College Trip 2017 - Virginia

In October, I set out for three days touring four colleges, two historic sites, and one small town in Virginia with 23 students, two coworkers, and a visitor from Minnesota. It was a whirlwind trip but the weather was amazing, the universities were lovely, and we all had a great time. 

Made it to Virginia and on the bus - let's go!

Enjoyed this time with Emily, my coworker

Our first stop was the historic Fredericksburg battlefield. Since it was a really early morning flight, lots of the students were sluggish, but the warm sunshine pepped them up as we wandered around the battlefield.

Fall leaves!!!!!

After leaving Fredericksburg, we made our way to William & Mary, where we ate dinner in the dining hall and then crashed at our hotel. The next morning, we were up & at 'em early - we had an hour to wander around Williamsburg and the W&M bookstore before our admissions tour. 

Tori met a goat - the owner was walking him on a leash!

We drove from Williamsburg to the University of Richmond, which was my favorite college that we visited. I sort of wished I was back in college so I could go there, except for the fact that their mascot is a spider - creepy! But the campus was absolutely gorgeous!

After leaving Richmond, we made our way to Staunton and met up with Katie, a Cambridge grad and the daughter of our admission's director, Louie. She is finishing a Masters in Shakespeare performance at the University of Mary Hardin Baylor in Staunton, and took us to eat the most delicious gelato before telling us all about how Cambridge prepares students for college in a historic practice theatre.

The next morning we started at the University of Virginia, a lovely historic campus that our students really enjoyed.   

Our last college visit was Washington & Lee University, a beautiful campus with very friendly students including one of our very own alums, Laws. He met up with us to give us a personalized tour and tell us all the reasons that Washington & Lee was the best school for him. 

After our college visits we returned to Staunton and the Blackfriar's Playhouse for a performance of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing". I'll be honest and say I wasn't expecting to enjoy it, after such a long day, but it really was funny and the theatre was quite interesting, as it is designed the way theatres were in Shakespeare's day. We even got to go on the stage after the show. 

The next morning Louie had planned for us to travel to Liberty University to visit with another Cambridge alumna, before then driving back to Dulles for our flight home. Thankfully, Emily and I looked at the map and convinced him that there wasn't enough time. We had a more relaxed morning instead, wandering around and enjoying the autumn air and the small town of Staunton before leaving for the airport.

Staunton just finished a Harry Potter festival. This sign was on their cinema!

Me, Emily, and Dena, our visitor from Minnesota

I really enjoyed this year's college trip, perhaps more than other trips because of Emily and Dena. We had a great time getting to know Dena and hanging out together as we chaperoned those crazy students. And honestly, they were rather well-behaved. It was fun getting to share another part of the country with them. I'm already looking forward to next year's trip. Wonder where we're going...