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!

There's a little place, tucked inside a nondescript shopping center off of Tidewater Drive in Norfolk, where you can get some of the best pastries in the area. It's called Naa's Bakery, and Anouk and I met Miss Molly and Little A. there last week to get ourselves sugared up before a park playdate.

Naa's has been around for the better part of a century, and as soon as you walk in you realize why it's earned its place as a Norfolk landmark, alongside places like Doumars and Charlie's Cafe. There's a sweetly (no pun intended) old fashioned charm that you just can't find anyplace else that makes you think it probably hasn't changed very much over the years. The long bakery case houses dozens of delicacies, from thick slices of homemade cake to feathery fluffed doughnuts to whimsically iced cupcakes and cookies. We had a hard time deciding what to order because everything looked so good (and a hard time meeting the $5 credit card minimum despite the half-dozen or so goodies we ordered -- seriously, the prices are so reasonable). As we sat at our table in the front of the bakery and sampled bites of each others' desserts, we chatted with the friendly staff behind the counter and it was a little bit like stepping back to a simpler time and place. The ladies behind the counter made us promise to come back -- they didn't have to twist our arms.

Have you been to Naa's? What were your favorites? In case you were wondering, our top picks were the plain glazed doughnuts and the thickly iced black-and-white cookies. Although everything we sampled was delicious. So much yum in one small place!