Charlottesville Trip #2

 On the morning of our anniversary, we started the day with breakfast at a local bakery. Chocolate croissants seemed appropriate, and Albemarle Baking Company makes some good ones :) Then we headed to a little place called the University of Virginia to take a tour and look at ...

The Rotunda

  (the sweetest UVA student took this picture for us - she saw us struggling to take a self-portrait and offered to take it for us!)

The Academic Village 

(I couldn't get a good picture of the entire "village" so this is one pavilion)

Walled Gardens 

(these were behind every pavilion in the Academic Village and anyone could enter and take a peek)

Students walking around the lawn wearing bathrobes (Lol!) :)

After our tour of UVA, we grabbed some lunch at The White Spot in the "Corner" area.

Mmmm ... I wish I had a "Gus" burger right now!

Then we traveled to Ashlawn-Highland which is the farmhouse that belonged to President James Monroe.

The Monroes lived in the white section of the house; the yellow was added by subsequent owners. It was a fairly small house; I was kind of surprised at the size!

The farm had a flock of sheep that were descendants of the original flock of sheep owned by the Monroes, chickens, and peacocks. 

Adorable lambs!

This guy was giving me the stink eye the whole time we were there. I'm pretty confident that he didn't like me much.

Peacocks definitely know that they're beautiful :)

For our anniversary dinner, Peter and I went to C&O Restaurant in downtown Charlottesville. 

I didn't take a picture of our food because we inhaled it way too quickly for that to happen :) It was soooo delish! What a great way to end our special day!!!

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I'd like to take a break from writing about the anniversary of my wedding day to wish these two crazy kids a very happy wedding day tomorrow :)

(image from Yahoo)

Thirteen and a half hours until the ceremony starts!!! Can't wait :)

Charlottesville Trip

After some major problems with my camera over the past two weeks, I have successfully managed to upload pictures of our second anniversary trip to Charlottesville, VA. So I thought I should do a blog post in honor of that achievement :)

Peter and I wanted to do a quick getaway for our second anniversary, and since he had never been to Charlottesville and it's about a 2-hour drive to DC, we decided to go there. On Sunday we had a nice drive down to the C-ville area and made our first stop at King Family Vineyards in Crozet, VA. It was hard to pick a vineyard to visit because there are SO many vineyards around Charlottesville, but I'm glad that we picked King Family. It was smaller and owned by one family (hence "King Family") so it had kind of a laid-back, welcoming vibe to it. I'm not glad that I totally forgot to take pictures while we were there! We were walking to our car to leave for the day when I remembered that I had not taken a single picture. Seriously not happy with myself! Good memories of the place will have to suffice :) We had a delicious picnic there and then took a very interesting tour of the winery and did a wine tasting. It was my first wine tasting, and I really enjoyed it. We took home a bottle of their dessert wine, Loreley, which was super yummy! I had never tasted dessert wine before, but I'm definitely a fan now!

(image from King Family Vineyards)

Then we headed to our hotel, The Boar's Head Inn, which happened to be pretty much just down the street from King Family Vineyards. I, of course, forgot to take pictures of our lovely room in the main inn, but I did take pictures of our stroll around the grounds. There are a few lakes around the property, and all of the spring flowers were in bloom so it was quite beautiful. I would highly recommend The Boar's Head if you are spending time in C-ville!

 Front of the Inn

 Back of the Inn with Lake (Love the bench swings!)

Peter at the Lake (He may or may not have been thinking about having a swim)

Not very successful attempt at a self-portrait under a gorgeous pink cherry tree :)

After our stroll, we went to dinner at a fabulous restaurant called Duner's in Ivy, VA. It's located in what looks to be a house-converted-to-be-a-restaurant so it's fairly small, but the food was uber tasty. I did think about taking pictures of restaurant and the deliciousness on my plate, but we were literally touching elbows with the people dining around us so I thought that maybe I shouldn't :) 

More to come on our trip tomorrow ...

Happy Easter!

Low in the grave he lay—
Jesus, my Saviour,
Waiting the coming day—
Jesus, my Lord.

Up from the grave he arose
With a mighty triumph o'er his foes.
He arose a victor from the dark domain,
And he lives for ever with his saints to reign.
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!

(Up From the Grave He Arose from the Original Trinity Hymnal, #206)

New Junior League "Murfee" Scarf from Lilly Pulitzer!

(image via Lilly Pulitzer)

Pretty, huh?! Can't wait to get my hands on one :)

Lilly Pulitzer has just introduced a new "Murfee" scarf in honor of their corporate sponsorship of the Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc. The special Junior League "Murfee" will be available via Lilly Pulitzer, AJLI, and Lilly stores and retail outlets. Read more about the partnership between Lilly and the Junior League on Lilly's blog ("Lilly Loves the Junior League!") and at AJLI.

Marley Lilly Giveaway #2

I'm catching up on blogs after being out of town for part of this week, and I just discovered that Maryland Pink and Green is hosting a Marley Lilly giveaway. Let the Tide Pull Your Dreams Ashore hosted a Marley Lilly giveaway a couple of weeks ago, but if you missed that one you have another chance to win one of these lovely hats :) Head on over to Maryland Pink and Green to enter before midnight EST on April 25!

Happy Anniversary ...

... to the most wonderful husband in the world! Our two years of marriage have been the best two years of my life, and I look forward to enjoying many more years with you :)

How many states have you visited?

A few weeks ago, Annie posted a map of the United States that showed which states she had visited. I randomly started thinking about it today so I made my own map using this website.  Here it is :)

I only included states where I've spent some time - not states I've merely driven across on a road trip or only experienced during a flight layover :) My parents love the Western / Southwestern U.S. (especially my daddy!) so we took quite a few long camping trips there when I was growing up which accounts for that section of the country. I was born and raised in the South (and went to grad school there!), and I went to college in the Midwest which explains those regions. And I presently live in the Mid-Atlantic region :)

I want to visit all 50 states, but I am very eager to see New England! Those old houses, quaint towns, and rocky beaches are calling my name :) And I think I need to visit New Jersey. I find it kind of odd that I havn't been there before?! Maybe I can make a quick trip there on my way to New England ...