Virginia in January

January 18th, 2005 · No Comments

Aimee and I spent an eventful and enjoyable three-day weekend in the company of Scott and Sarah in Charlottesville (or CHO to those who prefer to deal strictly in airport codes). We arrived Friday night and got acquainted with Katie, Ben, and Hazel, the cats who rule the roost. I hadn’t seen the new house, and Aimee hadn’t been to Charlottesville before, so it was all new to us. It’s a nice place, though still emerging from its 1970s self; they’ve exposed the nice wood floors and repainted the main room, and it’s looking good.

Saturday began with an architectural tour of The Lawn, with stops at the Rotunda and Poe’s Room, followed by a stroll around the Downtown Mall before we all met Jason and Nell for lunch at Baggby’s. We all had a nice lunch – the soup and sandwich were so good, in fact, I had them again on Monday – and Scott and I headed to The Jefferson for an afternoon screening of Hero while Aimee hung out with Nell and Jason.

We all re-convened after the movie and relaxed at home for a bit before heading out for dinner and drinks. The four of us met Jason and Nell for drinks at South Street Brewery, where we enjoyed some house brews and chatted about the Law, higher education, and the role of color in Hero. All very sophisticated.

I didn’t realize it was going to be a pre-birthday birthday evening in my honor, but Scott made it clear that it indeed was as we headed across the street to Bang!, a stunning restaurant in an old house, where we enjoyed half a dozen different Asian tapas dishes and some hand-crafted cocktails with interesting names. The meal and the conversation were terrific, and I felt very celebrated. But it wasn’t over…

Just to show just how lively and varied Charlottesville nightlife is once you leave The Corner, we headed on to Rapture for dessert, which, in our case, was a no-nonsense (and no-flour) chocolate cake. Thanks, guys!

After sleeping in, but only a little, we headed out on our Sunday of fun in the country, which began with a brief stop at the Barboursville Ruins, site of many a Shakespeare performance and summer wedding, designed by Thomas Jefferson and destroyed by fire in 1884.

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James Madison’s Montpelier was our primary destination for the day, about 45 minutes outside of Charlottesville. I’d been to Monticello before, and was interested in seeing the other lesser-known presidential residence in the area. Scott worked there a few years ago, as well, so I was happy to be able to finally visit. It’s in the middle of a massive restoration project that aims to return the house to its 1820s incarnation, while former President Madison lived there, before it became a duPont mansion many times the size of the original house.

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The tour was a great experience, as we got to see the house at a moment which will never come again, with its skin peeled back, the lath exposed, as the restoration experts discover hidden features and do their best to decipher the way the house once was.

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I’ll be excited to return after 2007, when the project is scheduled to be completed. We also had a chance to look around the gardens a bit, though it was chillier than one might expect, or at least than I expected.

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After Montpelier, we made our way back toward Charlottesville via a different route, hitting the Prince Michel Vineyard for some wine-tasting on the way. The wine was pretty good, though for the first time, I’d say there were a few I really didn’t like. Maybe I’m getting more discerning, or maybe they were just not good. The tour was self-guided, so we wandered though, gazing at the giant tanks and the dangerously tall stacks of wine cases.

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We enjoyed a nice dinner and drink with BK and Lauren at the Biltmore Grill and Michael’s. Aimee enjoyed a Leffe Blond from Michael’s extensive Belgian selection, and we had a great time catching up and discussing our impending weddings (ours July, theirs August), as we watched giant flakes of snow fall outside the second-floor window of the restaurant. BK gave us a tour of campus, the undergrad counterpart to Scott’s architectural tour from the day before; Scott’s tour didn’t include any houses named “Bill,” which BK pointed out across the street from his fraternity house.

Aimee and I enjoyed a little stroll around the Downtown Mall on Monday morning, another lunch at Baggby’s, and a winter warmer at Court Square Tavern. We left that afternoon, with only a little difficulty, but our bags made it along with us, and we were home before midnight. It was a great visit, and we expect a return trip from them up Massachusetts way sometime soon.

Tags: Travel