Valentines Day falls on a Saturday this year, which to me means: you go out for delicious breakfast/pastries/brunch on Valentines morning. If you are looking for a kid-friendly destination that fulfills this requirement, allow me to suggest O'DoodleDoo's Donuts, a sweet little retro roadside shop in Suffolk that offers some gorgeously fluffy and delicious cake donuts in creative flavor combinations. James, Anne, and I drove out to sample their wares last weekend, for research purposes of course.

Besides the donuts, O'DoodleDoo's was hosting one of the Virginia LOVEworks and so we all posed for photos with it while we were there. For some reason, Anouk and I are obsessed with the LOVEworks statues and really want to hit as many as we can. For a complete list of LOVEworks locations, click here.

And if you are really interested in a full report, our favorite donuts were the French toast, chocolate fudge, and chocolate-peanut-butter habanero (sweet with a spicy kick). O'DoodleDoo's has dozens of flavors and changes it up their menu on the regular, but their Facebook is really good at letting you know what to expect on any given day.

Happy Valentines Day in advance!

With our renovations and home stuff going on, I've been too busy to blog much lately, on one hand -- but on the other, we've been having so much fun that it's hard not to share a little of it (even if it is with blurry iPhone photos, apologies). So here's the quick and dirty, three new-to-us places that we're glad we discovered. We think you might like them, too -- so if you're in the HRVA area, stop by!


East Beach Sandwich Company: Located right by our favorite beach, the East Beach Sandwich Company is the perfect place to stop for lunch on a beach day (or any other). Not only do they have some of the best sandwiches and salads in the area, but they have a great selection of baked goods, craft beer, and handmade ice cream. AND they'll even deliver to the beach if you get hungry while you're there but don't want to give up your spot. Our picks: the Front Porch (curried chicken salad) and the Windjammer (turkey with onion jam!) Anouk loves their PB&honey.



Paradise Ocean Club: A private beach club on the grounds of decommissioned Fort Monroe -- it used to be the officers beach. Admission is $10 per adult ($5 per child) but it's worth it for the amenities -- beach and pool and cabana boys to bring your food and drinks out to the sand. There's almost always some music going on, and the waves can be pretty active for a bay beach, which is nice. Crowded on weekends, so if you're going on Saturday or Sunday, plan to get there early.

Paradise Donuts: My dad, who works in downtown Norfolk, has been telling us about Paradise Donuts for a while, so we decided to check it out last weekend. The verdict: YUM! Paradise offers both yeast and cake donuts in some creative combinations (Creamsicle and Blue Raspberry were two of the ones we tried). They also have old classics done well.


Have you discovered any new-to-you places around town lately?

We heard the news that a Duck Donuts was coming to Virginia Beach a few months ago. Last week, we drove by and saw the Virginia Beach Boulevard location had finally opened, so we went in and got breakfast. Talk about starting the day off right!