Wanderlust: Cross Country Roadtrippin

On the Road

So, as of lately, I've been asking a lot of my friends if they'd be interested in a cross country road trip after we graduate. I think a lot of them think that I'm kidding, but I'm being completely serious! The traveling itch has struck me again and I'm really interested in this cross country road trip idea. I even heard about the famous Foam Henge that we have here in Virginia... yes, you read that correctly, a Foam Henge that is a replica of the famous Stone Henge. Whuuut. Now, if anyone is interested in embarking on this cross country road trip with me, I'd love a travel buddy. I also have heard of the giant ball of yarn somewhere in America? What are these great natural wonders that we have hiding here... 

If you have ever been on a cross country road trip, I'd love to hear about some advice/tips on what to do and how to get planning/save money! Maybe, renting an RV? Possibly my next great adventure after graduation! (:

I apologize for being MIA in the past few days! It has been an extremely hectic and stressful week that has proved to test me mentally and emotionally. But, moving on from negativities... This past weekend I made a trip down to Richmond, VA to visit Tyler before he leaves for his journey to Japan for the next two months. It was the perfect weekend and definitely the perfect "getaway" to destress and not think about all of my other problems. I left on Friday, and usually the trip should only take 2 hours... but with all of the traffic on the highway, what was supposed to be a 2 hour trip turned into a 4 hour car ride. It was intense.

Friday night, Tyler didn't get off of work until 10:30pm. We ended the night with some pizza from his restaurant and then made a trip to an overlook area in downtown Richmond. It was the perfect night. We spent a half hour there soaking in the view and really appreciating the great company we were surrounded with and the amazing weather. Saturday, I was in charge of planning our itinerary! We started our day off a little slower than planned, but that's ok. Me, Tyler, Jake (his older brother) and Tavish (their friend/summer roommate) had Lamplighter  for brunch. Their bagels are delicious (get the Katie, you basically choose your own bagel, and it has avocado and get hummus!) Afterwards, I suggested the idea of going to pick strawberries. Unfortunately, strawberries are not in season anymore... so we ended up picking a peach orchard to go to instead.

Tavish, Tyler and Jake

What we didn't realize was that the peach orchard was about an hour and a half away (past Charlottesville by 30 min!). So, on our way we made a pit stop in downtown Charlottesville and shopped around the pavilion for a bit, ran into a few friends and then headed out to Chiles Peach Orchard in Crozet, VA. The peach orchard was beautiful (pictured below). We grabbed a bag and started picking our own peaches. The price was great! For your own handpicked peaches it was only $1.39 a pound. After picking peaches we bought some of the delicious peach frozen yogurt they offered as well as a vanilla smoothie with peach chunks inside (best way to cool off in the 90 degree weather we were having). 

After finishing up at the peach orchard, we made a trip back to downtown Charlottesville to have dinner at Marco & Luca's dumplings (super cheap and delicious) and decided to watch a movie. The only movie that was showing closest to the time we were done eating was "Before Midnight" (i will write a review about this in my next post!). It is the third installment to the series started in 1998, "Before Sunrise". I really recommend this movie to everyone. After the movie, we headed back to Richmond and hung out at home with friends until heading out to a party that was a bit of a bust. So, instead we headed out to a taco place called "La Milpa" for tacos at 2:30am! The tacos were delicious and we were all satisfied by the end of the night. The night did end at 4:30am with everyone exhausted. This weekend was perfect in many ways. 

I hope everyone else enjoyed their weekend as well! (: 

With Love, Cassandra

Grandma Soulmates<3

This weekend, was great! On Friday night I went out with Blank Canvas although by the time we got to the club, it was already closed; so instead we ventured out to Cook Out! It was my first time eating Cook Out and I must say, it is SO cheap! I ordered a Cook Out tray that consisted of:

• Steak Style cheeseburger (it had A1 sauce on it!!)
• chicken nuggets
• french fries
• fresh peanut butter milkshake

all for a total of about $5!! How crazy is that?! I was actually planning on saving some of the food for lunch the next day but of course, me being the fattie, I ended up eating all of it that night. Horrible! I got home around 3am and it was just nice to be around some of my dance family again.

On Saturday, Shelby came to visit for the remainder of the weekend! (: We went to eat at Harrison St. Cafe and ate vegan/vegetarian food! It was delicious! I had this soup called potato coconut soup? I'm not totally sure but it was their special for the day and it was so yummy! Afterwards, we went to the Broad Street Art Festival and saw some of the museums, handcrafted art pieces and jewelry and lots of baked goods. Then, we felt daring and went to go get tattoos! Shelby wasn't sure about hers... but I went and got one at Heroes and Ghosts Tattoos located in Carytown. My tattoo is 3 little birds on my collarbone representing me and my three sisters and how we always guide and follow each other making sure the other doesn't get left behind. They've seriously been my support system in every aspect of my life, it's really great.

We ended Saturday night at Shelby's friends house drinking wine, eating cookies and playing hours of Catch Phrase! Afterwards, we ended back home at my place around 12:30 but continued to tumble on our phones and just talked for about another hour or so! It's great because even though I've only met Shelby this year, we have grown so close and I consider her to be one of my closest friends... I can really come to her about anything and she'll definitely calm me down and help me to feel better! I'm telling you, Grandma Soulmate!! But anyways, today we kinda just hung around and had a lazy morning and then went to Belle Isle to hang out for a few hours before she left. Overall, this weekend was so much fun and it was really great to have a friend around that I could relate to so easily! (: I hope she decides to move back to Harrisonburg for another 6 months or a year!!

I hope everyone else had an eventful weekend! (:
- Cassandra