Friday, October 8th

[Beth]: As I sit on our couch and write this, it is the perfect rainy day outside.  Last night, some thunderstorms rolled through.  I am a pretty heavy sleeper and don’t wake up for much, but the thunder (and my husband!) definitely awakened me last night.  We had lightning and thunder right above – it was wonderful.  And the clouds and rain are going to stick around for a few more days.  Today I made a chicken tagine recipe in the crockpot, and our apartment smells of cinnamon and squash and raisins.  So lovely!

So, it’s time for our second (out of six) blog posts about our trip to Virginia.  We left off on Thursday, so today I’ll write about Friday.  We slept in, had a lazy morning, and took our friend Katie’s dog for a walk before we headed south.  The dog Penny is so cute and definitely made us want our own!  After a quick stop at Panera… and then lots of traffic on 95, we made our way to Richmond.

We first drove by our old apartment; it looks pretty much the same as it did – but with nicer porch furniture.  We went to Cafespresso for lunch.  It’s a hole-in-the-wall place just around the corner from the apartment.  It’s run by this Italian guy who’s really nice and makes awesome focaccia bread.  We enjoyed some delicious paninis:

After that, we drove along River Road (to gawk at the big houses) and Carytown to get to Maymont.  When we lived in Richmond, it was one of our favorite places to picnic or just spend a quiet afternoon strolling or reading.  In fact, Jared almost proposed here at the waterfall.  So it holds a special place in our hearts.  We got to spend a couple of hours just wandering, taking pictures, and reading.  Although the fall colors weren’t quite at their best just yet, we got some great pictures.

        

Once evening started to fall, we headed to visit Jim and Susan, a couple who did our pre-marital counseling and who are awesome.  We spent many an evening playing card games with them whilst in Richmond.  We had dinner on their porch, along with another couple.  Matt and Laurie were in our young married couples Bible Study, although in the year since we moved away it has become more of the young families group.  Five of the eight couples have had a baby (or are expecting) since we left.   So many cute ones!!  It was a magnificent time of fellowship and food.

And that was our Friday.  The rain is still falling, and I am going to sleep.  There is nothing I love more than falling asleep to the sound of rain!

Thursday October 7th

[Beth]: Complete.  Blog.  Fail.  Day one of our great blogging quest, and we already failed.  I blame the continued jet lag and me being sick for the past two days.  So time to play catch up!

We started our Virginia trip with a red eye flight from San Diego (through San Francisco) to Dulles, where we arrived at 7am.  Although I can sleep relatively well on planes, Jared cannot.  So we knew Thursday was going to be a long day.  We went straight to my grandfather’s house and had a quiet morning visiting with him.  After lunch with him, my aunt and cousin, we spent the early afternoon looking at old family pictures.

Then we headed into the city for the evening.  We started out near Capitol Hill at the Hawk & Dove for some drinks and an appetizer.  My friends Katie and Kristin joined us, as well as Jared’s friend Rojas.  After a fun hour of relaxing and catching up, we moved down the street to We The Pizza.  As some of you may know about us, we love the tv show Top Chef.  Spike Mendelsohn was a contestant on season 4 of the show and has since opened a burger joint and a pizza place on the Hill.  Our group increased as my friend Beth and Jared’s friend Arjun also joined us.  It was a wonderful time to see close friends and eat some delicious pizza.  After more than a year away from Virginia and so many great friends, it was encouraging and uplifting to spend an evening with them.  As is true of many events on the trip we’ll blog about, we only wish it could have lasted longer.

Back From Virginia

[Beth]: Last night we got back home after a wonderful, week-long trip to Virginia.  It was truly an amazing vacation, and we can't wait to blog about the friends and family we saw and the places we got to visit.  However, tonight (well, actually, in about 30 minutes) we are headed downtown to the San Diego Civic Theater.  We have tickets for tonight's performance of Burn The Floor.  We don't know too much about the show, but it promises to be entertaining.

After tonight and another day to get over some jet lag, we have an ambitious blog schedule planned.  Because we have so many things to share about our Virginia trip, we are going to take it day by day.  Tomorrow (Thursday) we will blog about last Thursday in DC.  Then on Friday, a blog about last Friday.  And so on until we get around to yesterday and our trip home.  Stay tuned, dear readers!

(A preview of one of the fantastic pictures Jared took on our trip!)

Cheesecake and Virginia

[Beth]: There is nothing like a deadline to get one to post.  In this case, the deadline is an airplane flight to Virginia.  We are so very excited to be headed to DC, Richmond, and Charlottesville for about a week.  The original purpose of the trip is a college friend's wedding at UVA.  And once we committed to that trip, we decided to make our first return to Virginia in over a year a real, true vacation.  We definitely DO promise to blog about that trip upon our return.

In the remaining 2.3 minutes I have, I will share some of my latest culinary adventures.  On Sunday, we made chili, along with some sour cream cornbread in our new cast iron skillet. By the way, the skillet is my new best friend.  We are still working on the non-stick aspect of the seasoning, but it is getting there.  And it makes cooking scrambled (or fried) eggs for breakfast a lot more fun.  Then on Monday I made a Tuscan cheese tortellini stew in the crock pot.  I can't decide which is a better friend: the skillet or crock pot.  Hmmmm....  And least, but definitely the best: a cheesecake.  I made it for the first time, and I think it turned out really tasty.  Check it out:

Virginia, here we come!!