My city

Today I was looking up things to do in Richmond. It's a good idea to have a collection of things that can be done in case a friend from out of state drops by on the fly (what does that mean anyway? "On the fly"). That and my friend, Minh, has nothing to do this week (VCU's Spring Break) and asked me to save him. He said that I have lived here longer and that's when for the 47th time since I've graduated from college I realized I don't know much about my own city. Could be my fear of the city and the fear to travel it's streets alone...and really, that could be the only thing I have going for me. I wanted to present a whole list of why I don't know my city but that might be it.


I have done things around the city and had a good time, but I always had someone like Rub or Emily R. to guide my way. Otherwise I'd probably circle the city a thousand times and not even know I'm doing it (which I did when Breanna came to visit). So here are some things I have found mixed with things I have done.



First off we have the Edgar Allen Poe museum. It's best to go here before you go on a ghost tour through Richmond (where Rub keeps trying to catch orbs or faces on her camera). I like ghost stories....I don't want to catch any on film, I might have a heart attack. The building is just creepy, and when Breanna and I went we were the only two people taking the tour. The buildings (there are a few actually) are very old and I have to say that people back then were much shorter...or they didn't have ladders so they did what they could (but they had ladders, what am I saying? Crazy...if Egyptians can build pyramids certainly Virginians can build some houses).





I think the creepiest part of the tour is when you go into one of the back buildings and you go upstairs to listen to probably the weirdest reading of "The Raven". Nothing special is done, but the narrators voice gives me the creeps. It didn't help that on the ghost tour they talk about the room across the hall from where you listen to the recording and how it's haunted. Not that I believe that stuff or anything...but...whatever. Anyway, so that's always an option.



Next we have the Virginia Holocaust Museum. Which is another thing that creeps me out.



There's this room you go into and there are two ways to move forward with the tour from there. One, you go into this creepy, dark tunnel where you can barely see your hand in front of you or two - you look around long enough until you find a creepy, dark hallway that you can at least kind of see and walk through that instead.



When the weather is nice outside there is always Maymont Park. I like the park part, I'm not a big fan of the little zoo thing. I guess they overdid it when I was younger, or maybe I just always thought it was boring.





While I was searching I found this little gem. You can rent one of these and go on a two and half hour tour around the city. "See places you just can't see from a car." Operating one of these would make it totally worth it...especially wearing the helmet.


I can see myself now! It will be just like Gob on Arrested Development!


In the end of course these are activities that you do if you have the day off, most things close by 4 o'clock. So we will probably go see a movie or something in the evening, just to get him out doing something. But I have begun my list of things to do when I have time off and a friend visiting. Isn't that exciting!?

P.S. don't think I forgot about the ghost tour, if I could find one happening in Richmond right now I would drag Minh to one of those, but the website didn't say anything about Richmond Ghost Tours right now...darn them.