The Great College Tour

The Great College Tour - Round 1

- April 14, 2012

Mabry's Mill

We arrived home yesterday afternoon from our 1,400 trek to Roanoke and back during which we visited two colleges: Roanoke College (for the second time) and Susquehanna University. Annalisse like both colleges (they each had its pluses and minuses) and is now really into the college search, looking up many possible colleges to visit. (Seriously? When will we have the time to visit five or six additional colleges all up and down the eastern seaboard?)

The trip to see Mom, Dave and family in Arlington was quick but nice, and we headed out to Sue and Ken's after breakfast on Monday morning. That night we mainly hung around and caught up...the weather was so nice!! On Tuesday, after our visit to Roanoke College, we went on a day trip to Floyd, VA and Mabry's Mill, through the twisty, windy roads of the Blue Ridge Mountains. On Wednesday we went out for a light breakfast then headed to downtown Roanoke while Sue and Ken caught up on some work before getting back together for dinner.

We said our goodbyes on Thursday morning and drove to Charlottesville for the afternoon. On my bucket list was a visit to (Thomas Jefferson's) University of Virginia, and it did not disappoint. The "lawn," with the famous rotunda at one end, was just beautiful! Living history. Amazingly, we came upon a student on the lawn with a Fairport t-shirt on and, of course, had to ask if he was from Fairport. He was a "first-year" (freshman) and he recognized Annalisse from Downstage, which boosted her ego a little since he was a real cutie.

Annalisse loved Charlottesville and it fit her ideal of a college town. Unfortunately, UVA is not "on the list" so we'll keep looking for a college with a cute little town nearby ala Charlottesville. We left around 2pm to head up to Selinsgrove for the night to get ready for our 9am appointment at Susquehanna. The funny thing was that we depended on our GPS ("Serena") to get us there and it took us the wackiest way you could imagine: all backroads, very few highways. We certainly get to see the "real America" when we depend on our GPS rather than using our instincts about which route to take. Way to go, Serena.

Selinsgrove is a super cute town and we stayed at the cute inn there: The Selinsgove Inn. On Friday morning, after the tour and interview, we were back on the road by 11am, and, of course, had to stop at the Country Cupboard for lunch before the long trip home. We pulled into Home Sweet Home around 4pm, and headed back out to bring Annalisse to work at 4:30, followed by a trip to PetSmart to pick up the freshly bathed, newly groomed Jasper.

Tired? Yes, a little, but what a great trip!