My weekend plans started when I woke up on Friday, what with all the being off work and so after some coffee for breakfast, my Mom and I got ready and drove over the mountain (sort of) to the small town of Middleburg to peruse some of our favorite shops. I grabbed my sweet puppy some treats from one of my favorite shops - Wylie Wagg - and was tempted to snag a new pair of earrings from Lou Lou Too, but I resisted the urge. We grabbed lunch at one of our all time favorite spots to eat - Hunter's Head Tavern in Upperville - I had the grilled pimento and cheese with bacon; it was divine!
Wylie Wagg always has the best pup cookies and so I snagged a baseball shaped cookie for Watson - I thought it was on theme since we were headed to DC for baseball later in the day. He gobbled his cookie right up as soon as he was able to politely snatch it from my hand, ha-ha!
When my Dad got home from work, we hopped in the car and headed for Vienna Fairfax to catch the metro into DC for the Nationals game. It was bobble head night at the ball park and we arrived with pretty excellent timing, we ended up only having to stand in line about 10-15 minutes before the gates opened and we all snagged a bobble head. We made our way to the Budweiser Brewhouse for dinner and unfortunately that portion of the evening was a little less than great...
We placed our order: fried pickles for an appetizer, a pulled pork sandwich for my Dad, nachos for my Mom and fried ravioli for me - my Mom and I decided to split two appetizers and shortly after ordering, we got our pickles and things seemed to be going well. Fast forward to a full hour later when we still hadn't received our food, the manager had visited our table twice, we'd been brought an incorrect order of nachos, a second basket of fried pickles and finally... after an hour and ten minutes, we received two orders of nachos, the pulled pork sandwich and the fried ravioli. Our waiter apologized a thousand times (I don't think it was his fault...) and we ended up being comp'ed the entire meal - but whoa.
I made a quick run through the team store and picked up an All Star Game hoodie before we made the mad dash (at least to me) to our seats. We ended up seating with some season ticket holders that were really friendly and good fun to chat with as the game played out and about the fourth or fifth inning I had some delicious mint chocolate chip gelato as I cheered on my Nationals. Gio didn't exactly pitch an excellent game but the Nationals pulled out a 3-2 win courtesy of Mark Reynolds and a walk off home run in the bottom of the 9th - and the sunset as the game played on was incredible - I may have taken just a few pictures...
We rolled up to the house after an eventful metro ride (teenage boys are extremely crass - I'll leave it at that) and a speedy drive home around midnight and I slept until almost 9:00 on Saturday morning, it was bliss! The weather was absolutely perfect on Saturday, the high never got above 75, the sky was a pristine blue and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. I biked around the neighborhood, walked with the dog and spent as much time outdoors as possible - including washing & cleaning my car, which I haven't done (besides a car wash) since I drove it off the lot in December of 2014. I know - shame.
After a deep scrubbing (of my car and myself) we headed for Sperryville to peruse our favorite antique store, the Copper Fox. There are always interesting things lying about in the gigantic warehouse that used to be...well, I'm not even sure what it used to be... and while I'm not much for antiques, I do love perusing the Copper Fox. I even found a Parisian market bike with two baskets, a mirror and a bell - I loved it and really wanted it, until I saw that it was $250! Just kidding!
After our stop in Sperryville, we headed on to Skyline Drive and made our way to Skyland Lodge for dinner - they always have the most divine food and Saturday night was no exception. We started the meal with the cheddar biscuits and corn muffin basket (both were delicious but my favorite was the cheddar biscuits) and I had a cup of tomato basil soup. My entree was pulled pork tacos with queso fresco and corn on the cob - it was amazing but it was SO much food! I ended up eating my corn and one taco and took the other two home because when you eat at Skyland Lodge, you have to get the signature blackberry ice cream pie - and so I did. Everything was absolutely amazing!
Saturday was National Dads & Daughters Take a Walk Day and my Dad and I couldn't resist goofing around and taking a picture before we hopped back in the car and headed down the mountain. I forgot to mention that while the temperature down in the valley was a balmy 75, up on the top of the mountain it was a brisk 65 - whoosh! We snapped some pictures and perused the gift shop before we left - a loop around the gift shop is always a must!
We got plenty of amazing pictures on the way down the mountain and I was reminded - yet again - that I am so blessed to live in such a beautiful area of the country; I've always loved the mountains and now I live at the foot of some pretty amazing mountains. I hope that I'm always awed and amazed by their beauty and that I always want to hop out and snap just one more picture!
Sunday was a much more low key day - I went to church with friends, had lunch with the family and made a quick Wal-Mart run for some essentials before the week started. I did some organizing and straightening in my little home, watched Finding Dory while I was eating dinner and after my bubble bath (it's just a Sunday night tradition), I relaxed outside with my sweet puppy and enjoyed the beautiful weather.
The first weekend of July was wonderful - I can't wait to see what the rest of the month has in store!
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