and then we waited. And waited.

The flight crew was late. Really late. And then the thunder and lightning began. And the rain. The crew finally arrived. But we were grounded because of the lightning storm. For FIVE HOURS. We sat on that stupid airplane at the gate for FIVE HOURS. After a couple hours, the attendants offered passengers small glasses of water and little bags of pretzels. They told us we could get off—but we wouldn’t be able to re-board the flight. Then they had to refuel. Then a maintenance crew had to check over the plane to make sure it wasn’t damaged by the hail. Then they had to wait for a new flight crew.

We finally left Chicago. I’ve never been more happy to be in a moving plane. It was a two hour flight to Richmond, so no food was available. We were starving by the time we landed. And it was around 2 o’clock in the morning. We had to go to baggage claim to get our carry-ons. Jessica’s sister was a saint. She had packed us a bunch of yummy food to eat on our way to the Bed and Breakfast. (Thank you, Janel!!) I think it was close to 3 am before we arrived and fell into our beds. So much for early arrival plans…

ETA: I completely forgot to mention the fantastic lightning storm that entertained us on the dark drive to the B&B in the early morning hours. I LOVE lightning storms—as long as they aren’t holding up my flight!

Home!

I staggered into bed at about 3:30 am (Pacific time after getting up at 7:30 am Eastern time) so I might need a day to recover, but I wanted to let you know that I’m home after a phenomenal weekend with incredible women. (And share one picture to prove it!)

I am so blessed to have had this opportunity, and I’ll be sharing much more in the coming week!

(From left to right: Me, Mandi of Life Your Way, Stephanie (and baby Kepler) of Keeper of the Home, Tsh of Simple Mom, Susan Wise Bauer, and Jessica of Life as Mom. Picture taken by Sarah Park.)

I’m Off!

Countdown!

This time tomorrow I’ll be on a plane headed for Virginia to visit the famous Susan Wise Bauer and the crew at Peace Hill Press with four Rockstar bloggers and authors: Tsh from Simple Mom, Jessica from Life as Mom, Stephanie from Keeper of the Home, and Mandi from Life Your Way. How did I luck out? I have no. idea. I’m totally going to be working the ‘photographer’ angle so they don’t kick me out of the group.

We are staying at The Bed & Breakfast at Peace Hill, visiting Colonial Williamsburg, mucking about on Susan’s farm (maybe she’ll put us to work?), and talking non-stop, I’m sure. And we’ll have a chance to ask Susan all the questions we’ve ever wanted to ask.

So, here is your chance. Do you have questions for Susan Wise Bauer? Leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to get them answered for you. That is, if I’m not too star-struck to talk. {grin} (Speaking of which, I took my camera to the homeschool convention a few years ago and lugged it around for two days hoping to get a picture with Susan, but I was too chicken to ask! Maybe now that I’m the ‘photographer’ for this press weekend, I will find the courage.)

To pass the time while I’m away, y’all need to head over to check out Hannah’s sentence diagramming challenge for this week at Here in the Lovely Woods. Seriously people. Sentence diagramming is fun. Don’t take my word for it.