Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Get Away - Skyline and Charlottesville


Yes we're still in a pandemic. And yes, I feel like shit doing any sort of anything outside the house. 

But what's the difference in going to the grocery store, and going to a restaurant. The grocery store people don't seem to socially distance. I don't see any evidence of cleaning after people go down the aisles anymore. 

Restaurants at least, well, they're still making a great effort. And supporting them to keep them open, I think I'm all about it.

Plus, I had the covid. I'll go out, still mask up, and act like this is somewhat more safe than going to Target. And Doug is feeling very well emboldened by the fact we've already had it, and is pissed off that the CDC isn't announcing or deciding or saying that it's okay. No one seems to have a solid answer to whether or not it's ok, so he's making his own decisions, I'm kind of going along for the ride. 

Oh, it's been 3 months, you can go back to not worrying. Oh you have to get a vaccine but no don't get a vaccine. Oh six people died from one vaccine so everyone stop getting a vaccine. Oh, yeah. Even if you get a vaccine, you're not safe but just keep social distancing and masking and handwashing. 

He's kind of like "what's the point in doing anything?" He's been a tiger in a bottle for a few weeks and it has been tough to handle. 

And unlike a lot of my friends who are flying to Barbados, or going to Puerto Rico, or drunk ass flat out on the beaches of Florida or Texas... we've kept a low profile and inside. 


Over the weekend we drove down to Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. 

We started in the middle at Thornton Gap instead of the Front Royal location, because it's a long long drive. We have done the whole thing in the past, and it is exhausting. There are just so many waysides and pull-outs you can swing into, gawk, and move along out of to the next one. 

Our goal was Charlottesville, where we stayed for our anniversary weekend a couple years ago. 

Doug picked a hotel with limited bookings and no daily housekeeping (thank you, we appreciate that). You could get towels and shampoo at the main desk if you need refills of things. I like having a made up bed when I come back from doing a toodleaboot town, but this was fine. We put our towels up on the shower rail. We used them again (I usually do that anyway but Doug is more cavalier about it. "I'm in a hotel, I demand a clean towel!" Okay dude). 

We got checked in, got ready and ventured out to find somewhere to eat on the pedestrian mall. Downtown Charlottesville successfully converted the area to a walkers/eaters/drinkers/visitors paradise, people were seated in outdoor cafes with tables spread apart, plenty of dog walkers and bachelorette parties out painting the town. Everyone had a mask on. People were using the free hand sanitizer stations. 

It started to rain, and a woman had told me we should just go back to our hotel and eat at the restaurant there because it was a 2 hour wait everywhere. People were huddled in doorways next to the restaurant doors, hoping to get inside. 

We walked by a place called Miller's and there was no one on the patio in the mall, 2 tables by the door and both were taken. 10 people came out of the door so we knew this was our lucky day. Doug asked if there was a long wait for 2, and they said they could get us in immediately. A group by the door was a party of 8, so they were waiting for the other setup that had just cleared out. We got seated before them. 

It was a lovely little bar with great late night food and craft cocktails. The waitress was delightful, and we had a wonderful time watching people from our perch in the window as the rain came down and sent those drunken bachelorettes scurrying down the street in their sashes and high heels. 

Sunday morning Doug wanted to walk about the mall again, the weather was perfect. Low 70s, no humidity, and there were tons of people. We kept our distance from everyone, visited 2 bookstores that had basically only us, another patron, and the person working inside. I had been looking for a purse that was just a little longer than the one I currently use, with some compartments for separation. Or a new wallet, since the one I've been using for years broke the zipper. 

We stopped into a fair trade store, and Doug spotted a cute bag on the wall that fit the bill, made in India. A front section for the cards. Middle section for breath mints and lip balm. 2 main sections with one zipper, for the phone and a spare battery and cord, and a back section for whatever else. Turns out it was the perfect size for my little container of hand sanitizing wipes. Hot damn. It fit it all. Score. 

Another bookstore, walk around an art park north of the mall, and then walk down to the IX Art Park south of town. 



Doug's sights were set on the North American Sake Brewery,  which had not yet opened to the public last time we were in town. It is a cool little space, hardly anyone was there, again - a feature for us because I don't want to be around people. The staff were amazing. The food was good. 

The Sake? well. I'm no expert. We each got a flight and two of them were not very good in our opinions, but reminding everyone - we know shit about sake. I found them medicinal and not very drinkable. The other two were much better, and my favorite was the one named Moon Leap, which was almost like a champagne. It was light and effervescent. Absolutely lovely. Doug liked one called Serenity Now, which he also got a glass of. 

They were out of their 2 most popular brews, and the host who was chatting with us went and found a small tasting bottle of their very most popular - Big Baby. I think if they had not been out of that, we probably would have had it as a glass too. It was really good. We ate rice bowls, chilled with the host (I wish I could remember their name), talked about process and traditions, what Americans think Sake is, what our experience has been up to this point with it (limited) and had a really relaxing time there. I won't say we're "into" it, like wow, I'm totally into Sake and only drink Sake and now I have glasses and books and ritual about Sake. But it was a great time. Glad to be there and have the place to ourselves pretty much. Lots of take-out orders happening for the food, so that was nice to see on a Sunday afternoon. 

We skipped visiting Three Notch'd Brewing because we'd been there before, and, the patio was incredibly crowded so we didn't want to enter into that scene. We headed back to the hotel for post-sake naps.

For dinner we walked over to Monsoon Siam for Thai food. Again, very crowded patio but we saw three tables open up and they got us seated quickly. Service was very slow, they were pretty slammed, but the night was gorgeous and it was nice to sit and relax and just watch traffic and dog walkers and overhear conversations all around us. We were tucked into a back corner, which was somewhat unfortunate because we were a little bit overlooked by our server. Had he come by once or twice more I would have had a couple more cocktails while waiting. That's money, yo. Always look at the empty glasses on the table when you're the server. 

The food was outstanding and well worth the wait. And we did share a slice of Mango Cheesecake, with a blackberry compote across the top. Damn. So good. 

Monday morning we left for Monticello. Found out I've been saying it wrong all these years. 

There were too many rules, which I think Thomas Jefferson would flip the fuck out over. I wasn't allowed to bring my new, small, compact purse with me up the mountain to the house (it was TOO BIG) and the whole rigamarole of their schtick was just annoying as hell. It was beautiful though, and we did a self guided tour with the phones and avoided all other humans. The gardens were just coming to life, and they have a huge expanse of plantings, so many types of lettuce and carrots, potatoes and berries. And there was this adorable little brick shed at the edge of the center, which we hung out in and had a wonderful chat with the docent there. She was a hot ticket, and we called the little space Mr. Jefferson's Slacking Shed. I think that was my favorite spot. 

The woman we'd been chatting with encouraged us to be sure to walk to the back of the house for the ... "Money Shot." Doug wasn't sure what she meant and then realized it is the view on the nickel. Literally, had us laughing our asses off there for a couple of minutes as we realized she didn't mean Money Shot like... porn. Here it is. Laugh with me. 


On the way back down the mountain, we went to Carter Mountain Orchard where there was a tasting room for Bold Rock Cider. Doug had one of their ciders at Miller's and the girl told us we could go to Nellysville, VA to check them out if we felt so inclined. Doug found this a better option, since it was right on the road from Monticello. If you go to the website I linked to and look at that picture, that is so Before Times, and it makes me anxious just looking at it. 

We had that entire area to ourselves. In fact, that area is below where were sitting. There's a whole other terrace. This space can hold hundreds of people, and it was literally just us, some cider, some Apple Cider donuts from the farm store, and a beautiful view down the valley to Charlottesville. 



The drive home was long - the choices to get back up to DC are to drive East towards Richmond, or take the country roads due north eventually getting to like Warrenton and the highway to DC. We decided to take the backroads. Beautiful ride, lots of flowering trees and horse farms, and actually 20 minutes faster than if we'd headed further East to go North. 

I took today off and should be working on Aaron's website transfer. He started advertising on the local NPR station in Astoria, OR and discovered the phone number is wrong on his current website. So last night I managed to change all the references to the number, one of them was especially challenging because it was hidden  in a field I could not get to. Doh. So at 11pm I got someone I know to help me out, we got that last field ironed out. Huzzah. 

Now to figure out launching the site I built for him and get off of the first site. The dude who built it is not very supportive. Or kind. And Aaron's about to kick his ass, so best to get it done quickly. And he's impressed at how many people emailed him to let him know the phone number was wrong. 

Underwriting on NPR seems to work, eh? He was spending time answering the emails and semi-overwhelmed with the response. 

Anyway. Glad I have today off and am not thinking of work or anything. It's nice. Better get to Aaron's site and get that rocking. 

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