Of Ice-cream, Smithfield, and Friends :)

My big brother, Daniel, turned 21 last weekend! :) We had a huge surprise party for him and then went ice-skating. But it was also an ulterior motive...ahem... ;) Because we share many of the same friends, the Taylor family was invited, and since the Taylor family was invited, that meant that I would get to spend a chunk of time with Abigail, one of my dearest friends. I felt like it was my birthday. *smile*
Monday, I passenger-seat-drove her to downtown Historic Smithfield. No matter that most of the shops are closed on Mondays--we were determined to have a blast.

We began by discovering that small, historic towns don't wake up till at least 10 a.m. So we wandered down through a lumpy maze of "beautification projects" [another word for road-work] to Smithfield Station, and it was there I fixed the flash settings on my sister's camera and stopped looking like a ghost. 

Me attempting to look confident while trying to fix the said flash settings...

There are some stinkin' gorgeous homes in Smithfield, and if it were not for the fact that on the way down there all the pictures turned out phantom-like and eerie from the lighting, you would see more than these two:

An acquaintance of ours used to live in this doozy. :) I am vicariously rich, apparently.

The Mansion on Main B&B...

After spending all that time down at the Station we wended our way back to the main street. I had to teach Abigail what maracas were since she isn't the niece of a talented percussionist, but after I taught her, she was jammin'. ;) 

We wandered, therefore, for much of the morning, in and out of antique stores, up to doorsteps only to find the shops closed, into a pricey art gallery, into the Christmas Store, down back alleys...into old courthouses... ;) We stopped into the side-garden of the Olde World Tea Company and took some photos...

 

I have inherited the talent of not knowing what to do with my hands in pictures...

A Harriet Smith in the making. All I need is a Grecian dress and an ancient jar to hold.

She makes me laugh. :)

There was something incredibly dead and stiff laying on a bench, but I revived it by pulling it over to the Ice-cream Parlor. ;)

Soon it was very perky indeed, and ate a BLT with Great Relish. ;)

Afterward we got ice-cream and collapsed on a sunny bench, feeling the after-effects of the ice-skating and the morning's walk keenly. 

Sunny benches are also almost always sleepy benches. We had to squish to take a self-portrait. :P

I went for the double-scoop, this being the first time I wasn't broke and depending on Daniel to buy me ice-cream. It was chocolate and strawberry cheesecake. :) 

She stuck with Muddy Sneakers. :)

We talked about everything under the sun (literally, since we were sitting in a puddle of warm autumn sunlight) and we giggled over being asked where was a good place to buy pantyhose, and we ate our ice-cream, and made faces at chihuahuas who were raging mad, but stuck in a car. 

Abigail tried to woo Ben Franklin....

But I won him. ;) 

The sunshine was very bright, thus my scrunchy face, and Abigail's tolerating smile. 

A rather interesting picture of me kissing a toad and hoping he'd turn into something handsomer...but it didn't work out so well, because the owner of the shop came upstairs after us and stood there, and suddenly it didn't seem like such a great idea to be kissing her bejewelled amphibians in case she got it into her head that we ought to buy them. ;) 

Yes, be impressed at my attempt at artistic photography...and thank Abigail for crossing her ankles so sweetly. ;) It was my own effort at being like Sarah. But since I can't be a photographer and a writer and a butcher and a baker and a candlestick maker, that was my Swan-Song. ;)

Thanks for the loan of your camera, Sarah, and thanks Abigail for the great times we have together! :) 

        ~Rach