One of the signs of spring in the Coastal Virginia area is the annual Gloucester Daffodil Festival. Anouk loves daffodils (her birthday flowers) and begged to go, and so we made the hour and a half or so drive from Norfolk this past weekend. Worth it! Besides enough flowers to make a horticulturalist (or Anouk) happy, the daffodil festival features a parade, vendors, food, crafts, music, and enough more to keep a couple of kids occupied for four or five hours, give or take a minor meltdown or two.
All three of our kids loved the dog show (so many furry friends to pet!). They also enjoyed peeking into the Gloucester Court House and History Museum, and running around the grass outside. Anouk had a blast working with the Fairfield Foundation as they did archaeological work uncovering the site of a 19th century store. Gus was pretty happy with the giant bag of kettle corn we bought.



 It would have been nice if the kids area had featured more activities that didn't involve waiting in the longest-ever lines, but we are already looking forward to coming back for the Daffodil Festival next year and spending more time in Gloucester in general. It's one of the cutest little towns in the area and there were so many local businesses we didn't get to stop by on this visit. I probably could have spent four or five hours in the used bookstore alone.

The daffodil has a long history in Gloucester County, which I didn't know until the festival, and for centuries was one of the area's biggest sources of income. Super interesting (if you're into that sort of thing, which I am). Read all about it here.

My friend Angela had the idea to get a group of friends together to rent a house at Cheatham Annex to ring in 2015, which was probably the greatest idea of 2014. A group of us drove up from the HRVA area, a group drove down from DC, and some locals drove on over from Gloucester and there we met to watch the sun set on our year.

Cheatham Annex is part of the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station, close enough so that you don't have to go far to get there but remote enough that you feel like you are away from it all. (Interestingly, the annex has been part of every American conflict since the revolutionary war. History!) The hundred-or-so-year-old farmhouse we rented used to be the commanding officer's headquarters and so was full of little interesting details like a wood-paneled library with secret compartments in the walls, a solarium, and beautiful views overlooking the York River. There was lots of room outside to run and play and the place was big enough to house FOUR families (six adults, two teens, four kids) with room to spare.











^ James whipping up a batch of George Washington's eggnog recipe, delicious & highly flammable ^


We said goodbye to the old year with chicken tacos, s'mores in the firepit, epic rounds of Cards Against Humanity, and as much champagne as we could hold. We said hello to the new year with more of the same, substituting black-eyed-peas for the tacos and LCR for the cards (have you played? It's awesome, not just because we were playing for cash and I won every time).

Active duty military, retirees, and Department of Defense employees and their civilian guests can rent cabins and houses at Cheatham Annex year-round (in the summer there's a pool, golf, kayaking and canoeing). Since it is an operating military base, there's a background check and a lot of paperwork for civilian guests to set it up. But it's worth it.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! As Anouk says, "We're starting the year all over again. That's so crazy!"