Beachy Keen

Sun day, beach day. We began at the colorful and crowded boardwalk area of Virginia Beach. The sand was littered with multicolored umbrellas, low-back chairs, and neon swimsuits. Since we only brought a towel and the weather was stifiling hot, we opted to spend our time on the boardwalk here.

Empty rides.

On the look-out.

Kind of ridiculous that they charged to go out on the pier...

But I managed to take some photos over the picket fence barricade. Take that, scallywags!

After the boardwalk, we found a great little cafe and enjoyed mimosas, delicious sandwiches with avocado, fried okra, and coleslaw. It was a perfect Sunday afternoon meal in a crowded, local establishment. Next we drove to First Landing State Park and walked a few miles on the trails. We saw swamps and straggly trees.

Along the northern shore and the Chesapeake Bay, we found a spectacular quiet beach. Alyssa and I read and napped while the guys played frisbee.

Too cool for pictures, I guess.

Warm water on my toes.

A perfect end to our beach day.

Let's Back Track

Bah! We've been doing way too much adventuring for me to take a time-out for a blog post (who wouldn't want to be out adventuring?). But we've returned from D.C. and no one wants to move off the couch, so now is my chance to rest my feet and update with a glass of wine.

Alert: airborne rodents in Richmond! On Saturday night we took advantage of the incredible sunny weather and saw the Flying Squirrels (Richmond's AA baseball team) in action. The stadium was packed (probably because the previous three nights had been rainy) and I was excited to feel like a local with the other squirrelly fans.

A lovely night.

You can see downtown in the background, the packed seats in the foreground.

The Flying Squirrel mascot. So fierce.

Sisters at the game.

Doing my best to impersonate the extremely fierce Flying Squirrel.

Alyssa is being a bit more graceful about it.

My brother was initially skeptical about a team called the Flying Squirrels. But then he got onboard, even got some gear. Quote: "This is going to be the most legit shirt in the wardrobe."

Alyssa and I got a souvenirs too. What can I say, I can't resist office supplies, especially with determined looking flying squirrels on them.

Later that night, we made some snacks to take to the beach for the following day. Here is some Tex Mex Tabbouleh (recipe courtesy of Rachel and her amazing food blog) and vegan banana walnut bread (mmmmm!!!). The tabbouleh is packed with a million veggies and protein-rich quinoa, tossed with olive oil, cilantro, and red wine vinegar.

I'm not vegan, but the addition of molasses in the recipe makes it a winner over non-vegan recipes.

 Once again I say, mmmmm!!!

Confederate Cruisin'

Yesterday Alyssa and I took a great neighborhood walk (while the guys braved the heat on a run), stopping at that fantastic little cafe on Ellwood. We shared a basil lemonade slushie (AMAZING) and a vegan banana nut muffin. So tasty! Later in our tiny kitchen, we all teamed up to make a delicious spicy lemon pasta before crashing on the couch to watch episodes of House until the late hours of the night.

Today we decided to do more exploring, so we set out for downtown and hopped on one of these boats (reminiscent of a Disneyland jungle cruise) and got a 40-minute tour of the canal. Oh, did I mention it was only $5 per person?!

The boats.

Looking fly and waiting for our ship to sail.

A view of Tobacco Row from the canal. The abandoned tobacco factories have now been converted into trendy lofts and apartments.

My brother, all grown up.

After the cruise we got brunch and a pitcher of mimosa-goodness at F.W. Sullivan's. Right now we're cooling off in our apartment (a beautiful, A/C controlled 80 degrees) before heading out to see those Flying Squirrels. Michael is already set on buying a t-shirt, and I'm crossing my fingers for some garlic fries and shiska-berries like the ones at Safeco Field.


Stay tuned...Virginia Beach and Washington DC are some of our upcoming adventures!

Rained Out

Michael and Alyssa arrived on Wednesday night!! I'm just so excited they are here! On Thursday we stuck around the neighborhood--took a walk, battled at Wii, and made a tasty summer dinner. We tried to make it to a Flying Squirrels baseball game, but on-and-off rain made the field unplayable. So we stayed home and played board games on the balcony, replacing the squirrels with shiraz.

I love the great sky views we get over the museum. Later on in the evening it rained so hard that we had to end our game too, so we hurried inside and jammed on Guitar Hero. Hopefully the weather holds up today so we can see those Flying Squirrels tonight!

Kitten Loaf

Look Mom, no arms or legs!

Watermelon Weekend

This weekend's activities included exploring two neighborhood festivals and eating LOADS of watermelon. (I even have a whole one from TJ's that I haven't cut open yet...watermelon consumption to be continued!) The first one on Saturday was more of a block party with music, local artisans/Etsy crafters, and huge wedges of watermelon (see below, only $1!) all benefiting a non-profit called ART 180. Check this organization out, they are doing really great things here in Richmond.

On Sunday we walked the length of Cary Street for the annual watermelon festival---it was jam packed with more commercial vendors, but the watermelon was TASTY. And I got a free Geico frisbee out of it. I love that we can just walk out our front door and have so many things to do in every direction. (Can't wait to do more adventuring when Alyssa and Michael are here!)

New Glasses

Here they are! Pre-lenses, anyway.

Courtesy of my (lame and outdated) camera phone.

Snagged the last pair on this website after looking around Richmond for a vintage shop that had any decent selection. By far, this is the luckiest I've ever gotten with online purchases. It was love at first try-on. Oh, but I did print a picture of the glasses, cut out the shape, and tape it to my forehead before buying. A gal has got to be sure about these things.

Stormy Weather

We had some exciting weather yesterday. After hitting 100 degrees and high humidity levels, the weather took a crazy turn and created a wild thunderstorm. We saw huge bolts of lightening in the sky and our windows were pelted with heavy rain.

Then we turned on the local TV and heard that a tornado warning was issued for the area. TORNADO. (Toto, we're not in the North anymore...). They alerted everyone to stay away from windows, so this is me taking a photo of the living room while backing up into the kitchen. Safety first.

No tornado after all. The storm ended and it left the sky bright pink.

I felt it was safe to get back to my normal night-time activities.

Addiction #1

Shamefully (or dare I say, shamelessly!) my latest song addiction is Gold Digger by Kayne West. Yes, I know, I'm however-many-years-late on this, but sometimes you just love what you love. I especially like the radio edit version---not because I'm being prudish--but because I think it's hilarious how "she ain't messin' with no broke, broke." I sing it all the time. Husby just rolls his eyes and pretends not to be associated with me in public.

For the generation that is reading this who has no idea what in the world I'm talking about, we'll just stick to the Ray Charles version.



Speaking of "broke, broke," my most lovable pair of cat eye frames has lost a chunk of plastic! It's on the side an not very noticeable, but nevertheless I've been scoping out a backup pair. More on that later.

Science Class

My mom has never been a huge fan of following recipes to a T---she calls herself a 'chemist in the kitchen.' So today I attempted a recipe that was featured in my favorite blog.

It's called Mango Lassi---basically a mango smoothie made of mango, plain yogurt, milk, a little bit of sugar, and a dash of cardamom.

I didn't have cardamom, so I added cinnamon. Not too strange of an idea, since one of my favorite dishes at The Tin Shed has mango, cinnamon and sugar over sticky coconut jasmine rice (mmmm.....Belly Pleaser, I'm craving you right now...)

I blended the concoction and added it to the magical Zoku pop maker (just like blogger Kate did, the example I am trying to follow).

And voila! A popsicle!....that mysteriously tasted like....pancake batter. Oh well. Next time, more mango and less cinnamon. Husby finished them off (but what won't he eat?). It's good to have him around.