Chef Messy

Beach Luck Squared

My family used to say that, wherever we went, we brought the cold with us.  It wouldn't matter what time of the year we went, or what the weather was supposedly supposed to be be like.  If we travelled to one of the world's hot spots, it would inevitably be cold, or raining, or snowing, or blowing.  Locals in tropical locations around the globe have exclaimed, upon our arrival, "I just can't figure it out--it never does this in April (or May, or June, or July...)," to which we have always responded, "Don't worry, it's not you, it's us."

So, I guess I shouldn't have been really surprised when we arrived to beautiful 70+ degree weather in Virginia Beach this weekend that it would start to rain less than 10 minutes after our arrival, transforming what would have been a glorious weekend for beach travelers from all around to a chilly 35-degree day where the only brave souls to be seen on the beach were, well, people in parkas and us.

While walking down the fairly abandoned, freezing cold beach, Ryan mentioned, "You know, it's funny, whenever my family went on vacation, it seems like we had bad weather about 75% of the time."  That explains everything.  We are bad vacation luck squared.

The good thing about belonging to a family who brings cold wherever we go is that you learn to not let it spoil your fun.  So it's cold and windy.  Let's get a kite!  (Actually, though Ryan and I had fun with the kite, for some strange reason the whole kite-flying thing caused Matthew an inordinate amount of stress!  Strange ducky, that one.)

I actually don't mind a cold beach.  It's kindof nice to have the whole ocean almost to yourself. Matthew may have other opinions. Here's my favorite, favorite photo of the day.

After about 20 minutes of fun, this is pretty much how Matthew wanted to spend the rest of the day.  Looks thrilled, doesn't he?  Little fellow, this isn't your first cold trip to the beach, and it definitely won't be your last.  Don't worry, you'll get used to it.

   

The Day of Good Deals

We had some serious wind in Virginia over the weekend, and on our third day of our trip it seemed bound and determined to blow all the sand back out into the ocean.  Needless to say, this scenario will cause the beach to sortof lose its charm, so we stopped long enough to say goodbye to King Jupiter, got lucky enough to see a pack of dolphins jumping around out in the ocean, and headed inland.

(Isn't this a great statue?  I lived near Virginia Beach for a while when I was in college, but the city has really changed since I was there last!)

I think everyone must be in the middle of their off-season, because we found incredible deals all over the place.  If you are a Virginia resident and have a spare weekend over the next month, you really ought to go and check out the Jamestown Settlement, because they have some great off-season weekend rates.  The museum is one of the better ones I've been to, and the outdoor area has a lot of fun things to see.  The wind tried to blow us away there, as well, but we still had a good time.

You can see a recreation of the original Jamestown Fort...

...and a Powhatan Indian village...

...but the real highlight was the area with all the ships.  We really like ships.

They even let you get on and check everything out.  Matthew liked the cannons the best.  At this age, he's really into anything that shoots or explodes.

To finish off the trip, we stopped the very old and very famous Doumar's Cones & Barbecue in downtown Norfolk.  Doumar's is the original home of the worlds first ice cream cone machine, and that was not a tourist destination we could pass up.  And it was a good thing, too, because the food was super cheap and very tasty!  Where else can you still get a sandwich for $2 and and ice cream cone for $1?  It's easy to see why they have lasted for over 100 years.

Doumar's ice cream cones, which were first featured at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904, are still made by hand on this machine.  And they are pretty good ice cream cones, I must say.  Matthew very obviously agrees.

      

Bums

Wow, there is just nothing like a trip to the beach to get you out of a funk.  Ryan and I are serious water people.  I'm afraid that it wouldn't take much to convince either one of us to move to a shack by the ocean and become total bums, which is pretty much what we were the entire trip to the coast.  We originally had plans to take this great drive down through the outer banks of North Carolina.  We scored a really cheap room in a really nice hotel in Virginia Beach (I love you, Priceline), figuring it would be a good place for a quick stop for the night along the way and a nice place for a beach picnic on our way out the next morning.  But then we woke up the next morning and saw the view from our top-floor room. . .

. . . and couldn't really think of a particularly good reason to get back in the car.

The beach does something really crazy to me.  I am a water person under any circumstances, but it is a rare moment where I can be completely content to just sit and do nothing.  And so there I am, watching the waves rolling in and out, just sitting, doing nothing.  Seriously nothing.  What's more, nothing bothers me.  I don't make to-do lists in my head of all the projects I could be working on, or all the things I should be doing that I'm not doing, or any of the things that might be bothering me at any given moment.  I just sit there, totally empty-headed, completely content with life, totally relaxed.  I'm sure if we really were to move to a beach shack, I would become the most completely unproductive woman on planet earth, but it would be total bliss.

Needless to say, I returned to Lexington in a much, much better mood than the one I was in last week.

This was also Matthew's first trip ever to the beach, though he's been pestering us to take him for over a year now.  As much as Ryan and I both love the ocean, I can't really figure out what has taken us so long.  So here's Matthew's first look at the ocean, to which his response was, "Wow, I didn't know there was going to be a whole lotta water!"

Aside from being a little concerned that he was going to run into crabs or jellyfish, he actually wasn't too sure about all that water...

Anyway, here are some other favorite photos from the beach trip.

Matthew did a fair amount of dancing in the sand to the music in his head.

Ryan, in the meantime, was having his own fun...

We also saw a some cool lighthouses at Cape Henry.  One more new and fancy...

...than the other...

Matthew, though, has his own version about the very best part about going to the beach.

"My favorite part about when I went to the beach was when I made a big donut in the sand, and then I put my head in it!!!"  (And then he laughs hysterically.)

Is there really anything I can possibly add to that?   

#9: Get Your Christmas Shopping Done, Also Known as "Things To Do In or Around Lexingon, Virginia: December Edition"

OK, OK, I know, I'm a little behind with the posting.  Did I mention my computer being disassembled across the desk?  I will catch up!

Anyway, if you're like me, you probably have some last minute Christmas shopping to do.  So, for this month's post, I'd like to point out a few of my favorite local spots to buy stuff!

The Shenandoah Heritage Market
Many people come to this market, which is off I-81 just south of Harrisonburg, for the quilts, the lunch buffet, and the bake shop (whoopie pies, anyone?).  I go strictly for the goodies.  This is my favorite place in all of Virginia to go food shopping.  The snack shop has cheese, dried fruit, trail mixes, and snacks of every variety under the sun, and it's the perfect place to get some candy for your Christmas stockings.  The Country Canner, in the market, has the tastiest jam ever, in any flavor you can imagine, including "dandelion," "jalapeno," and "pickle juice," which is surprisingly not bad.  Don't forget to get a jar of pie filling, a jar of dilly beans, and a bottle of Butter Pecan syrup!

Another good one to check out is the Dayton Farmer's Market just a few miles east, near Bridgewater.

Orchardside Yarn Shop
I know I've posted about this great little shop up in Raphine before, but I've never taken photos of the inside.  This is the ultimate stop for your knitting friends (who are the only ones who will truly appreciate this news--OYS now has ROWAN!).

Also, Carol...nicest owner ever.  Never ever complains about my eight million gauge questions.

Further up the road in Staunton, there is another great little craft joint...

Rachel's Quilt Patch
I'm not much of a quilter, but I love this store anyway.  I can't stay away from the fat quarters.  This place is also cool because it's in an old railway station.

Charlottesville Downtown Mall
This is my favorite place to go shopping.  It looks something like this...

Sorry, we didn't get there until 5:00 p.m., so it's the best I could do.  Don't let the cold scare you away.  It's all decked out with Christmas lights right now, and the street performers are all doing carols.  Besides, you can always warm up with some Hot Chocolate at Cafe Cubano...

...and the shopping is great.  There are too many good shops to list.  One of my favorites is Alakazam toys, which is full of all kinds of funky great stuff that you can't possibly get in the WalMart toy department, like Chinese Yo-Yos and old-school Kaleidoscopes.  Really great place for stocking stuffers!

You can also find some incredibly great deals from the street vendors.  I got a great bargain on some hand-knit fingerless gloves at this stand at the center of the mall.

Eventually, when you need shopping fuel, you can't miss a trip to Christian's Pizza (Matthew likes Pepperoni, I prefer Avocado Feta...to each his own).

Happy Christmas Shopping!  Mine's done, is yours???

 

4: The Christmas Parade and Other Such Fun

There is good news and bad news this year.  The bad news is that Matthew currently has two black eyes, so we will not be sending out Christmas cards.  The good news is that this means I don't have to deal with Christmas cards this year.  Hooray!  Some years I love doing it.  This year I'm just not feeling it.

Anyway, there has been lots of fun going on around here, in spite of black eyes and bloody noses.  At this time of year, Matthew and I try to spend as much time out of the house as possible, so that Ryan can study at home in his comfy chair without distractions.  Matthew talks literally nonstop, all day long, so you would think that he would be the distracting one.  But no, I think I'm the one that causes the problems.  I stress out during finals for some odd reason, even though I'm not the one taking the tests and writing the papers.  I hover.  I want to know what he's doing.  I want to know what he's writing about.  Between Matthew's non-stop chattering and my pestiness, it's just best that he and I get out of the house and entertain each other whenever we can.  A few days ago, he and I went Christmas shopping in Roanoke, and after hours of dragging him through "places that are not fun," I figured it was only fair to take him somewhere that he could get into.

A few days ago, we also met up with some friends at the annual Lexington Christmas Parade down Main Street.

We have been to this parade every year since we've been here.  It is the LONGEST parade ever!  This is the first year that Matthew actually made it to the end of the parade.  (Usually he's turned into a popsicle at about the halfway point, not long after the 36 firetrucks from every village in Virginia roll by.)  Oddly enough, the most memorable thing about this year's parade wasn't seeing Santa's sleigh at the end of the parade.  When Grandma asked him about the parade, his response went something like this:  "Oh, yeah, it was a big HUGE parade, and we saw Jeremy in it!!!"  Way to go Coleen and Jeremy.  You have trumped Santa Clause this year.

I should mention, also, that I have absolutely no idea what the criteria is for getting into the parade.  I think they will probably let any Joe Schmoe who shows up drive his big truck down Main Street, as long as he's wearing a Santa Clause hat or is willing to pass out a candy cane or two.  But there are definitely some fun things to see.  My favorites are always the floats with the lights.

I'm pretty sure that Ryan's favorite, on the other hand, is the group of cloggers.  Of course.

Aww, don't we look like we're having so much fun!?

I would also like to mention that the reason all of these posts are going up late is because a certain someone has been playing Mr. Attempt-To-Fix-It Man on my dinosaur of a computer, which seems to be spending most of its time disassembled across the table these days.

VMI vs. the Citadel, or How We're Going to Imagine the Game Went

Since this was the last VMI game we will probably ever go to, I was really glad that somewhere in the 3rd Quarter, the score magically changed from 7-42 to this:

And I think we should just leave it at that.  Other than that, it was the usual fun.

Photo taken by Matthew

With helicopters...

And gun flippers...

Go Keydets.

Things To Do In or Around Lexingon, Virginia: November Edition

You may have noticed that I'm two weeks late putting this up.  You might think it's because I've been busy.  Or maybe it's just because there's not a whole lot going on here in November.  Sure, we have a couple of things on our calendar:

VMI vs. the Citadel - tomorrow at 1 p.m.! 
This is the final game of the year, and also the funnest one to go to.  Make sure you get there early enough to see the paratroopers.

Rockbridge Ballet Holiday Performance, Lenfest Center, November 17-18
(Sat: 3:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Sun: 3:00 p.m.)
I'm on the board of directors, so I know the kind of planning that has gone into making this performance the best ever.  Student tickets are only $5.

Sesame Street Live, Salem Civic Center, November 29-Dec 2
Is it weird that I'm possibly more excited about this than Matthew is?

But mostly, you have to make your own fun in Lexington in November, and for us, that means going out to eat.  Since November is the month of big eating, here are some of the many great local places you will find the petersen family chowing down when there's nothing else to do.

Greek Night at G. Willaker's Restaurant
G. Willaker's looks like your standard hotel restaurant, but it is probably our favorite place to eat in Lexington, especially on Thursday nights, when head chef "Nick the Greek" puts out a special menu.  Mmm....spanikopita...Gyros...Flatbread with Tzatziki...Souvlaki...  I don't think we've tried anything that isn't good, but the greek salad is definitely my favorite.  I love Greek food.

Franks 4 the Memories, Buena Vista
Yes, it's an outdoor hotdog stand, and it's November, and it's cold.  But never fear, Karin, the owner (who is the kind of lovely person who remembers your kids names and keeps you up to date on her own grandbabies), keeps the place sheltered and heated throughout the winter, so you can enjoy one of her fabulous hot dogs any time of the year.  Everything at the stand is homemade, so it's all delicious.  My personal recommendation is a hotdog with spicy mustard and sauerkraut, a bag of Route 11 Salt & Vinegar chips, and homemade baked beans.

Salerno's
Don't let the grubby athletic t-shirts hanging from the walls fool you.  Salerno's is TASTY.  And a huge bargain, also.  One sandwich will easily feed 4 people.  My favorite is the #14.

Blue Sky Bakery
I talk enough about how much I love this place that I'm sure I don't need to say any more.  Go try out the egg salad sandwich with black bean salad, and make sure you get a treat from the bakery and a GUS soda to go with it!

Lexington Restaurant
This is the quintessential small-town southern diner.  Cheap food.  Good rolls.  I can't find anything on the internet about the restaurant, but you can find it south of Lexington where Main Street and Route 11 meet back up.

Sweet Things
Oreo Ice Cream in a homemade waffle cone.  That's all I have to say.

Joyful Spirit Cafe
One time my parents came to visit us and wanted to eat here every single day.  They are known as a "wrap" shop, but the best food on the menu are the paninis.  I like the #2, which has mozzarella, basil and tomatoes.

Sheridan Livery Inn
If you feel like spending a bit more money, this place has really great sweet potato fries, and yummy key lime pie!

And that is the official Chef Messy guide to dining in Lexington.  (Next month I'll have a real post, as there are actually things going on around here at Christmastime.)  Anyone have any favorites around here that I've missed or don't know about?

Spelunking Spelunkers

Isn't it funny how, wherever you live, there are all these great things around to go and see, and yet you never go and see them until you have people come to visit you?  So, it's a good thing we occassionally have people come to visit us, or we might just never leave the house!

Las week, we went with my family to see the Luray Caverns, which are just a little over an hour north of where we live.  I have been to the Carlsbad Caverns and used to do some cave crawling in college, but Luray is really different from the other caverns I've been in before.  It's smaller, tighter, and twistier, but it is jam full of interesting formations and funky things to see.

There was a set of really ugly teeth...

and a wishing pool, where they pull out around $150,000 a year and donate it to charity...

and a tiny city, which, when you look closely, turns out to be just a reflection of the ceiling...

And check this out, a bath towel made just for you by Mother Nature.  This is a paper-thin stalactite formation.  I've never seen anything like it.  The only thing it's missing is the tag.

They even had an organ that played ON the stalactites!  Very cool.

And here are the token photos of the tourists.

In which we become very popular with the local wildlife

Jen, Gavin, Mom and Dad came to visit this last week, which was a lot of fun, as always.  First things first:  How cute is my nephew?

Like Matthew, it's hard to get him to hold still long enough to get a photo.  I wish you could hear his cute little midget voice.  He speaks in huge, full sentences, but sounds like a little old italian grandpa.

"I'm-a gonna go to Auntey Kimmi's Housey and see-a Shaggy Maggie!"  Yeah, forget Aunt Kimmi.  He just likes our dog.

Mom and Dad have been here several times and have seen most of the touristey things around, but they have never experienced the hilarity which is the Virginia Safari Park, the one and only place where zebras will hop right into your car and sit in your lap in exchange for some zebra chow and a kiss.

I will feed you, and you, and you . . .

. . .  and maybe even you . . .

. . . but not so much you.

This is a slow time of year for the Safari Park, so the animals were particularly, er, friendly.  The llamas, in particular, were in an aggressive and conspiratorial mood.  Said one llama to his homies, "Hey, I will park my butt in front of the car so they can't drive anywhere, and you all grab the food and run!"  Eventually, we escaped, but it is a sad world when it takes five adults and two toddlers to outmanuever a pack of hungry llamas.

Not far down the road, dad decided it would be a funny idea to give a bucket to a 1,500-pound camel.  Unfortunately, I have no photos of this, but Dad and the kids will demonstrate how it went.

In the end, it turned out to be a bit safer to leave the drive-through portion of the zoo and feed the animals behind the fence.

Even Jenni, great animal lover that she is (only if you really knew Jen would you catch that deep bit of sarcasm), got in on the fun.

She does look thrilled, doesn't she?

Last Days of Fall

I'm really sad to see fall go this year.  Usually I really look forward to winter.  Frost, ice, snow, all that.  But this year October was so hot and the leaves turned so late that it's like we've hardly had a fall at all!  (Kindof reminds me of being back in Idaho and Utah, actually, where one day it's 80 degrees and the next day there's a blizzard.)

Ryan and I have a tendency, when our house gets messy, to just leave it.  Then we can keep procrastinating getting it cleaned up!  (The only thing that forces us to do it is when we have people over, which fortunately happens frequently!) It doesn't really matter where we go, we just want to get out.  But let's call it "trips out to enjoy the fall colors," instead of "trips to get out of chores," OK?!  It's really amazing where you'll end up in Virginia when you just start driving aimlessly around.  Every little backroad will connect to something interesting, and you can live here a really long time without ever seeing them all.  So, lately we've been enjoying some really incredible views!  This one is from the top of Shenandoah Mountain, which is the site of the Confederate Breastworks.  I'll be honest, when I hear the world "breastworks," I'm worse than a 12-year-old boy, and the first mental picture that comes to my mind is women's underwear.  Apparently, though, this is a military term for the defense line at the top of the hill, and in this case it was put in place to keep the Yankees from getting to Staunton.  Supposedly this was one of the coldest, most miserable places to hang out during the war, but it was definitely really beautiful!

We've also been really enjoying what's left of the fall colors.  Matthew, like any four-year-old boy, can't stand to go anywhere without bringing home pockets full of rocks, twigs, leaves.  What do you suppose they plan to do with it all?

Another thing you should do if you ever get a chance to come to this part of the world is take a drive down the Blue Ridge Parkway.  It is especially pretty at this time of year, but no matter what time you come, the overlooks are incredible.  This is what the top of the world feels like.

Zero-Point-Zero-Zero-Zero

I always know that Halloween is about to roll around whenever Ryan starts making emergency trips to WalMart to buy Halloween candy.  Because, well, you never know--this just might be the year that WalMart doesn't have 3 aisles of leftover candy that they are paying people to take off their hands on November 1.  See, there was that whole thing with the mortgages this year, and so the economy has changed, so it is really important that we buy at LEAST three bags of Peanut Butter Twix just in case we can't get them at the last minute!  Especially since in the time we have lived in Lexington, we have had . . . um . . . let's see . . . Zero-point-zero-zero-zero trick-or-treaters come to our house!  Nevertheless, Ryan must be prepared for a potential onslaught.  That's his story and he's sticking to it.  The funny part is that I keep finding Peanut Butter Twix wrappers in the most mysterious places!  Under the couch, in the car, tucked behind Moby Dick on the bookshelf . . . Should I buy his explanation that it is probably just Matthew, eating on the sly?  And then there's Matthew, who keeps telling me that "Coco the helicopter pilot" is the one chowing down on our massive stash of completely unnecessary Halloween candy!  Mysterious, indeed. 

Anyway, Matthew got all ready for his preschool party this morning, and I honestly think this is Matthew's cutest Halloween yet.  I'm so excited for you to see it!  But you can't see him in costume just yet.  The witching hour hasn't arrived.

Unless you're a goth witch . . .

Somewhere in Idaho, my mom just had a heart attack.

And yes, I am a nerd, and I am taking my own photos at work.

Anyway, we started celebrating Halloween around here about a week ago.  (You know me and my never-ending holidays.  Ryan and I are currently having the yearly battle of when it is or isn't too early to put up Christmas Decorations.  I say next week, and I'm so going to win.)  In our local congregation, I'm in the leadership of the young women's organization (this means teenagers), and last week we took them out on a Halloween Photo Scavenger hunt, where they did some nice work capturing a few spooks around town.

We were also happy that the rain let up long enough to go to "Folktales at Firelight" at the Lime Kiln Theater.  This was our first time going to this natural ampitheater, and it was very cool!  This year they put on the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Is it just me, or does the headless horseman bear a striking resemblance to darth vader?

Anyway, several of our law friends also happened to be there, which was a fun surprise.

Matthew snuggled right up with his buddy Maya.  Have I mentioned that this one really likes the girls?

There will be lots of fun to show later, including the annual downtown trick-or-treat and a huge bellyache shortly thereafter.  Hope everyone has a sppooooky Halloween and that none of your kids get the gross candy!  (Remember those people who gave out the 60-year-old fruity hard candies?  And raisins?  Eeeww!)   

Letterboxing for Beginners.

I got emails from several people yesterday wanting a little more information on Letterboxing.  Matthew has had such a good time with this that we have gone out a couple more times this week to see what we can find.  One of the good things about Letterboxing is that, well, for one thing, it gets us out of the house!  We are definitely homebodies.  As much as we always say we would love to become outdoorsy treehugger types, we can come up with all kinds of reasons not to!  I hate the heat.  Ryan hates the cold.  There are bugs.  We have allergies.  We have asthma.  We might miss a Redskins game.  We might miss Grey's Anatomy.  I need to knit.  Matthew might get a cold.  Seriously, we are really, really good at not being outside-people!  But this is something that is getting us outside.  It is getting us to climb rocks and look under trees.  It is getting us off the couch!

Another thing that is cool about Letterboxing is that it takes you out to discover things in your neighborhood that you may not have ever seen.  We have less than a year left here in the Lexington area, and wouldn't it be sad if we had moved away and not ever seen the Mill Mountain Star up close?

Or if we had never seen this view of Roanoke?

Even just looking at the list of Letterboxes in the area we live in makes you realize there are so many things out there to get out and see!  Out of the way tourist sites you didn't know about, waterfalls you've never been to, trails you didn't know of . . .

Good fun.  So much better than being on the couch once you're out and about. 

So, anyway, where do you start if you want to go out and find a letterbox on your own?  Well, first of all, you need to choose a letterbox that you want to go out and search for.  Two great websites listing "clues" by geographic location in North America are Atlas Quest and Letterboxing North America.  (These sites also have a lot more detailed information, anything and everything you ever wanted to know about letterboxing).

Each box is going to have its own name, and the clue might be very simple and tell you exactly where you're going, or it might be trickier and read something like this: "In downtown Lexington, find a shop known for having a moose that greets its customers.  Walk down the street towards W&L until you reach the intersection where two presidents meet.  Continue towards W&L 15 more steps.  Stop and have an ice cream cone at the shop across the street (our favorite flavor is Oreo).  When you exit the shop, turn left and take 15 more steps.  Cross the street and look for the end of a large brick wall.  Behind this wall is a tree with a large hole in the base.  The letterbox is hidden inside."  This clue is, of course, completely hypothetical, but this is what a clue may look like.

One of the rules of the trail is that you are never supposed to let anybody see you find the letterbox.  Ideally it's going to be hidden in a sneaky place where you would never find it unless you were actually looking for it.

 

Once you have found the letterbox, you will stamp in the letterbox log book and write down who you are and where you're from.  Some people just write their own names, but many people have funny code names that they only use on the trail.  It's really up to you.  This is also a good time to flip through the book and see who has been here before you.

Each letterbox is also going to have its own stamp.  Many of these are handcarved, often to match the location where they have been hidden.  This is the stamp to use in your own logbook, so that you can keep a record of where you've been and what you've found.  It's a good idea to bring your own stamp pad or stamping marker, in case there is no ink when you get there.

Once you're done, put everything back in the box just as you found it, and put the box back in the hiding place.  Make sure it's not going to be visible to any one who just happens to be passing by!

And that, my friends, is letterboxing 101.