G

G is for Grand tour. Grand tour of the city of Richmond.

This weekend I took my cousin-in-law on a "grand tour" of Richmond (just the city). She is coming here in the fall to start college and I wanted to show her around so she will know where everything is.

We started on her school's campus and then made our way down through Monroe Ward and on Cary street to check out everything that's downtown. I took her through Tobacco Row, Shockoe Slip and Shockoe Bottom, went by the Canal walk and the River District. Zoomed through Church Hill. Back around the fancy shops and restaurants all throughout downtown, the end of Jackson Ward where the convention center and The National & Centerstage is on Broad Street. I showed her where a bunch of the galleries are on Broad which everyone should check out on First Fridays Art Walk. I showed her the Court end. We went through Hollywood Cemetery and Carytown and Uptown and the Fan. I also showed her the Museum District, and drove through the north side of Boulevard so she could see the Diamond and a couple other places over there.

Sunday we went to see the Picasso exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, with her mom and my mother-in-law. My favorite Picasso piece is this:

It's called Bull's Head. Picasso created it with found objects in 1943..it's a bronze cast of a leather bicycle seat and handlebars. I love it.

Before we went to the exhibit we went down Monument Avenue and I showed her the Malvern Gardens neighborhood (where we used to live) and Windsor Farms (fancy schmancy). I showed her the Virginia House, Agecroft Hall, and Windsor house. She also got to see the shops at Libbie and Grove.

After the exhibit We then went to lunch with everyone at Kitchen 64 (on the Boulevard), before we continued our tour down the Boulevard to pass through Randolph and go by Byrd Park and Maymont. We did a mini tour of the campus again so her mom could see where everything was. We then went down Cary for a little and back around to where Brown's Island and Belle Isle is located so her mom could see it.

I was happy to show her around everywhere. Of course there are more places for me to show her, but the main thing is I want her to be comfortable here. There is so much to do all over Richmond (just in the city alone) so she will never be bored and there is always a cool place to go to for inspiration/motivation to work on her art. She's going to be so busy with school alone but it's good to know the area you're going to be living in. The stuff I showed her over the weekend was just the tip of the iceberg.