Charlottesville

We did a lot for our day in Charlottesville, and we'll definitely be going back to visit again. Just an hour drive from our apartment, the downtown is incredibly charming with a brick all pedestrian walkway lined with shops, restaurants, and cafes:

There's A HUGE chalkboard wall at one end with tons of chalk to write on (what a cool idea!):

 Of course, I'm a huge nerd and added this:

 Everything downtown was super trendy or super artsy, like this amazing mosaic couch:

 Per Kelly's request, we stopped at Miller's- the bar where Dave Matthews used to bartend before he was all famous and such:

After we finished our beers and our lunches we headed out to an apple orchard nearby. The drive was straight up the side of a mountain (or a foothill, technically I suppose)- and was completely gorgeous. When we got to the top we found it was a vineyard AND an apple orchard. Of course the grapes were all gone- but there were still apples to buy.

Next we headed over to Jefferson Vineyards.

We tasted 10 wines (and bought a bottle of a ridiculously good Petit Verdot)- all of which were really lovely. One of the guys working there overhead we went to Wisconsin for college and told us his roommate was from Ripon, WI. Small world, I tell ya.

After taking a few more pictures of the gorgeous land and stopping for a quick push-pop, we headed home..

In case you need something to do when visiting VA- there are almost 200 vineyards here. I think we'll try and visit them all...