Charlottesville

Friday, August 14, 2009

The original plan was to go to Charlottesville today with the parents and visit this museum that has some Aboriginal Art on exhibit. But when we were looking for directions on how to get there, we found out that they were closed for renovation just this very week! The gall! So the alternate plan, as we quickly decided on one, was to still go to Charlottesville but just to have lunch and cruise the
"mall" area, then find this Thai restaurant that got written up in the newspaper, and pick up some dinner to take home with us.

Charlottesville isn't very far, as I've mentioned before, just an hour and 10 minutes away from here. We got there soon enough, and found a place to park, and we quickly decided on a place to eat at an Italian restaurant right there at the pedestrian mall area.

Tunji's dad was still wearing a brace for his leg and using a walker, so getting around proves to be a little more challenging. We found a cafe/gelato place for him to sit down while the rest of us went cruising for a bit. T's mom showed me where the Old Crow Medicine Show would have played in town. Turned out that it pavilion was right at the end of this pedestrian mall. Although the environment may not be as nice as the venue we went to in Cary NC, I wonder if the vibe would have been better here.

We came back to the cafe to meet up with Tunji's dad, and we all walked around a bit more, ut by then it was obvious that all this excursion and walking around was getting to be just a little too much for him. He was looking a little exhausted. So we headed towards the car. Even though the car was just a block away, I was afraid he may just fall over from exhaustion, so I volunteered to go get the car. He gladly complied, of which we were all glad.

As we headed back, we found the Thai restaurant on some side route in the middle of nowhere. It was amazing that it exists! The woman behind the counter, with whom we struck up a conversation, was probably (one of) the owners. Turned out that she's been in this area for something like 40 years or something, but have lived all over the world. Her husband worked for some big international engineering company, and helped built airports around the world. In fact, they've lived in HK for a few years. But after her husband died, she came back to this area 'cause she's got some extended families who all live and own businesses nearby. Food was actually not bad too!

And I'm so glad Tunji's dad didn't have another "episode". All is well.