The hubby and I just celebrated our five year anniversary. About 5 years ago, I said, "By our five year anniversary I want a real dining room set." I got it last year, thanks to a highly motivated husband and a divorce in a nearby town leading to a deal on Craigslist. (Hmm a little bit of irony there, but we won't focus on that!)
With that goal fulfilled I turned my focus towards a getaway! Due to a bunch of unknowns this summer, we didn't get away at all. While I still want to have a family vacation for the three of us, I thought the 5 year was a good time to get away just the two of us. This year, we have lots of willing, doting family nearby and a 2.5 year old that we have never both left overnight with a family member. We all feel more than ready for the exchange to take place! Toddler will soak up the glorious attention, and we will soak up glorious freedom from carseats, sippy cups, toilet training and bath time!
We decided we'd go for 3 days and 2 nights, long enough to relax a little and short enough to not be burdensome (and to not miss our little guy TOO much!). I started looking on Home Away and found a cute cabin in Lexington, VA. PERFECT! Ted and I have not spent much time there, it's a close but far enough drive, and it's out to the west so we were hoping to see some fall foliage. We left on a Sunday morning, this was our son could still go to Daycare Monday and Tuesday, keep with his routine, and it would be easier on the caregivers. Here was our little getaway:
Sunday, Lunch at Mellow Mushroom in Charlottesville and Beer Tasting at Star Hill Brewery. I do not know why there is not a Mellow Mushroom in Richmond, they would be a perfect pairing! Mellow has great pizza and beer selection--perfect way to kick off our honeymoon (and watch the Redskins game as it turned out!) Well when the game went downhill, we headed over to Star Hill, well known in VA but we had never been for all of our trips to C'ville. It was a fun little jaunt from downtown and the brewery is generous with the tastings. As it turned out, all we bought was Dark Chocolate with Stout and toffee--delicious!! We continued down the road to Lexington and made it to the cabin around 4. We settled in, and walked up to the top of the ridge for the lookout. Of course we were thinking, "Hudson would love this" but that was just a passing though, as we soaked in the warm sunshine, peaceful views and gentle breezes.
We were ready to check out downtown for some dinner and to pick up some staples. It just happened to be Parents weekend at VMI and/or Washington and Lee so there were apparently more people around than on a usual Sunday evening. It was still a calm and quiet downtown, perfect for checking out all of the storefronts and menus. We headed over to Salerno's for their adorable lit patio (I'm a sucker for white lights) and a "light" Italian meal after our heavy, delicious pizza. I had a salad and veggie panini and it was perfect. We had time to relax and enjoy the evening air, and it was oh so cute seeing Cadets in their uniforms strolling with their families. We lived it up in our usual way of getting groceries, and getting in bed around nine to read--Luxury!!
Monday, We enjoyed sleeping in and wandered downtown for some breakfast. We settled on a Lexington Coffee Shop, and it was just as you would hope a small town coffee shop would be. The baristas greeting everyone by name, and everyone appeared to know everyone else. I find this adorable, but when I'm out and about I don't like being overwhelmed by friendliness, and fortunately everyone left us alone to read for two hours! Again this was total luxury! We meandered over to Boxerwood Gardens for a walk, and apparently went off trail and onto private property--fortunately the homeowner was friendly about it! Ted enjoyed reading all about their eco-water filtration system while I enjoyed sitting in the warm October sun!
We returned to town for lunch at the Southern Inn. I love eating lunch at fancier restaurants, I feel like the food is more my style than they serve for dinner, and oh so delicious. It was satisfying, and in order to prevent the post lunch nap, we went shopping! Fine with me, I love popping in and out of stores--there was a great kitchen store and a fabulous bookstore that had picture books half off. Most of them were not well known authors, but we had fun reading through them and making selections for our son, nieces and nephews. (By the way, as an educator it was oh so gratifying to see Ted initiate and get into reading kids books. Oh the surprises of parenthood!) We continued with our reading by stopping in a nearby park for another hour of reading! The weather was simply glorious the entire trip; 70's and sunny. Oh reading was right after we stopped in the Cocoa Mill for some Truffles ( I also love that my husband finally appreciates dark chocolate like I do!!). At this point we decided we would get a carryout dinner and bring it up to our Ridge for a sunset picnic. We got sandwiches from The Palms and headed "home." We grabbed some blankets, and drinks and headed up the hill. It was just as beautiful as the day before, and it cooled down real quick! We headed in, played some Dominion and headed to bed.
Tuesday, We ate some food we had in the cabin for breakfast and enjoyed being leisurely. We hiked around the property for a bit and made our exit at 11, check out time. We decided to take the long way home, and enjoyed driving through "towns" we have never heard of. We stopped at Cafe Cuttura for a late lunch and had time to unpack everything before picking up our son from Daycare.
Ted said next time he would like to do 3 nights! We'll see if our caretakers are up for an extra day of duty. I'm hoping as the years pass, the little guy will enjoy the extra grandparent time all the more, and really cherish the memories. Ted and I are definitely hoping to make this an annual escape within about a 3 hour radius, after all, October in Virginia is such a lovely time to get away!
With that goal fulfilled I turned my focus towards a getaway! Due to a bunch of unknowns this summer, we didn't get away at all. While I still want to have a family vacation for the three of us, I thought the 5 year was a good time to get away just the two of us. This year, we have lots of willing, doting family nearby and a 2.5 year old that we have never both left overnight with a family member. We all feel more than ready for the exchange to take place! Toddler will soak up the glorious attention, and we will soak up glorious freedom from carseats, sippy cups, toilet training and bath time!
We decided we'd go for 3 days and 2 nights, long enough to relax a little and short enough to not be burdensome (and to not miss our little guy TOO much!). I started looking on Home Away and found a cute cabin in Lexington, VA. PERFECT! Ted and I have not spent much time there, it's a close but far enough drive, and it's out to the west so we were hoping to see some fall foliage. We left on a Sunday morning, this was our son could still go to Daycare Monday and Tuesday, keep with his routine, and it would be easier on the caregivers. Here was our little getaway:
Sunday, Lunch at Mellow Mushroom in Charlottesville and Beer Tasting at Star Hill Brewery. I do not know why there is not a Mellow Mushroom in Richmond, they would be a perfect pairing! Mellow has great pizza and beer selection--perfect way to kick off our honeymoon (and watch the Redskins game as it turned out!) Well when the game went downhill, we headed over to Star Hill, well known in VA but we had never been for all of our trips to C'ville. It was a fun little jaunt from downtown and the brewery is generous with the tastings. As it turned out, all we bought was Dark Chocolate with Stout and toffee--delicious!! We continued down the road to Lexington and made it to the cabin around 4. We settled in, and walked up to the top of the ridge for the lookout. Of course we were thinking, "Hudson would love this" but that was just a passing though, as we soaked in the warm sunshine, peaceful views and gentle breezes.
We were ready to check out downtown for some dinner and to pick up some staples. It just happened to be Parents weekend at VMI and/or Washington and Lee so there were apparently more people around than on a usual Sunday evening. It was still a calm and quiet downtown, perfect for checking out all of the storefronts and menus. We headed over to Salerno's for their adorable lit patio (I'm a sucker for white lights) and a "light" Italian meal after our heavy, delicious pizza. I had a salad and veggie panini and it was perfect. We had time to relax and enjoy the evening air, and it was oh so cute seeing Cadets in their uniforms strolling with their families. We lived it up in our usual way of getting groceries, and getting in bed around nine to read--Luxury!!
Monday, We enjoyed sleeping in and wandered downtown for some breakfast. We settled on a Lexington Coffee Shop, and it was just as you would hope a small town coffee shop would be. The baristas greeting everyone by name, and everyone appeared to know everyone else. I find this adorable, but when I'm out and about I don't like being overwhelmed by friendliness, and fortunately everyone left us alone to read for two hours! Again this was total luxury! We meandered over to Boxerwood Gardens for a walk, and apparently went off trail and onto private property--fortunately the homeowner was friendly about it! Ted enjoyed reading all about their eco-water filtration system while I enjoyed sitting in the warm October sun!
We returned to town for lunch at the Southern Inn. I love eating lunch at fancier restaurants, I feel like the food is more my style than they serve for dinner, and oh so delicious. It was satisfying, and in order to prevent the post lunch nap, we went shopping! Fine with me, I love popping in and out of stores--there was a great kitchen store and a fabulous bookstore that had picture books half off. Most of them were not well known authors, but we had fun reading through them and making selections for our son, nieces and nephews. (By the way, as an educator it was oh so gratifying to see Ted initiate and get into reading kids books. Oh the surprises of parenthood!) We continued with our reading by stopping in a nearby park for another hour of reading! The weather was simply glorious the entire trip; 70's and sunny. Oh reading was right after we stopped in the Cocoa Mill for some Truffles ( I also love that my husband finally appreciates dark chocolate like I do!!). At this point we decided we would get a carryout dinner and bring it up to our Ridge for a sunset picnic. We got sandwiches from The Palms and headed "home." We grabbed some blankets, and drinks and headed up the hill. It was just as beautiful as the day before, and it cooled down real quick! We headed in, played some Dominion and headed to bed.
So glad you had a great time! "Three nights" is definitely a good plan :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Pam, I hope you don't regret those words!
ReplyDelete