A Couple of Great Weekends!!!

Visitors

Last weekend, some friends of ours came to visit. Jessica and Scott drove up from Chapel Hill, NC to hang out for the weekend. On Friday, we went downtown to a popular Richmond restaurant called Bottoms Up Pizza. They've got some seriously delicious pizza there! Then we went to a nearby Irish pub to spend some more time talking, but within an hour, the band had started playing extremely loud, so we headed for home. And I'm pretty sure we were all in bed by 11:30. How things have changed since college!!! :)

Stuart had a few meetings on Saturday, so the rest of us spent some time at the mall (no complaints there...) and met Stuart at Maymont Park, another popular Richmond attraction. We didn't spend a whole lot of time there, but it was a really beautiful day outside and we enjoyed the walk. Stuart and I have plans to go back and tour the mansion and gardens. Later that evening, we went to yet another popular Richmond restaurant called Edo's Squid for a very satisfying Italian meal. I had heard wonderful things about their food and they were all true! We ordered fried oysters and fried scallops for appetizers - it was the first time I've ever tried oysters and I really liked them... fried. That's something to keep in mind for later. ;)

Sunday morning, we had breakfast here at the house before they headed back. They had brought their 8 month-old puppy, Mia along for the visit and Hutch and Izzy were very sad to see the three of them leave. Izzy isn't exactly the most welcoming host when it comes to other dogs, but she certainly hated to see them go.

We're looking forward to a trip to North Carolina soon to see them again!

Maryland

Our friend from high school/college, Sam Gregg is currently on tour with a musician named Andrew Belle. This weekend, they've been in the D.C. area, so we were glad to have the opportunity to see them! Stuart and I left the house yesterday morning for Annapolis, Maryland to see a matinee show at the Ram's Head Tavern, a popular stage for many up-and-coming artists, as well as some big names, like one of my favorite bands - The Weepies. We absolutely loved Annapolis. It was such a quaint downtown area and although we couldn't get all the way down to the water (a boat show was blocking all water access), it was really beautiful.

We really enjoyed the show - lots of great music. I'm excited to see them progress and grow into something even bigger. They're very talented! Afterwards, we walked around downtown with Sam and grabbed some coffee before heading out to find crabs. The first restaurant didn't have any steamed crabs, but Sam ordered steamed oysters to share. He and Stuart like oysters, but I am nooooooot a fan. As mentioned earlier in this post, I didn't mind them fried. But on the half-shell... not my thing. I was trying not to gag, haha! So then we headed to a restaurant with crabs in the title and finally got what I'd been looking for. We enjoyed a beer and lots of steamed snow crab!!! Unfortunately, by the time we'd finished dinner, we had to leave. The dogs had been unattended for a long day already and we had a two-hour drive to complete. We're hoping Samuel makes his way here again before Stuart's time at Brandcenter is over.

These past two weekends have made us thankful for good friends.

The next two weekends are devoted to us. We're going to the Outer Banks next weekend, and then hopefully camping the last weekend of October. We love the location of Richmond - it's amazing where you can go in less than 4 hours!!!