Holly and Kristine go to Fairfax

The Honors College at Mason had a big shindig last weekend. It was part of their "we love you, now love us back and come here" schpiel.  Holly's already committed; the event was for both committed and undecided students.  Holly and I drove up the day before, on Saturday.  It was drizzly and damp.  This is the second time I've Pricelined a hotel in Fairfax.  Decent rooms, decent prices, but both have had views of the hotel's lower level rooftop.  Well worth it, though.  And there's always construction in Fairfax (quiet on our weekend visit).

We had plenty of time to kill and had laid out several shopping stops.

Trader Joe's.  Our first visit. I was expecting something quite a bit more upscale.  Just to be sure, we even visited a second store.  A lot of the frozen food looked good, so maybe that's something to keep in mind for next time.

We stopped at TJ Maxx to look at purses.  At Nordstrom's The Rack, I found jeans, and Holly and I each bought a scarf.

We ate at Holly's favorite place, Wild Chicken.  We shared a whole chicken and fried yuca.  And we really ate the whole, amazing thing.

Foggy, misting driving to the Mall.

Back at the hotel.

On Sunday morning, the "Celebration of Excellence" began with light pastries, juice, and coffee.  As the students registered, they were given a packet of stuff, including a very nice writing notebook and a(nother) green Mason mini-backpack.  Holly now has three, and I'm thinking she can wallpaper her dorm with them eventually.

400 students and their parents crowded in, even going up in to the balcony.  We listened to several speakers and a panel of students.

We were split into two groups, and it was our turn to eat and check out some of the academic and student booths that had been set up for us.  The was a nice buffet spread out in the dining room, along with live music on stage.  It was quite amusing to see each of the students head for empty tables, one kid and parent per 8 seat table. Eventually, though, there were no empty tables, and they had to sit with other people. Overall, not a hugely social group.  :D

Holly had prearraged to meet her hopefully-new-because-they-requested-each-other roommate, Allie.  We found Allie and her mom and went on the tour together. It was a nothing-new tour, but it did give me yet another opportunity to become completely and utterly lost on campus. I even had a school map.  Thinking back on it, though, I should have used my phone to display a close up satellite map, and I bet that would have been perfect.

As soon as the ceremonial stuff was over, we bolted for the car in an effort to beat the mad rush.  Mission successful.

Getting on the highway to head home, we were surprised to see such a back up of traffic 25 miles out of DC heading into the city. On a Sunday afternoon.  

We had a pretty good drive home--blue sky, light traffic, although driving into the sun glare all afternoon became quite tiring.  An exciting weekend and lots of stuff to look forward to in the next six months or so.