Summer's return in nowhere but the south.
Fall leaves and changing trees starkly confused us as 70-80 degree weather welcomed us in Richmond just before Halloween.
The neighborhood of Oregon Hill was our home for about a week and a half, where Will's childhood friend Claire welcomed us in to her home, a spacious three-story house close to VCU and the James River. We spent lots of time exploring the riverfront views on foot as well as Carytown, the neighborhood where we worked in a boutique coworking space owned by some friendly locals.
We didn't cook once and consequently taste-tested every local burger and wings joint in town. Yeah, that was pretty much the extent of the culinary scene in town.
The best part of our stay was spending time with Claire in her basement, which is outfitted with not just a cozy couch and TV, but also stations for her computing hobbies, a vinyl collection and record player, and an original 1993 Whitewater Falls pinball machine (which she restored herself) from her childhood home. Will got so good at pinball that his high scores got on the leaderboards when we went to a local arcade bar in town.
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After Richmond, to an even more quaint and Southern town, we drove west toward UVA to celebrate Ellen & Max's wedding near their alma mater in Charlottesville. We ended up staying in a beautiful log house out in the sticks, actually closer to the wedding venue than to Cville. Rustic and scenic, the area is known for its many wineries, breweries, and distilleries (too many to count).
We celebrated Ellen & Max on a beautiful Friday afternoon in a field surrounded by vineyard hills and golden-hour sun. After a short and sweet ceremony, we partied all night, from the reception with an amazing soul live band (legit there were twelve people on stage) to the college bar in Cville where we danced with underage babies and took over the dance floor and partied until close.
Unfortunately, we took some hilarious dining Ls (if you dig a little bit, you can spot our candid reviews of Quality Pie in Cville), but it sufficed considering we just needed some sustenance to keep us going the day after the wedding.
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Our our way out of Virginia, we stopped along the famous Blue Ridge Parkway (a long and scenic drive that connects Shenandoah National Park to Great Smoky Mountains National Park) to hike the Humpback Rocks trail - not as epic as Old Rag, but still woodsy and beautiful with fantastic views from the top.