All Around Virginia

Bright and early this morning we hit the road for our spring break vacation! We’re spending a few days in the mountains several hours to the west of us, at a little B&B beside the Appalachian mountains. Since it’s a bit of a drive and Charlottesville happens to be around the halfway point, we decided to spend some extra time there and make a little day trip out of it. Charlottesville is, in my opinion, one of the coolest areas in Virginia (second to Williamsburg of course 😉 ) and we like to visit as much as we can while we still live here. First stop was the downtown mall!

It was COLD out there today! Still snow on the ground! Definitely doesn’t help us get in the “spring break” mood.

This sign didn’t help either…

Even though it’s still winter and definitely feels like winter, we’re pretending otherwise. Since it was too chilly to walk around for a long time, we high tailed it right to lunch!

Eppie’s is a popular spot that has great reviews online by everyone from Urbanspoon to local bloggers so I planned in advance that we would eat here. The line was nearly out the door so we knew it was going to be good! Jason ordered a jerk chicken plate with sides of mac & cheese and turkey chili, and I ordered the Santa Monica salad with butternut squash soup on the side.

The food did not disappoint! The salad is a delicious mixture of spinach, corn, tomatoes, goat cheese, chopped dates, roasted chicken, and champagne vinaigrette. The sweet and tangy combo with the goat cheese and the dates and the vinaigrette was heavenly.

It also came with a side of pumpkin bread, which sounded like a weird combination to me at first but it was actually delicious and went really well with the whole meal!

There was snow on the ground at our next stop, too!

Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson!

I’ve been to Monticello a couple times before but Jason had never been and it really is a must-see so we had to go! Jefferson is really important to Virginia, and the J-dog holds a special place in our heart because he got his college education from William & Mary and went on to be taught law by George Wythe, the first professor at our law school (which is the nation’s first law school). You might say we’re colleagues of sorts. 😉

Dude had a big house!

He worked on it for years and years and filled it with many things that were valuable to him. We got a tour of the inside of the home and learned all sorts of new things. Jefferson was quite the complex man, and I thought many times while walking through the house about how many of his slaves (most notably, Sally Hemmings and her children with Jefferson) also walked on that ground.

After a lovely visit at Monticello we headed back out on the road again for a few more hours before reaching our destination. My hubs is not a fan of driving but I actually enjoy it and so I did all of the driving this trip (as I typically do) and enjoyed the mountain views as we cruised along. Here’s my #marchophotoaday, me at 5pm on the road…

A little after sunset we finally arrived here (I’ll show you more about where exactly “here” is tomorrow)! We were beat and starving by that time so after checking in with the really awesome innkeeper we headed out to dinner at a little place called The Palisades. It’s actually an old general store that’s converted into a restaurant, and everything about it screams Virginia in the best possible way.

The inside felt very comfortable but also upscale and it had the most awesome contemporary southern decor (my pictures do it no justice).

They had natural sodas on the menu so I went all out and ordered root beer to drink.

For an appetizer we got something called “pear wears brie” which was a delicious little pear and brie cheese quesadilla served with tomato jam.

For my entree I ordered the special of the day (which they call the “chef’s whim”), salmon cakes with a tomato avocado salsa and sides of romano cheese grits and seasonal veggies.

We also had a starter (unpictured) of pita chips and hummus so by that time I REALLY should have been stuffed…but for some reason we went ahead and ordered dessert. Cinnamon bread pudding with fresh whipped cream!

Everything was absolutely delicious. We just may return for dinner tomorrow night. I wish I was kidding.

More to come tomorrow! 😀

Thanks for reading!

-Lauren