Y'all, I am so overdue for a good life update! Life is...good! Sean and I made just about the entire past week an extended celebration of our sixth wedding anniversary, which is truly my favorite holiday of the year. I am a huge believer in not treating it like "just another day." It's a big accomplishment, and should be celebrated.
Our extended celebration kicked off with a visit to FedEx Field, because I surprised Sean with tickets to watch the Redskins play the Cleveland Browns. And thank goodness, they won. The
last time we went, there was freezing rain and we lost, so I had only bad memories.
Not to be outdone, Sean had a gorgeous bouquet of lilies delivered to my office, which had every coworker Snapchatting her boyfriend hints to do the same.
We like to try to get away for our anniversary weekends when we can. If we had our way, we would spend every year in
Ocracoke, but with the threat of a hurricane, we opted to spend some time in Richmond, a badass city we never seem to visit even though it's so close.
We started our visit with a lunch (and seriously, this could have been three meals) at
Bombolini, a fresh pasta emporium with amazing flavors, like red wine, black pepper and squid ink. I had rosemary fettucine with chicken rose sauce and it was so good, but so much food. If we were Richmonders, I can totally imagine popping in to grab dinner to go; their freezer was stocked with fresh lasagnas and raviolis.
Unfortunately, it was pouring rain from the outer bands of Hurricane Matthew, so that ruled out so many great Richmond things to do, like check out the murals, lounge on the rocks at Belle Isle, roam around the Maymont property or check out the Lewis Ginter gardens. So we did what we always do: we went to the movies and saw
The Girl on the Train. It was dark, y'all.
From there, we decided to kill some time boozin', because like many small cities these days, Richmond is home to a huge brewing and distilling scene. We went to
Ardent Craft Ales, where we sampled their Sweet Potato and Sage Ale (my favorite!), "The One" Pumpkin Ale, Nelson Sauvin Saison and Stortebeker hefeweizen. They really were all delicious, and it was packed with other folks wearing parkas and Hunter wellies, so clearly, it was the place to be on Saturday.
We drove clear across town to check out
Blue Bee Cider, where we split a flight. It was really impressive to see the variation in the ciders, with really unique flavors for each, including a dessert wine with a nice kick of ginger.
Bottom's up!
We finished our gastronomical tour of Richmond on Saturday with a decadent dinner at
Bistro Bobette, directly across the street from our hotel in Shockoe Bottom. Sean had what I secretly wanted — bistro steak with pommes frites — and I had beef tenderloin medallions in a pepper brandy sauce with potato gratin. I could swim in that sauce, you guys.
The Berkeley is an beautiful fancy pants hotel in a fantastic location and our room was beautiful. I used travel rewards for the room, so it was doubly great because it didn't cost me anything extra!
We finished our visit on Sunday morning with a trip to
Kuba Kuba, renowned for its authentic Cuban food. I was squirming in my seat to the music the entire time. I need more Cuban and Puerto Rican food in my life.
We had empanadillas stuffed with picadillo to start and honestly, I could have just eaten 15 of these. The fried dough was perfection, and the seasoned beef inside combined with the lime sour cream drizzled on top was the perfect mix of sweet and tart and spicy.
I figured "When in faux Havana..." and ordered a Cafe con Leche with condensed milk, and that was basically warm heaven in a cup.
I had a classic Cubano with plantains...
And Sean devoured his plate of ropa viejo over rice.
And on our way out, since the sun was shining, we snagged the requisite Richmond keepsake: a mural portrait.
I can't wait to see what our seventh year brings!
