touristin' it up

I just spent a few days hanging out with a good friend who came to visit. She had never been to Charlottesville, so I showed her around.

She arrived Wednesday evening, which was just in time to go to the top of Montalto and watch fireworks! We had a picnic and enjoyed the views, but I thought the fireworks-watching-experience was a little weird because they were so far away and therefore not loud, plus not accompanied by music (for us). So it was a sort of surreal time of watching quiet little fireworks all over the city down below. But still fun.

Thursday we visited Monticello. It was very hot, but that was the story of her entire visit.

Sure there's a shuttle behind us and TJ is looking the wrong way, but hey! We look better in this one.

 

We got to try our hands at writing with a quill pen.

Obviously it didn't turn out so well. I don't know how they managed to write anything back in the day.

After Monticello we ate lunch at Michie Tavern. I had never been there before, so her visit was a good chance to try out the touristy restaurant. The food was a little better than I was expecting. Those stewed tomatoes were delicious.

After lunch we visited Albemarle CiderWorks for a tasting. Then we went down the road and did a wine tasting at Pippen Hill Farm. We also sat outside and had a snack. Not because we were hungry, but because it was so beautiful that we didn't want to leave.

Is this not the most perfect view ever? Sure it was so hot even the cheese was sweating, but still. Beautiful.

After all the wining and dining (and sweating) we went downtown and walked around Court Square and the Downtown Mall. Then we ate (again!) at The Whiskey Jar. It was really good.

Friday we got up early and drove to the Blue Ridge Parkway to hike Humpback Rocks. Luckily, it wasn't very hot. But it was a little thundery.

Dramatic views at the top!

Feelin' strong!

 After the hike we headed to Scottsville, grabbed a quick (and very necessary) lunch at Subway, and then hit the river for four hours of tubing on the James. It was very slow, but relaxing. When tubing was over we showered and went to dinner. We happened upon a new Italian place I didn't know about, and sat at the bar for a delicious and very affordable dinner. Then we walked it off around UVA, making sure to check out the Poe room.

After such a full and active day, we hit the hay early. That was good because I got up really early on Saturday to join a big group of runners at 6 AM. (6 AM! I'm sure I'll post more about this later.) I got back home at 8:30 and went back to bed for an hour or so while she did some work. Then we headed back out for another day of fun.

We drove to Staunton and visited the Frontier Culture Museum. That was probably the worst choice for a 100+ degree day, because it's all outdoors (or inside non-climate controlled historic dwellings) and requires lots of walking. But we braved the heat. And the Museum is genius for offering golf carts to rent! We wouldn't have made it through the whole place if we really had to walk. Because seriously, it was hot.

Our sweet ride, with an Irish house in the background.

In one of the American houses they had just baked biscuits!

And we *might* have helped ourselves to one each. We were starving.

Look at the adorable sheep!

When we finished the museum we were wilting and hungry, so we headed to downtown Staunton for lunch. Then we did a wine tasting at Ox-Eye Vineyards. And from there we drove to Fishersville for another tasting at Barren Ridge. There was a wedding happening, so the tastings were up the hill at a cabin. Without ice or air conditioning. The wine was possibly our favorite of all we'd had so far, but the heat was brutal.

Once we made it back to C'ville we walked around the Downtown Mall some more, stopping into more stores than usual to take advantage of air conditioning. When we'd worked up a little bit of an appetite, we enjoyed sushi for dinner, and then headed home.

I'd say we had a pretty packed and awesome time.