Hunting season is right around the corner! So today we went to the woods to scout for deer. At least, that's why James went. Anouk and I were there because we want to live deliberately and suck out all the marrow from life. 
  
The Big Woods State Forest is located in Wakefield, Virginia, way out in Sussex County (It's about an hour and fifteen minute drive from the Ocean View area of Norfolk -- more with traffic). I had never heard of Wakefield before, but it turns out it's kind of a big deal when it comes to peanuts. The first peanuts in America were planted in the town, before it was a town, and peanut-flavored dishes are served in many of the town's restaurants. 

As you can also see, Wakefield is also kind of a big deal when it comes to reality TV stars. Peanuts and TV? How can that be anything other than a winning combination?





After we had tramped through the woods (and these were real woods, with very authentically woodsily overgrown trails, it should be noted), marked some deer tracks and had a snack, we drove around Sussex County for a while and saw the sights. One prominent one being miles and miles of fields of cotton in full bloom (does cotton bloom?) I have probably passed fields of cotton a million times before in my life, but this was my first in full bloom, and seeing a stretch of this gorgeous, purest white all the way to the horizon made me feel mindful of a lot of things. Of the great beauty in the world, the great work it would have taken to plant and tend and pick, and the great numbers of men and women who were made to plant and tend and pick it over hundreds of years. I think everybody should try to see a field of cotton in full bloom once in their lives, to feel these feelings.






Some other things to see near Wakefield, VA:

-Virginia Diner (in Wakefield): featuring peanut pie and peanut dressing
-Miles B. Carpenter Museum Complex (in Waverly, VA): with a Victorian House, folk art and peanut museum.
-Country Store (in Waverly): You can buy bacon, fresh from the pig! And also hog jowls. But let's focus on the bacon.

 
I know in our last post we officially said goodbye to summer, but today was so nice that Anouk and I couldn't resist going out for one last hurrah. So we met up with our new friends, Miss Molly, Z., and A. at the WOW Children's Garden at the Norfolk Botanical Garden.

(Sidenote: Isn't making mommy friends a lot like dating? Molly and I have discussed it and we think it is. We eyed each other at Zoo Tales for weeks before we got the courage to get each others' digits. And there was no alcohol involved to help get our game on.)

Anyway, both Molly and I had heard tons of praise for the World of Wonders, but even so, we didn't expect it to be as amazing as it ended up being. (Which was pretty amazing.) The garden is actually a series of smaller gardens based on different habitats around the world (savanna, rain forest, Australian outback) fanned out around a central sprayground like spokes of a wheel. The whole thing covers three acres, and is connected by a caterpillar path covered in vines that you can crawl through on your way to the Dirt Factory. (We did not visit the Dirt Factory. In fact, I hid its existence from Anouk as hard as I could.)

A tiny sliver of me wishes we had discovered WOW earlier in the summer so we could have taken more advantage of the awesome, but most of me thinks that right now is the perfect time to experience it.  For one, it wasn't crowded, and by "wasn't crowded" I mean that there were two other people there besides us (and they left pretty quickly, probably horrified by our improperly swim-attired children). Two, with so much space to explore, it's going to take a little time to see everything. And spending time outdoors is much more enjoyable on a day like today instead of one of those 105-degree scorchers that July was so fond of this year.

Luckily, there are a few more days of summery weather coming up, and I'm sure we could get another visit or two in before the sprayground closes for the year. And then, when fall comes in earnest...there's always the Dirt Factory (Yay?)

The last two weeks have been hectic ones for our family. J.'s been traveling for work, I got sick, we've been unpacking and repacking and Cloroxing and shuttling Baby A. off to very generous and helpful family members who stepped up while I was doing the solo parenting thing there for a few days. We also managed to put our fall garden in, but I have not yet had the time to figure out what is eating all of our little carrot seedlings. (RIP, little carrot seedlings.)

But on the last night of the season, we found a free hour before bedtime and used it to say goodbye to summer in Hampton Roads the same way we began it: with a visit to Ocean View Beach Park.

The beach was dark and quiet and there was nothing summery about it, which seemed perfect. The sand was cool and the water was warm and way out in the distance, the lights on the Bay Bridge stretched to the horizon. Baby Anne thought it looked pretty cool. ("Oh, wooooow!")

This has been an especially great summer for our family.  We moved back to the area. We settled into our house, our first house, that felt like home as soon as we stepped through the door. We reconnected with old friends. We made some amazing new ones. We went to some of our favorite places and ate really good food and saw and did interesting things, and in the meantime, Baby Anne grew two whole inches and learned to say about 20 words (mouth! mine! yum!).

TL;DR: we had a lot of fun. And we are grateful.




Goodbye, summer. Thanks for the memories.

From the moment I stepped foot in the Beach Pub, I could tell that it was going to be a great kid-friendly dining experience. A nice chatty atmosphere, crayon art all over the walls, babies everywhere, and nobody giving their parents the stink eye.

From the moment I had the first sip of my Bloody Mary, I could tell I had found a new favorite brunch location to add to the list.

Jackpot.

J. and I discovered the Beach Pub halfway through an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives airing late one night on the Food Network. We watch so much Food Network that we've become a little desensitized to it, but as we watched the Beach Pub footage we found ourselves starting to perk up our ears. "Where is this place?" James asked. "Oh, please, oh please," I said, and Googled, and yes! Laskin Road, baby. Right down at the Oceanfront.

The food was just as delicious as it looked on the small screen. It did not disappoint. James had the crab omelet (with fresh, hot blueberry muffins), I shared a plate of broiled crab with butter with Anne (with a pasta salad that I honestly did not expect to be as good as it was), and for an appetizer, we ordered the famous Oysters Rockafeller that were featured on the DDD episode. Next time I go, I am skipping everything else and ordering them as my entree. (With a Bloody Mary, of course).




As we ate, we people watched a little -- the Beach Pub is a great place for people watching. Seersucker suits, Redskins Hawaiian shirts, folks in their Sunday best, folks in beach cover ups. The works. We were seated by the hostess station and of course Baby A. waved to each and every person who walked by, including the staff, who very good-naturedly waved back every single time. (I told you it was baby friendly).

Don't just take my word for it, though:

 I rest my case.

When we woke up on Labor Day, James asked what I wanted to do that day, and the most random thing popped into my head. Weeks earlier, while out and about, I had passed a pond by the side of the road brimming with lilypads and bright yellow flowers and I couldn't stop thinking about it. We already had plans for the afternoon, but before we left for that, I wanted to find it, those lilypads, that secret, magic-gardeny place.

We had breakfast and then set off to retrace my route--or what I thought was my route--from that long ago day. We followed my spidey sense down Oceana Blvd to General Booth Blvd to Sandbridge Road. We drove and drove and then finally I saw it: tons and tons of lilypads. And I saw a plaque that gave my secret place a name: the Crezia Covington Reed Lotus Garden.

The yellow flowers had long since bloomed and died but the lotus leaves still filled the pond so thickly that the air seemed green. We watched the pond for a while -- there were tons of dragonflies skittering low over the water. The sounds of crickets and bullfrogs were so loud that we had to almost shout to be heard over them.

I badly wanted for there to be a path or trail to take us to the other,  more thickly wooded side of the  pond but there wasn't. There was, however, a shady picnic spot where we Baby Anne could run around, with picnic tables where we could sit for snacktime.  






I wanted to know more about Crezia Covington Reed, but couldn't find anything except what was written about her on the plaque (she made "untiring efforts in furthering the preservation of the native American lotus.") I think this is enough for it to be an inspiring story for young people, though...work hard enough and maybe one day someone will name a really beautiful lotus garden for you. Stay in school, kids.




Did you know the lotus is the official flower of Virginia Beach?

Up in DC, one of my favorite things to do on a sunny afternoon was cruise around and grab lunch or dinner from one of the many food trucks scattered all over the city. J. and I had been following the food truck zoning controversy in Hampton Roads for months before we moved down and wishing that it would get figured out so that we could revisit that pasttime in our new hometown. When we read about the Eat the Streets event on Labor Day afternoon, we knew that we would have to go out and show our support.

Eat the Streets was held in the WHRO parking lot on Hampton Blvd, right by the ODU campus, and featured some of the area's premier street food vendors (as well as games, music, and crafts). Earlier in the day we scoped the FB page and read about the great turnout, but because we showed up later in the afternoon, we missed most of the long lines. (We also missed some of the dishes we would have liked to try, but that's our fault for making alternate lunch plans earlier in the day, now, isn't it?)

We didn't miss out on cupcakes at the Twisted Sisters truck, though. Hooray! We ordered PB&J cupcakes (I KNOW!) and found a bench (I wish we'd thought to bring some beach chairs like a few smart diners did). Then we proceeded to swoon over the cakes and their thick, peanut buttery buttercream icing. They say everything tastes better when eaten outside, but I have a feeling these cupcakes would have been equally awesome no matter where they were eaten. (And I think Baby A. would agree with that statement quite heartily, as evidenced in the following series of photos).




I was a little sad to find out that Eat the Streets isn't a regular event (like it's DC counterpart Truckeroo). Hopefully, as a result of the good turnout, the vendors will consider doing this again soon! And in the meantime, we can always stalk our faves around town (Food Truck Pro Tip: Or look up their location on Twitter. Ta da!)


 Nom nom. Viva les food trucks!