Well here we are, back in the neighborhood! We have completed the closing actions for our new condo home located in the Northampton Place tower in west Alexandria. Our new home is just about 2.5 blocks from the condo where we lived before and sold prior to our move down to the Hampton/Newport News area.
Feels good to be back, familiar streets, grocery store and pharmacy just two blocks away, several eateries providing good food within a five block radius and a very nice, secure building with a 24 hour concierge service, front desk, package receiving and a great communications system for the owner/residents.
We also recognize the asshats who get into their cars and become totally rude inconsiderate and dangerous jerks. Yep, back in the DC Metro area for sure!
One of the folks we met down in Newport News asked why we were moving back to this crowded, high traffic, violent prone area. I responded that we were going back home! And truly, this northern Virginia area has been our actual home for over 35 years. Is there crowded environments here? Yep, beyond a doubt, but we also have some truly great places to visit, shop, eat, and get entertained. And yes there is violence here, with shootings, road rage, assault and battery, and burglary, but hey, those things were also in the Hampton Roads area of Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Hampton, Newport News, etc. Tie ups at the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel were quite often as bad as trying to cross the I-395 bridge into DC from Virginia at most hours.
Never mind all that, Harv and Char and of course Ms. Penny Kat are back in Alexandria, ensconced in our high rise apartment/condo and will spend the next few weeks trying to unpack and find places for our stuff. Remember moving from 1544 sqft house to 1094 sqft apartment requires some in depth consideration of what you need to have versus what you can discard, donate, or put into a storage locker. We do expect that our condo will be a disaster area with regard to boxes and tubs to be unpacked for several weeks, we have that much junk and need to either find places, find donations, or simply take things to the landfill area.
Author: harv1941
Just a summary, I am 84 years of age, retired in July 2013 and settled down to promoting the dangers of bacterial meningitis, which killed my beloved son, Mike in 2009. My wife, Charlotte, and I embarked on an adventure of live aboard cruising, aboard a large Blue Water motor yacht. While our beginning was rather fraught with hurdles, we continued to look forward to the day we moved aboard the Misty Lady and cruise the eastern seaboard and associated waterways. After more than four years of life aboard this Bluewater Motor Yacht, I developed an advanced problem due to interaction with medications and experienced rather frightening balance problems. Therefore, getting on and off the yacht was fraught with danger of falling between the docks and the boat's hull. Walking the docks was also problematic considering that our yacht club docks were all floating docks and my balance problem was a danger during the walk from our yacht's docking slip to the clubhouse or out to the DC Wharf facilities and our car housed in the yacht club's reserved garage. SO, we had to regretfully put the Misty Lady up for sale and move back on shore. We moved on shore, first into a condo apartment in Alexandria, then after two years there, we relocated to the city of Newport News, in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. Our original desired location was in the city of Hampton, Virginia, which is the oldest English-speaking settlement in the United States having been established originally in 1610. My ancestors came to this country through this settlement in the mid 1600s and lived in that area for around 100 years before beginning a migration of one portion of our family toward the west.
I looked forward to moving back to this area and exploring the roots of my family, both maternal and paternal ancestry, but we found a great house in the Newport News area and became ensconced in the terrific neighborhood of Kiln Creek. My wife, being still actively employed, received a substantial offer in a position with a government contractor firm back up in Northern Virginia. So we put the Newport News house up for sale, receiving and accepting an offer withing two days. We then relocated back up to the city of Alexandria and into another high rise condo. My wife reached a point where considerations for retirement were becoming very important. She indicated that she really didn't want to retire in Alexandria, so once again we began a house search in the Tidewater area, this time in the City of Williamsburg and in a community restricted to 55+ age owners. We found the ideal location, initiated the sale and closing for our retirement home. We then put our condo on the market. Alas, the market was not as robust as before so we had to change asking price a couple of time, but finally the Alexandria Condo was sold. Now we are set to enjoy the great locations found here in the Tidewater/Hampton Roads area, considering that we are history buffs and there are literally hundreds of historical sites in this segment of our nation. Of course living in Williamsburg is the epitome of history living life.
So, now we are in our retirement home, in a great retirement type community. A great clubhouse with a fine dining restaurant, a grill/pub, an award winning PGA designed golf course and miles of walking trails. Looking forward to my wife's eventual full retirement and the two of us visiting all up and down the east coast historical spots.
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Misty Lady Thought and Comment 