Virginia

We flew out to Virginia from Salt Lake City Monday morning. It was a little sad to leave Jared and Lydia but we knew the would have so much fun with all the family in Utah.  The funny thing about our flights was that it was cheaper to fly out of Salt Lake yet we had a layover in Denver.  When we flew back we stopped in Denver again and it was really tempting to call a friend here in the Springs and ask them to pick me up so I didn't have to make the 9 hour drive back on Sunday but of course I didn't. I wouldn't do that to Mark and I wanted to see Jared and Lydia. Once we landed in Denver on our way out we found out that our flight to Virginia was delayed.  We went and got some dinner and then sat down to wait it out. After awhile they made another announcement about our flight and Mark noticed that the people next to us (a mom and her 10 year old daughter) were on our flight. They started talking and it turned out that she was LDS and a native of Virginia. We spent the next hour or so talking to her about different cities and things in Virginia. It was so helpful and fun. I felt it was  sign that we were most likely going to end up moving there (but we will see. ) We finally arrived in Dulles around 10:45.  We got our rental car and headed to our hotel in Manassas.  I think getting there so late made it easier to go to sleep without thing too much about Jared and Lydia. We texted Mark's mom to let us know we arrived and she wrote back that Jared and Lydia were happy as can be and loving all the family togetherness.
We left fairly early the next day to start our Northern tour of the state. And that is basically what we did the next 2 days. Drive around Virginia checking our areas and trying to talk to as many school districts as possible.  We put at least 750 miles on our rental car.
We stopped first in Frederick Maryland and met with a HR lady with the school district. She was super nice and happy to meet with us. I wish we would have taken some time to drive around the town more and see what was there because their school district has IB schools which Mark would like to continue teaching at but we had places to see.  If Mark got a job there we thought we would live in West Virginia in Harpers Ferry or Charles Town so we went to go check them out and decided we would rather pay the higher taxes in Maryland than live there. They are just really little towns like under 10,000 people and not what we are looking for.  Then we drove over to Winchester Virginia and were not very impressed with that town either so I really wish we had seen more of Frederick Maryland. Oh well. At least we got to meet with a HR person.
As we were driving around VA, specifically Northern Virginia like the Leesburg area I was amazed at how different it looks than places out "West".  If it weren't for the nicely paved roads and huge houses it seems like it was the same as it was during the Revolutionary war.  Green rolling hills, trees everywhere.  None of these treeless, wide open spaces like out here. I wish I would have taken a picture of that area specifically. It really felt like we could drive by a man on horseback with a three cornered hat. I loved it. I can't even begin to imagine how amazing it looks in the Fall.  I loved how once you got out of the "city" you were in beautiful "farmland" or rolling hills. Then you drive a little more and are in a city again.

 I can't begin to imagine how amazing this would look in the Fall. 

After Northern Virginia we headed to Harrisonburg in central Virginia.  We were really impressed with Harrisonburg. There are just under 50,000 people there and James Madison University is located there.  We stopped in the visitors center and walked around downtown a bit and just loved it. We also drove all over the city checking out parks and neighborhoods.  One thing we noticed about Virginia (at least where we were) is that the huge housing developments like we are used to with cookie cutter homes and fenced in yards don't really exist there. You had to really look for them. The residents use trees as their fences.  Its so pretty but a big adjustment (not in a bad way it just took some getting used to). It is one of our top three locations. We spent most of the afternoon there then headed back to the hotel.

 The next morning we got up early and headed South. We stopped in Stafford County (We would live in Fredericksburg because Stafford is too close to DC therefore way too expensive) and ran into some truly horrible traffic. We made it to the District office just after 8 and got there before most of the employees.  We asked about the traffic and they said it was really awful that day and not normally like that. There was a big accident on the 95 (I sound so local right) so everybody went to the local streets through Stafford and Stafford happened to be updating their stop light system or something. Anyway, we got there and met with some super nice people.  They were so friendly and helpful.  It was funny because there were people we were not really talking to yet they stayed and listened and chatted with us.  Once we mentioned Mark had IB training (there are 2 IB high schools there) the HR person said she would contact the principals and see if they would meet with Mark. They were just so nice. This one lady just smiled as we were leaving and said she "just wanted to hug us we were so cute." Our stop there was totally worth it. Later that day Mark did get a call from one Principal who wanted to interview Mark! Most schools have not posted their jobs yet so he wasn't sure he would have a Social Studies position but we were so happy he wanted to meet with Mark.  It interfered with our plans to tour Charlottesville that day but we knew we had to go to the interview. The principal was really nice and we are so happy we could meet with him. Mark would be very happy working there.

Before we knew about the interview we had planned on spending the afternoon in Charlottesville like we did the day before with Harrisonburg. Right as we were driving into the city limits we got the phone call about the interview. Stafford and Charlottesville are like an hour and thirty minutes away so we ended up only having like 1 hour to see the city. I was really disappointed because Charlottesville was really high on our list of places to see. Fortunately we did have a chance before the phone call to visit a community called Lake Monticello. Before we went out there we had looked up housing there and found this community 20 minutes from Charlottesville and thought it looked like a good housing option. We tried to go in but it is a gated community (never thought I would live in one of those) so the only way to go in was with a realtor or if someone called you in. Luckily there was a real estate office 3 minutes up the road and this very nice woman took us on a great tour.  There is a lake, numerous playgrounds, a grocery store, Fire and police departments, pharmacies a pool and club house.  The lake is beautiful (they shoot fireworks over it for the 4th of July) and I loved how the houses are all different styles and all the trees! We would be pretty happy living there. We don't know if we would like Charlottesville as we only saw the School district office but at least we know where we would probably live. So after Lake Monticello we headed back to Stafford and met with the Principal there which was great. Even if they don't have a job at that school he could put in a good word for Mark with the other schools.

We also stopped in Hannover County/Ashland but it wasn't too exciting.  They do have IB schools so Mark is still interested. I wish we could have gone into Mechanicsville (North of Richmond) but there just wasn't enough time. Its crazy how much we did see in 2 days.

After that we drove back to Manassas.  We decided we might as well check out a battlefield since there is one in like every city and the Manassas one was pretty much around the corner from our hotel. If I had to pick one battlefield to visit in Virginia it would be this one. It was the first time the two armies met during the Civil War.  We walked around right after the sun set and enjoyed some history.

"There is Jackson, standing like a stone wall" General Bee

He was give his nickname Stonewall Jackson at this battle. 

 It is crazy how much history is right at your fingertips in that area. And fun cities! Philadelphia is 4 hours away, Washington DC is no more than 2 hours away and NYC is 5.5 hours away.  I would so love to live in such a great location with such an amazing (from what I heard and all the trees I saw) Fall.  It was great to meet with as many school districts as we did and get to talk to people locally and drive around these towns. Our trip was very useful and very exhausting. Definitely a "working vacation". We can't wait for jobs to be posted in these school districts and to see if Mark can get a position!