Downtown Charlottesville and UVA

Shortly after we moved here a friend mentioned there was a free trolley ride that started at the downtown mall, went up to UVA and then looped back to the starting spot downtown. I have been meaning to take Jared and Lydia on a ride since then and finally got around to it last week. Mark was out of town in Philadelphia for 3 days so he missed out but he had his own adventures.  We spent one of those days downtown.  We rode the free trolley which was very nice and it was a new experience for our kids. The only public transportation they have taken is TRAX in downtown SLC so it is a pretty new thing to them.  Shortly after Mark and I were married I actually used public transportation to get to work.  We lived in West Jordan at the time and only had 1 car.  Mark was student teaching and then substituting so he needed the car more. Having never used public transportation before (except as a elementary student riding the bus) it made me feel pretty cool and grown up. I walked to a bus stop pretty early in the morning well before 8:00 then got on TRAX and then walked to work.  I worked as a receptionist at Stanfield Shutter in West Valley City, 3300 South. So from 7200 South to 3300 South.

 The trolley was a great way to talk about how some people choose to not have a car or can't afford one and use buses.  As we saw people biking to UVA or work it was great to talk about that option too.  It was nice to drive around grounds/housing at UVA and talk about what college is like. How you live on or off campus and have to walk to all your classes.  Even though they are little we talk a lot about when they go to college... it is one thing I really love about college towns that it is a presence there. They go there and hear about it.  Their favorite part though was the fact that they could move seats if they wanted and the freedom of not wearing a seatbelt.  The trolley was nice and as we got off they asked when we could do it again! After our trolley ride we stopped at the Chalkboard wall on the downtown mall to doodle and then spent an hour at the Children's museum. It was fun to do something new and different.

And because we love it so much we went and ran the UVA races again. Jared and Lydia did great. Lydia got second in both her races and Jared got fourth and fifth. They both did much better this time. We don't really care what place they get and hope they understand we go to exercise and have fun but it is pretty cool when they do well. After our races we stopped at McDonalds and got soft serve for everyone.  Sadly Mark was gone for this outing too but we are glad he could go as a family the week before. Until next summer! 

 We met up with our friend Laura and her fun kids! 

Peter, Lydia, Abigail, Joseph and Jared

Perfect FHE treat and surprise for after the races