We had an amazing trip to Charlottesville last weekend! While the weather did not cooperate on Friday and Saturday, it made up for it on Sunday. It was a wonderful weekend of fellowship with two of our favorite couples, and Mitch and I both felt so refreshed after spending time with them. We never expected to find such incredible friends during our time in Charlottesville, but the Lord blessed us with lifelong friends in the Smiths and the Michaliks.
I do not exaggerate when I say that our weekend was structured around food! Charlottesville has wonderful restaurants, and we miss them so much! We had every meal planned out, and Peyton and Emmaline were so sweet to accommodate our every whim...right down to the pregnancy move of grabbing a Dairy Queen blizzard on the way to the airport. P&E (as I commonly refer to them) were wonderful hosts, and we stayed up until all hours just chatting. They are the dearest friends, and as Mitch said when we were getting on the plane..."the weekend was just one long conversation."
Now onto the pictures and the delicious restaurants. Friday we ate at our favorite lunch spot, Feast. It is located in a local market that has tons of local cheeses, produce, bread and dips. Besides the food, the best part about going is all of the samples they have around the store. So while you are waiting on your food, you can sample anything from candy to cheese. My personal favorite sandwich is the grilled cheese with Virginia ham, and I top it off with the most divine salted caramel you will ever have. After lunch, while I went to visit my former co-workers, Mitch tagged along with Peyton to the law school. Below are a couple of pictures he took while he was there.
Friday night, we met up with Joe and Katherine and went to Mas for dinner. It is a wonderful tapas restaurant in the Belmont neighborhood. They have bacon wrapped dates that are by far the best thing on the menu, and we always order multiple plates. 
Saturday, we had a lazy morning and made it to Bodo's Bagels at around 11:00 for our morning breakfast. I LOVE bagels, and Bodo's will rival anything I have had up here in the big city. My personal favorite is the everything bagel with butter; my mouth is watering just thinking about it! After our late breakfast, we headed downtown to do a little shopping at a couple of the local stores; my personal fav is O'Suzannah. And we bought our first children's book for the little naval orange that is growing in me. :) After our shopping, we were ready to eat again, so we headed out to our old stomping grounds in Crozet to grab pizza. Crozet Pizza is infamous in the area, and we were so lucky to live less than five minutes away. After we stuffed ourselves with pizza, we headed to Veritas Vineyard where most of the group had a wine tasting. It was just a wonderful afternoon of hanging out in such a beautiful place! Finally, for dinner on Saturday night we decided to forgo our favorite restaurant in C'ville for a lower key place. It was a tough decision, but in the end, it had been a long day and we just wanted to relax. So we went to Mono Loco, which is a great Latin restaurant right off of the downtown mall. We followed up dinner with a quick jaunt to The Flat creperie for a butter, sugar and cinnamon dessert. Whew, that was a long day, but it was everything we wanted! 
Sunday, we got up early and went to the early service at Trinity. Oh how we love that church! After church, we grabbed brunch at our favorite spot, La Taza. It is also in the Belmont neighborhood, and it was every bit as delicious as we wanted it to be. After brunch, we packed up our things and headed to campus for a relaxing walk before we went to the airport. UVA has a beautiful campus and it was the perfect spring day to take a walk. After our walk, we made a stop off at Barnes & Noble and at Dairy Queen on our way to the airport. We thankfully got home without a hiccup and enjoyed rehashing the weekend on the plane. It truly was a fabulous time, and exactly what the doctor ordered for this New York City couple.
