Virginia Weekend Getaway

Even though Carolyn used to live in Charlottesville, VA we haven't taken the time to enjoy it in quite a while. So over the weekend, Carolyn and I drove down to Charlottesville and stayed at the Omni on downtown mall. Unfortunately, many of our choices for dinner and entertainment were closed on Sunday night.

We had pizza at Christian's Pizza then went to the Downtown Grille for appetizers and to watch the NFC Championship Game. We watched the fourth quarter back at teh hotel in the lounge, and though Ben told a few jokes, he was dissapointed that his hero Brett Farve and the Packers lost, even to another NFC East team like the Giants. What a great Superbowl the mechanical patriots against the chaotic Packers would have been.

The Charlottesville Omni lived up to its reputation as a place hard to sleep in the morning. Children played in the halls and the maid knocked on the door at 8:00 a.m. But no matter, we were motivated to get up and get breakfast at Bodo's, coffee from Shennandoah Joe's, and on the road to Wintergreen to go skiing.

The resort was nice and the skiing was fun. We spent our day on the Upper and Lower Dobie and Lower Diamond slopes, waiting in some long lines for the Blue Ridge Express lift. No one got hurt and Ben never even fell this time. carolyn lost her phone but we got it back.

In the evening, we made friends with some of the locals, including Heather and Rolland who market emerging brands for Brown-Forman (i.e. Jack Daniels, Woodson, Tuaca) and manage Chez Max in Richmond respectively. We all had a good time with karaoki and telling jokes and stories. The food in the Coopper Mine was delicious, especially breakfast with real Virginia ham.

Only a few dissapointments: the snow-making equipment was hoing in full force and is not only loud, but some were aimed right at the ski lift so skiers got a blast of icewater in the face every run. The lounge still allows smoking and after living in cities where its banned indoors so long it was a shame to come home smelling like stale cigarets. The most frustrating though was that we wanted to ski before we could check in and after we checked out, so we weren't really able to use our room for changing, and had to carry our shoes and change of clothes to the locker rooms.

On the way home we stopped at Lurray Caverns, which neither of us could remember visiting before. I was fascinated to learn that it was discovered by a bunch of guys looking for an undiscovered cavern. Imagine! After that, it was good to get home before the weather got any nastier.