Birthday Weekend in Charlottesville

Yay! I'm actually posting something on our blog for a change. Dave and I escaped DC and Rolling Thunder by heading out to Charlottesville, VA with our friends Laura and Kathleen. My sister-in-law was awesome and let us borrow her convertible:

MUCH fun was had by all. We spent Saturday shopping, shopping, shopping, and eating. When it was lunchtime and our feet were hurting, I suggested the strategy of eating at the next restaurant we saw. Apparently it was a good strategy because we found this amazing French place called Petit Pois:

We couldn't go to Virginia wine country without visiting several tasting rooms at the local vineyards. Dave and Laura seemed to enjoy this part of the trip:
While Dave and I were just along for the ride enjoying the wine tasting, our friend Kathleen was on a mission to stock her wine cellar and made some serious purchases:
Sunday was my birthday, but we seemed to spend the whole weekend celebrating. Saturday Dave found this great cupcake store called Cappellino's Crazy Cakes. We got to learn some local lore about the cupcakes - a very pregnant woman was in line ahead of us getting a free lemon drop cupcake. Apparently the cupcake is supposed to help you go into labor if you're overdue. The store claims this has worked for 43 babies to date. I'll have to remember this trick...eating cupcakes sounds way better than doing jumping jacks or eating spicy food.

I'm soooo excited about my birthday present from Dave. He got me a pair of red 18th century walking shoes. They're being made, and I should get them in a few more weeks.

On Saturday night we celebrated my birthday at the Ivy Inn Restaurant. I looked around for a nice meal online and came across this place that's known for cooking with sustainable meats and local produce. It sounded like fun, so off we went. If you are ever in Charlottesville you MUST go to this place. It was amazing...and I've spent more eating at Joe's Crabshack. Definitely order the Shrimp & Grits (I don't like grits...and I LOVED this). The waiter was very nice and helpful, and since it was my birthday, we got a free Champagne toast and I got a special dessert:
Sunday we went out to Monticello. The estate was beautiful, but it was a very hot day and we had to wait quite a while before our tour began. If I ever go back I need to remember to reserve a tour ahead of time online. I'm a bit of a history buff, but there was quite a lot of new stuff for me to learn about Thomas Jefferson...and I have to say, most of it wasn't very flattering. I'm definitely glad I went. We found a fun purple shamrock plant to that was grown at Monticello's nursery to bring back to Jennifer as a thank-you for letting us use her car.

After all his patience with the shopping/wine tasting/touring, Dave finally caught a break on Monday when we stopped for lunch at the Blue Mountain Brewery. My Dad would love this place - they even grow their own hops right in front of the restaurant. Dave tried a sampler of all their draft beers:
Every time we turned around there was a gorgeous view (especially at the vineyards). I considered going back to school to become a vintner for about five seconds...before I remembered that I have a black thumb and am terrible at chemistry. It was a fabulous weekend. Thank you to everyone that helped make it so wonderful!