Happy May! Happy finally spring! Happy so many good things! Happy FRIDAY!
I'm not in NYC this weekend; Compass's annual East Coast REtreat happened this week and I used it as an excuse to go home and see my parents in Virginia. New York is very much my home after 6 years, but the Shenandoah Valley will always have my heart, and I plan on having one foot back here on the family farm in a few years.
I touched on how special this place is with my "visitors" NY Values post, and now I'm going to write about the BIGGEST annual event in this area, the annual Apple Blossom Festival and Parade!
Winchester, VA used to be the apple capital of America. Although many of the orchards have been chopped down and the factories that produced apple products closed, the remaining trees (think DC cherry blossoms) still bloom every year, and it's still a huge part of our history.
The festival, started in 1924, usually involves a combination of fancy adult parties and hordes of intoxicated youths flooding the old town area. There's a college in town, so there are the requisite keggers that come with it as well. Boarding school and college caused me to miss the festival for many years, but I did get to attend in 2012 and it lived up to my every debaucherous-yet-festive expectation. I'm looking forward to tomorrow being Apple Blossom, Cinco de Mayo, AND the Derby. I'll be wearing seersucker and a fancy hat while chasing juleps with margaritas, because I am a true southern woman -- or something.
And naturally, today's music has to be Country Roads by John Denver. It's actually about WESTERN Virginia, not West Virginia, because everything he describes in the song is in VA not WV. Sorry, guys, for bursting your bubble!
I hope that wherever you are this weekend, you at least get to spend a little time outside, and that you are also feeling that spring (and pollen) is finally in the air.
xo
Anna