Home Leave | Fredericksburg

‘Merica.This is America: craft beers, drive-through Starbucks, Target and every big-box store imaginable conveniently located within a mile of each other. This is also America: a diner at a family restaurant wearing a t-shirt comparing “mudding” (off-roading in the mud in a 4×4 vehicle) to sex. True story.I won’t repeat the text of said t-shirt because this is a family-friendly blog, but it was a hilarious (and somewhat offensive) welcome back to the good old U.S. of A. After a long (11-hour) journey from San Salvador via Houston, Kail and I landed at Ronald Reagan National Airport and proceeded directly to the Olive Garden for dinner. Not a bad start to our home leave. Not a bad start at all.Heaven.We spent just a couple days in Fredericksburg, Virginia visiting my parents, relaxing and taking care of errands like getting our annual eye exams. And by “relaxing” I mean wandering the aisles, wide-eyed with wonder, of our favorite establishments: Wegman’s, Target and — of course — Costco (which, in my opinion, offers the best and most economical selection of eyeglasses and contact lenses).Foreign Service people always cite the experience of grocery shopping and being overwhelmed by cereal choices as an example of reverse culture shock. Well, we had a pretty well-stocked cereal aisle in El Salvador so that didn’t shock me. Maybe it’s because we’ll be doing our consumables shopping for Afghanistan soon or maybe it’s because I “love Stuff and Things,” as Kail would say, but something about the myriad choices (build-your-own-craft-beer-six-pack or an olive bar featuring at least a dozen kinds of olives) made me feel at home. And I couldn’t help but think, ‘Merica.Site of our wedding reception.Our brief trip to Fredericksburg wasn’t all window shopping and eating at terrible delicious chain restaurants. We also took a stroll down memory lane and saw some of the places that are special to us because of our wedding (which we also revisited for our one-year anniversary celebration last year).We visited the church where we got married and the bed and breakfast where we had our post-ceremony reception. We enjoyed a barbecue lunch at the place that catered our rehearsal dinner. We went on riverside runs and retraced some of the steps of the run we did on our wedding morning. We went antique-ing and admired the historical architecture of downtown.As I said: (Offensive t-shirt aside), not a bad start to our home leave. Not a bad start at all.What’s your favorite grocery or big-box store?