A Weekend in Fredericksburg

What a wonderful weekend the second weekend in January was! A little background; mid-year last year, I reached out to some of Ryan's best friends and posed that in early January, we'd come up to Fredericksburg to celebrate Ryan's birthday and the guys could play X-Golf. Amazingly - everything worked out perfectly and the plan finally came to fruition this past weekend!

We headed for Fredericksburg on Friday evening shortly after 5:00 and since the drive is a pretty easy one, we were munching on wings at Buffalo Wild Wings in Fredericksburg by around 6:45 - which was really nice! After dinner, we checked into our B&B and then just chilled for the rest of the evening!

I have to say that I guess I must have been absolutely worn out because I was asleep before 10 PM on Friday night and when I stirred again, it was 8:35 AM on Saturday morning! I slept for over ten hours and let me tell you - it was glorious! I dropped Ryan off to meet up with his friends at X-Golf around 9:45 and then, I was on my own for the next few hours! 

I enjoyed some time sitting at Starbucks, sipping my latte and just perusing things on my phone before making my way to Ulta to use a gift card I received for Christmas. And then - it was to the mall to check out what they might have to tempt me! I ended up purchasing a red dress to wear for Valentine's Day and a really cute top from a little boutique before it was time to meet back up with the guys for lunch!

We were joined at lunch by Will's wife and daughter - Millie and Ryan continue to be the best of friends; they must have bonded at Millie's first birthday last July! After we had lunch and grabbed a group shot, Ryan and I headed to check out the mall (Ryan hadn't been) and then he wanted to check out 5.11 Tactical and use his birthday gift card! After all that shopping, we made our way into the older part of Fredericksburg to Agora Coffee Shop and Used Bookstore to grab some coffee and a cookie!

Agora was a quirky little coffee shop that also has plenty of unique gifts and used books for sale - it was a recommendation made by my Mom and I'm glad we stopped by. We also poked around some shops in the old town portion of Fredericksburg and lo and behold - Ryan discovered Washington Nationals bobbleheads on sale in one of the stores and I went a little nuts. ha-ha!

As the sun was setting, we bundled into our coats and took a quick little walk along the edge of the Rappahannock River and snapped a few pictures - but yea, when the sunshine started to disappear, so did what little warmth it was providing throughout the day! So our walk was pretty quick and then it was back to the car - where there was heat, ha-ha!

We decided for the evening, we would pop into the Costco in Fredericksburg just to see if they had anything different from our Costco... but man, I didn't realize that Costco closes at 6 PM on Saturdays! So our visit was very quick, ha-ha! And then it was off to Juicy Crab for dinner - where Ryan was in absolute heaven... as is evidenced by the pictures below.

Sunday morning we went to Strong Tower Church - one of our favorite spots in Fredericksburg - and heard a really excellent sermon by Pastor Jeffrey Smith! After a stop to visit our friend Dave, it was home to our silly cats, who seemed only slightly disgruntled that we'd left them for the weekend! Thankfully, once we gave them some treats and snuggles, they warmed right back up to us! 

We closed out the weekend watching some football - Buffalo won; they are Maverick's favorite team, and I cannot believe that the Commanders also won! What a season they've had! It's wild to think that the Super Bowl is right around the corner - it's that time of year once again! 

We had such a wonderful weekend and I'm so glad we are blessed with such wonderful friends in the great little VA town of Fredericksburg! 

Wine & Tea

The epic Christmas catch-up continues, ha-ha! This will be the last post though, so the catch-up is complete! Yahoo! We had so many adventures crammed into the week of Christmas and after; each one was wonderful and fun! The Saturday after Christmas, Ryan and I joined my sister and James for a wine and cookie pairing at Bluemont Vineyards - definitely a unique experience! 

Bluemont Vineyards is so gorgeous - it's located on the side of the mountain with the grape vines running down the hills. The vines are lit at night and it's a pretty magical sight to see! Unfortunately, there was also crazy fog all afternoon and evening; also quite a sight to see, and so when they turned on the vines around 5:30 - it wasn't quite as spectacular as usual, ha-ha! It was still really beautiful though!

We sampled five wines and four cookies (the girl doing the tasting gave us an extra sample) and I have to say - I'm definitely more of a cookie girl than a wine girl! I know - what a shock, right? I sipped each of the wines and poured the leftovers into my sister's glass but I did eat every one of my cookies, ha-ha! After we'd finished our tasting, we made our way to the back deck where we had some hot cider and waited for the vines to be lit. Which was still beautiful - if a bit fuzzy because of the fog!

When our tasting was done, we made our way to Hunter's Head Tavern in Upperville - truly a great spot to check out if you're ever in the Northern Virginia area! The tavern is quite old and all the food is farm to table and delicious! While we have had some iffy service there from time to time, the food is always incredible - the chicken pot pie is the best I've ever had - and happily this visit was a good one! We all had delicious food and the company was good too; my parents joined us for dinner.

Sunday morning was a pretty lazy day; no church services took place on the Sunday following Christmas, so we enjoyed sleeping in. We made our way over to my parent's house after a quick visit to Costco (sadly - my favorite sweater was all sold out) en route! We joined my parents, Lindsey and James for Afternoon Tea at Rosemont Manor in Berryville. This is another delightful experience and I cannot recommend this enough either! The house is beautiful and the tea service is always fantastic!

The whole house was still beautifully decorated for Christmas, so we were able to take in all the twinkling lights and trees, which I loved! The Manor house is also a B&B and I'm sure a stay there is fantastic - not that I can speak on it, since I've only ever been to tea! It's a very popular wedding venue in Northern Virginia... Ryan and I looked into it as a venue but when we saw the prices, we went in another (perfect) direction! Even still - it's a beautiful place!

Please excuse the tons and tons of pictures that we took! It's not often that my Mom and Dad have both their daughters, their son-in-law and (hopefully) future son-in-law in town for a visit - so we have to take advantage, ha-ha! 

The final event of the Christmas week festivities was to go see the Christmas lights at Clearbrook Park! This lights are always so lovely and are in place for a full month or more... and they are also pretty close to Ryan and I's new home in West Virginia! A storm was forecasted to roll in right around the time we arrived - and it did - but thankfully it wasn't anything crazy. 

The rain started about halfway through our walk through the park, but it was only ever a light rain and we were able to put our hoods up and make our way to each of the pavilions spaced here and there throughout the park, while still taking in the sights! Now sure - it probably would have been a little bit nicer if it wasn't raining, but I fully believe that you make the best of the situation you're given - and so we did!

It was a great way to close out the visit with our family - I cannot believe it was only a few weeks ago! Time surely does fly and now we are looking ahead to enjoying this new year and all that it will hold!