I can't believe Thursday is almost here. The weeks just seem to fly by these days. This week has definitely been a good one, albeit active.
My weekly trip to the 300 block of Pennsylvania Ave. occurred on Friday last week with Val and Brit for our post work week dinner break. Val has ambitions of setting me up with Chef Spike (who I'm pretty sure already has a gf). She's a regular little Yente. So I suppose she was purposely late (45 minutes late) in hopes that he'd walk by on his way to the restaurant while I sat on the corner dinner patio reading my book, listening to street musicians, and minding my own business. Funny girl, that one.
However, he was not there, at least at the pizza place. And I have a new philosophy on why the food at Good Stuff was just mediocre the last two times I went, and the pizza this past time was also just mediocre. The philosophy: when the Chef is away, the sous chefs will play. Everytime he's been there, you can see him take extra care and attention to the details of the food, but when he's at the other restaurant the little details that make the food extra special... are left off the to-do list.
Needless to say, at the end of our evening, we still needed a little something extra to quench or appetites. And it came in the form or yogurt... sweetgreen yogurt that is! So tasty and healthy!
I've gotten to where I only eat plain non-fat yogurt. I can't eat Yoplait or any other pre-sweetened/flavored yogurt. And sweetgreen is made for people just like me. It's frozen plain non-fat yogurt topped with three selections from their fresh cut fruit, granola, nuts, and organic sauces/sweeteners. It was good to the last scoop with our compostable spoons, hence the "green" in sweetgreen.
I chose peach, granola, and blackberries, while Val and Brit chose peaches, mango, and strawberries. Yum!
Brit had been in the car all day on her way back to the city from her summer job in Atlanta, and I have to say, she looks a LOT more chipper and cute than I would be at this point in the evening after 8 hours in the car.
I have Kay to thank for the beautiful shining earring that reflected the light a little too much for this photo, but I do love the earrings. Thanks, Kay!
While at dinner we planned our proposed trip to the mountains/Charlottesville for the day on Saturday. Little did we know it would be such an adventure. We set our alarms for 7 am, and planned to leave at 8 to drive to Charlottesville, meet Jordan for brunch at 10, tour Monticello before 1-2, and travel the mountainous route back to the city with a pit stop at a hiking trail or winery. Sounds like a great plan, right??
Well, the GPS didn't seem to like us, and put us on I-95 Southbound a ways down the road, but smack-dab in the middle of the treacherous 20 miles to Fredericksburg that I ALWAYS avoid. It is one gigantic bottleneck that makes a 20 mile trip last about 1.5 hours on a good day. Stupid Sarah thought the GPS would take us elsewhere or at least Val and Brit knew the way, so we'd make it to Charlottesville by 10 for a big brunch and I'd be fine, but at about 10 we were still on I-95 and my blood sugar was rapidly plummeting. I thought I was going to pass out, and I'm just glad I was driving so I could keep my focus off of how hungry/lightheaded I was.
We finally arrived in Charlottesville around Noon, and promptly found a restaurant and a restroom. Starbucks coffee for all 4 of us... you can imagine the results. :) Arriving at noon meant we missed our opportunity to see Jordan, and we adjusted our plans to stay in Charlottesville all day instead of hiking. So, adventure to Monticello begins!
For a president's house, it was a good bit smaller than I imagined, but it was still so impressive. The detail that Thomas Jefferson put into the house is far beyond what a man of his time should've been able to imagine or create. It really is quite beautiful. The grounds are perfectly manicured, and the vegetable garden still kept fresh. The "dependencies" below the East and West wing of the house are equally impressive as they are seamlessly connected to the main house while being virtually invisible to the naked eye from the front or back of the home. Don McCracken was our tour guide into the house, and he was very passionate about the life of Jefferson and the home.
The peach orchard provided a small reminder of home, and the delicacies of southern cuisine. If only there were peaches on the trees for me to pick!
Brit decided to use the giant sunflower as a hat, but after seeing this photo, it looks more like she's singing in the shower of sunflowerness.
I was slightly amazed and intrigued by the "guinea bean" which was ehhh, approximately 3.5 feet long. There's a picture of me standing beside it, but I decided not to post it.
It was like we'd gone back in time. No cell phones ringing, no iPoders, no horns honking or cars whirring by, just peace and quiet. I love my life in the city, but sometimes it's nice to relax in the peace and tranquility of the countryside.
This girl=happy camper. :)
We were getting this photo taken before our house tour when to our surprise we spotted Jordan Warwood, the very guy we'd come to the great town of Charlottesville to see!
I had to take this photo so we could joke about the fact that we looked totally stalkerish, but it was hilarious when we discovered that his 12 o'clock commitment was a trip to Monticello with his MBA class. And J-Warwood is super hard to miss because he's like.... 12 feet tall. It's crazy!
This is our (very little make-up) stalkers face. haha! I realize I look ridiculous.. so no comments on that needed. Thanks in advance.
Callan found the reflection pond to consider her love for J-Warwood and TJ. Cool shot, right? :) After meeting up with Jordan for a quick hello, we walked to TJ's grave where visitors throw nickels bearing Monticello on the back onto TJ's grave for luck. I joined the tradition....
But my nickel bounced off. So I guess my wish doesn't count.
But I wasn't the only one disappointed.
Callan's didn't make it on the stone either. I guess we're both out of luck. Her sad face totally beats mine here, since I'm laughing while making the sad face. Those of you who've seen the real sad face know it's pathetic with a capital "P."
But we weren't sad for long when Jordan offered to show us around the Darden School of Business at UVA, which he lefts us for. All in all, we ended up accomplishing our main goal: a fun day trip out of the city, and our side goal: seeing Jordan. I just hope that next time... we can plan a little better and accomplish all of our goals.
More to post soon. Toodles!
