What a day it has been!
Yesterday Andrew asked me if I felt like going on a "day date" to which I of course responded "YES!" So we got up this morning, we had some breakfast, we got ready, and we headed out to Alexandria, VA. We had heard that the weather today was supposed to get pretty nasty with quite a bit of snow but it wasn't supposed to happen until much later in the afternoon. It started snowing really big, fat, wet snowflakes about 10 minutes before we left...but we decided that we would brave the elements and go for it anyway. We are SO glad that we did.
Andrew chose King Street in Old Towne Alexandria because he had met a lady at one of the Performing Arts Center's events and she had told him of her art studio there. He thought it would be a fun trip for us to go down and see her studio, have lunch, and walk around the town. What a gorgeous little place! And what a fun weekend we chose to go down!
After we found a parking space on a side street, we walked up into the center of town to the sound of bagpipes being played. There was a Scottish parade going on! Tons of men wearing kilts, Santa Claus riding a fire truck instead of a sleigh, and probably 20 or 30 bagpipers. It was awesome! The snow had really begun to fall at this point but we weren't the only ones that decided to brave the cold. The town was buzzing with tons of people watching the parade and window shopping.
We stopped into Cobblestone Gallery first and we were very impressed with Ms. Steel's work. She is a very talented artist and a really sweet lady. She took our coats and offered us hot cider. We browsed her gallery for a bit, made a couple of purchases to start our Christmas shopping, and we headed out to see the rest of Old Towne.
After a while of walking on the red brick sidewalks, we decided to find somewhere for lunch. The options were endless...we passed public houses, Thai places, Sushi restaurants, Italian Bistro's, Irish pubs...
We finally decided on The Wharf - a nice seafood restaurant. All I can say is...wow. The food was delicious. We each ordered a glass of Pinot Grigio and started studying the extensive menu. We decided on bacon wrapped scallops for an appetizer - they literally melted in our mouths. Andrew ordered the shrimp po'boy with fries for his meal and I chose the shrimp and scallop gratin. Everything was cooked perfectly and to say that we thoroughly enjoyed our meals would be an understatement. The next time we visit Old Towne, we will definitely return to The Wharf. Delicious!!
After lunch, we went back out to walk around more. We stopped at the Alexandria Visitors Center because they had a nice raised covered porch and we thought we might be able to get a good picture looking down the street into town. Picture...successful. I won't post it here because I'm pretty sure we're going to use it for our Christmas card this year. :-)
We walked around a bit more but the sky was getting darker and the snow had picked up quite a bit. We decided we better head back to the car to get home before the roads started to accumulate snow. People out here are bad enough drivers in normal weather...we didn't want to have to fight the roads too.
Stopped at Blockbuster on the way for a few movies and we're going to hunker down at home for the rest of the night.
An awesome day and a really fun winter adventure! :-)
Only sticking to the grass so far...
No one was around to take a picture of both of us so it's just me
The "view" from the porch of the Visitor's Center
Andrew's lunch...yum.
My lunch...yum again.
One of the many bagpipers
Santa's "sleigh" for the parade
Flag bearers at the parade...I bet their legs are FREEZING!!
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