Girl's Weekend (Part 2)!

I am very happy to report that the rest of our Girl's Weekend was WAY less eventful than the first day!  After we were all rested from our adventure on Friday Night (aka. the cameo from Gas Can Annie), we awoke to a beautiful morning in the Blue Ridge Mountains!

I shot these on my way up to the gym Saturday morning:

Breathtaking! 

After we had sweated a little bit and had a little fortification (by the way of scrambled cheese eggs with sauteed mushrooms--thanks Mom), we made our way up to the Spa!

We lounged at the spa for 6 hours!!!  There were massages, pedicures, facials, manicures, and steam baths--along with lounging in the lounge with herbal tea and a good book--heavenly!  It was a pretty perfect day, let me tell you!

After we were all relaxed, rubbed, and cleaned, we made our way back to our room for some pre-dinner wine and cheese!

(Please disregard the random phones, cameras, maps, and remote controls.)

As I have mentioned before, I love wine--and I was in good company this weekend!  I also am a HUGE fan of cheese!  There was also some yummy hummus and roasted eggplant spread that my Mom picked up at Sticks, which is absolutely yumm-o!!  So, we drank some vino, talked about how relaxed we were, ate some appetizers, then got ready for dinner!  (There is a theme here--eat, drink, rest, eat, drink, rest.)

Along the way, we stopped for some gorgeous pic (the setting was nice too--haha)

 (I totally want to submit this one to www.awkwardfamilyphotos.com )



We had a fantastic dinner at The Copper Mine Bistro and the moseyed on over to the bar down the way for some after dinner drinks before we headed back to our room for dessert  and sparkling wine (see, the theme continues).

Yes, we changed into our pj's before partaking in fruit tart and sparkling wine!  After that, we were so exhausted from our day at the spa (it truly is a rough life) and eating and drinking, we called it a night!

The next day, we drove around the mountain checking out the beautiful views and possible condos or houses that might be for sale (Wintergreen is so conveniently located, I really think someone needs to consider purchasing a vacation home, so that we might all be able to use it :) ). 

We had an absolutely wonderful time and have decided that next time will need to have at least one more day, as we did not even break out Taboo, Backgammon, or crafting activities!  Thank you so much to Mom and Gina for taking Lori and I on this amazing trip!  We are so lucky to have such wonderful Mamas!!

Now...a few pictures of the gorgeous surroundings to leave you with. Enjoy!

 

 **Okay, so it was more than a few, but I couldn't pick--they are all so pretty!

**I forgot to mention that almost the entire time Lori and I were speaking in a very southern drawl twang, which made everyone us laugh quite a bit.  It really is fun to talk all souther-fide (I just made up that word).

Girl's Weekend! (Part 1)

So, last weekend, I went with my Mom (Patsy), my sister-in-law (Lori), and her step-mom (Gina) to a weekend away at Wintergreen--it was amazing!!!  We had so much fun eating delicious food, drinking delicious wine, getting spa treatments, laughing, and talking!  We are super excited to make this a tradition... and plan to make it at least one more day longer!

**Be prepared...this is a long post**

 

 Below are pictures of the "girls" on the "kick-off" lunch at Barboursville--the picture on the left is of me and my Mom the one the right is of Lori and Gina.

 

                                                     

We started off our trip at Barboursville Winery with the 4-course wine pairing lunch at their amazing restaurant Il Palladio Restaurant, where we had the most amazing meal...

A toast to celebrate the kick off to our Girl's Weekend!

The service was amazing--our gracious servers--they were awesome!

And the food...

 Risotto with Escargot

 Braised Veal over Polenta

 Pan Roasted Monkfish

 Apple Fennel Tartine with Sweet Cream

 Tiramisu

 Dark Chocolate Cake with Mascarpone Cream and Candied Hazelnuts

All Done...



After we were deliciously gorged on our lunch, we headed over to the Wine Tasting Room...because, you know, we didn't have enough wine with lunch...

  

 The four of us with one one of our wonderful waiter from lunch, Dave!

 This is a picture of Lori laughing--we all did a lot of this...all weekend!  I love laughing.  It does the heart and soul good.  I really love when I can make other people laugh, luckily these 3 ladies think I am as funny as I think I am--they are pretty funny, too.  Hence all the laughing.

Lexie, Lori, Patsy and Gina say "Cheers!"

 Such a beautiful place--I've had some friend get married here and their pictures are gorgeous--how could they not be?!

 After leaving Barboursville, we were off to Wintergreen! We were doing well, having fun, talking up a storm about anything and everything, when the car started to do some "dancing."  (Please note that dancing is a nice term for all of the jerking that was occurring.)  Yes, we ran out of gas!!!  "How did you run out of gas?" you might ask...well there are several theories on this.  1--my mom was driving my car (I was in the backseat) and she did not notice the light on indicating that gas was low due to not being  used to the car; 2--Lori was talking so much that we were all distracted and the gas light was not noticed; 3--the Garmin was sending us on some backwoods way from Barboursville to Wintergreen and the light was fading, so the gas light was not noticed.  Regardless of how, by the time we were aware, my "Sophie Saab" was telling us to Refill Fuel Now--a rather ominous message to read, don't you think, especially when one has no idea how long the message has been up,and being halfway up the mountain with no gas station easily accessible.  Hence, the running out of gas part.

But don't worry, friends!  We were rescued by the Miller's!!  The Miller's were a nice couple from Richmond (small world) who picked Lori and I up (Patsy and Gina stayed with Sophie Saab) to get some gasoline.  We stopped at the gas station first at the top of the mountain--unfortunately they did not have gas cans!  So, we went to the Fire Station--

where we were able to borrow a gas can (with gas already inside) and the Miller's graciously took us back to our car!  They are looking at a nice fruit basket or flowers or something from us girls.

After we had gas and gas can, my name was changed to Gas Can Annie (Lori's idea), as I was the one to give poor parched Sophie something to quench her thirst.

 Not sure what is going on here--I'm filling up the car and saying something...something pretty important, I am sure, like "Can we play Taboo when we get to the room?".

 Lori was thrilled to get her picture taken with Gas Can Annie. 
(You can see sweet Mr. Miller in the back in the blue jacket talking with Officer Claytor, who also came to our rescue.)

 Lori is giving Sophie her fill at the gas station at the top of the mountain. 

Officer Claytor was sure glad he was able to go home after witnessing our shenanigans--at least he had an interesting story to tell at dinner.

After that, we got checked into our room without anymore issues--phew!

Stay Tuned for Girl's Weekend (Part 2)...