Richmond Road Trip

Richmond typically operates as a landmark for us, a loose halfway point during our drives to Catonsville. It served as the destination last week.

We road tripped to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens on Thursday to see Iron & Wine perform at Groovin' in the Garden. A heavy downpour greeted us in Richmond but soon gave way to a comfortable, clear evening - ideal conditions for an outdoor concert.

The venue presented Graham with plenty of room to roam. The concert setting wasn't lost on him, however. He picked up the hotel room phone Friday morning and explained to his imagined conversation partner: "We went to the concert ... he played guitar, he sang songs ... people said 'yay.'"

Iron and Wine performs at the botanical gardens

After a Friday morning visit to Aunt Sarah's Pancake House for Graham's favorite breakfast food (hint: it's in the name of the restaurant), we took a short drive to Kings Dominion, home of "a bigger, better Planet Snoopy."

Graham road planes, trains and automobiles with the latter being a clear favorite. This was the conversation following a spirited theatrical performance of Charlie Brown's All-Stars.

Erica: "What do you want to do next?"

Graham: "My favorite thing in the world: the cars."

You can see Graham in action in the video below. His smile alone while riding these cars (over and over and over again) was worth the price of admission.

[My favorite ride was The Great Pumpkin Coaster. The operator's enthusiastic singing enhanced the experience: "Go, go, pumpkin coaster. Great, great pumpkin coaster. Go! Go!"]

The bumper cars proved to be a bit more confusing to our young driver, who stuck to a strategy of spinning in circles. Said strategy inevitably led to collisions that left all drivers stuck.

Ready to take flight

Milkshake break with Mommy

Taking a much-needed nap

We finished the day playing games. Graham (with a little help) defeated mommy and a young rival in the water gun game and secured a stuffed giraffe for his efforts.

We then raced over to ride the carousel before the park closed. The attendant informed us that we just missed the last ride of the day. My attempted guilt trip using Graham as my accomplice failed to persuade the young, dutiful employee.

We walked toward the front gate, passing the Shockwave stand-up coaster on our way. A partially full car whizzed by with its excited passengers presumably taking - ahem - the last ride of the day. I checked the time: 5:59.

Shortly thereafter, the park's speakers crackled with word that the Kings Dominion was now closed.