Hey friends! We are back in DC after a fun weekend trip – Matt, Riese, and I spent the weekend at The Homestead hotel in Warm Springs, Virginia.
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We had a blast – we were with our friends Lily, James, and their toddler Hank; Hank is only a month younger than Riese so it was perfect because we were on the same schedule with naps and early bedtimes. 😉
We drove down on Friday morning and stopped in Charlottesville on the way for lunch at Three Notch’d Brewery at Lily and James’ suggestion. I invited my friend Kath, who lives in Charlottesville, to join us! Her little one was having a bit of a rough morning so it was a quick visit but still really good to see her. 🙂
We all enjoyed sampling some beers and shared a lot of food while the kids played – I wish all breweries (and restaurants…) had kid play areas – genius! So nice to not have to try to keep Riese in her high chair.
I noshed on the pulled pork sandwich with a delicious side salad:
Plus a shared tomato, mozzarella, and basil salad:
Plus a beer. 🙂
Riese napped the rest of the car ride and we pulled into The Homestead in time to explore a bit before dinner. Riese liked the hammock but didn’t actually relax – don’t let this photo fool you. 😉
Lily planned ahead and made some dinner reservations for us which was smart because apparently everything on the property gets booked – on Friday night we ate at The Jefferson, which was delicious.
The kids were a bit crazy but we got to sit outside and it was perfect out. Food was really good, too – I loved my salmon and quinoa and so did Riese!
We also shared the deviled eggs and a couple salads to start.
We didn’t think to get a room with a separate sleep area for Riese, so when we got her to bed around 8 or so we were basically sitting in the dark so we ended up going to bed early both nights and getting lots of sleep too. It was actually quite nice to catch up on sleep!
On Saturday morning, the weather was beautiful and there was a “fun run” on the hotel schedule that I decided last minute to check out since we were already up. Matt got Riese ready for the day and met me at breakfast – he will run with me in the morning if it’s just the two of us, but he’d always rather work out later in the day so I don’t think he minded having an excuse to have a slower morning. 😉
I showed up at the fun run a couple minutes before it started expecting to see 5 people and one guide, and instead I discovered a legit 5k race with bibs and everything – and about 50 people milling around! What a fun surprise!
I threw on my bib and we were off.
This race was HILLY but the views were pretty and I appreciated having people telling me where to go vs. trying to figure out my own route without getting lost. 🙂 It was also really nice motivation to be doing an official route – with the hills, I think I would have turned around quickly had I been by myself!
We spent some time on the golf course, some time on trails, and some time on the road. The first 2 miles were basically uphill so I was really happy to see some downhill for the last mile. I basically flew down it and my quads felt it the next day!
After Matt, Riese, and I had breakfast, we headed to meet Lily, James, and Hank at the pool and spent the rest of the morning there. Sadly the kids were too small for the water slides, so Lily and I went down them instead. 😉 Everyone liked the lazy river and the kid pool, though!
Poolside lunch – we shared a bunch of stuff:
The afternoon was mostly spent napping – Riese must have been worn out from her big morning because she slept for like 3.5 hours – whoaaaa. I went back and spent another 45 minutes at the pool solo, and then I came back and we all rested for a bit, and then by late afternoon Matt went off to the gym and I got Riese up and moving and ready for dinner.
We grabbed dinner at Woody’s, also on the property, this time – it had really good burgers!
And Matt and I shared a salad to start, too.
We all went to bed early again and it was awesome.
On Sunday morning, Riese treated us to a 7:30 sleep in (ah, how things change when you have kids – 7:30 feels SO LATE nowadays) and then we grabbed breakfast at the buffet…
And then headed out for a hike! We wanted to get in some movement before hitting the road.
There were a bunch of trails on the property – we took the “North Trail” option – and it was a nice wooded trail with some pretty scenery.
Riese did pretty well in the pack (especially with lots of snacks) but we let the kids run around and “hike” for a bit, too.
Farewell lunch before hitting the road – back at Woody’s! I had the kale salad with shrimp, and also shared some of a vegan burger with Matt that we hoped Riese might like but that she refused to even try, obviously. 😉
We left around 1:30 which was perfect because Riese was exhausted and ready for a nap!
On the way home, we needed to find a place for Riese to stretch her legs and ended up stopping about 45 minutes out at a brewery we saw a sign for on the highway – The Farm Brewery at Broad Run. It ended up being a great find!
We got to hang out, enjoy some beer, and have dinner. Matt and I were both saying we were kind of in the mood for some salad/veggies after a lot of eating out, but they didn’t have any, so we had bratwurst with sauerkraut instead. Lol. Oh well!
There were a ton of kids at the brewery and they even had a cute playground area – Riese loved it!
Such a fun weekend. Lily and James were staying until Monday and we were regretting our decision to come back to DC on Sunday instead – but we figured it would be nice to get home and still have another day vs. having to race right off to work.
I hope those of you that have today off enjoy the holiday, and I’ll see you back here on Wednesday!
