All good things must come to an end.  We woke up to cloudy skies, but it was warm enough to eat breakfast on the big patio.  Doesn't this look yummy?  It was.  Waffles and a tidbit of sourdough French toast--my kind of breakfast!  Fresh flowers on the table.  I'd seen the manager walking in the gardens in the evenings clipping roses, daisies, greens, peonies for the next day's simple but elegant floral arrangements. 


I sat at our table a long time, writing in my journal.  I plan to scrapbook this trip (for once I have enough pictures!) and wanted to remember all the delicious details.  I'll actually make the album this weekend at a National Scrapbook Day event I signed up for months ago.  A whole day of scrapbooking while someone brings in the meals and snacks--almost as good as a trip to the Hope and Glory Inn.  Then I wandered around the gardens, snapping final pictures.  The innkeepers, Dudley and Peggy, took photos of us for their scrapbook. 


Dragging my feet, I went back to our little playhouse of a cottage and packed.  Lots of goodbyes and hugs all around.  It's amazing how quickly you can make friends at a place like this.  And, as much as I love Fredericksburg, I will sorely miss the slow pace and super-friendly people in the small towns we visited.

On our way back, my husband took a detour.  We wound up in Colonial Beach, at the top end of the Northern Neck, and ate lunch at the The Happy Clam, one of our favorite places when we stay at the Bell House, the bed and breakfast that was the former summer home of Alexander Graham Bell.  We watched an osprey dive for a fish, which two other osprey chased him for.  And we watched a pair of osprey in their platform nest in the marina.

Over fried shrimp and Caesar salad and red velvet cake, my husband informed me that he had made reservations to return to the Hope and Glory Inn over New Year's.  We'll spend New Year's Eve there and New Year's Day.  Two nights instead of three, so we won't have to board the cats.  Something to look forward to!

Now, back home, throw our stuff in the house, and I'll go fetch the cats from the vet's.