Virginia Visit (Part I)

A couple of weeks ago I made my very first trip back to Virginia since moving out to Seattle.  When I told all my Seattle peeps I was leaving on a week-long vacation everyone was so excited,  "Oh, awesome!  Where are you going?"  Then, when I told them I was heading to Virginia they seemed disappointed.  I happened to have gone on dates with 3 different foreigners in the past few weeks and none of them even knew where Virginia was or what it was known for.  (Obviously I clued them in that VA is known for slavery, peanuts, and ham.)  Despite everyone else's lack of enthusiasm for my trip, I was super excited to visit the place I called home for 28 years.  So excited, in fact, that I had prepared a detailed (morning, noon, and night) agenda of my trip months in advance :)


First stop on the trip was JNo's house in Leesburg, VA for some QT with my second family.  I hadn't seen sweet little Aubrie since she was just a wee thing and it was incredible to see how big and grown up she was!  Little miss thang is so grown-up that she can even boss me around, "Manda here.  Manda go.  Manda book.  Manda up.  Manda down."  And I loved every minute of it!

While in Leesburg I also got to have a lovely dinner with some of my DC relatives, I had fresh, homemade doughnuts thanks to Bryan, and I attended an "interesting" toddler yoga class.  It was a great way to start my trip, but with so much to do and so little time, I had to move on to the next adventure; girl's night in Old Town.


My friend Kristal drove up to Old Town Alexandria for a night out on the town with Jennifer and me (and also, so she could give me a ride back down to Richmond later).  I had booked us a fabulous hotel right on the main street, but right as we were checking in, the evening took a comically bad turn.  We decided to valet Jennifer's car since there is no real parking in the area.  As we're getting our room key at the front desk, the valet runs after us, "Excuse me, ma'am your car won't start," he says to Jennifer.  With a dumbfounded look she asks, "what do you mean it won't start???"


After 30 minutes of messing with the car while it's occupying the only valet spot in front of this very posh hotel, we realize... this car is not going to start.  Several of the valets team up to put in neutral and at least push it slightly out of the way so other cars have room to pull in. Poor Jennifer is utterly confused and frustrated, especially since it wasn't even her car, it was her husband, Bryan's car that we'd taken for the night.  We have no choice but to call AAA and the amazing valet, Bobby tells us to head up to our room and he'll send up a bottle of wine for us while we wait for AAA to come.

At this point (after a glass of wine) we start feeling much better about the situation and decide to just enjoy our night.  To our relief, AAA actually comes pretty quickly.  We rush down and find that Bobby has already started filling in the guy on the whole situation.  Unfortunately, we also find that the nasty hotel manager (with a Napoleonic complex) is also outside making snippy remarks about having some broken-down car junking up his hotel.  At some point during all this commotion, Kristal arrives at the hotel, but we're all so focused on getting the car started (or at least just towed away).  After about 45 minutes, the AAA guy gets the car started by using a hammer!  He hammered down on the battery lead and had someone turn the ignition at the exact same time to start it.


The AAA guy seemed very satisfied with himself, starts packing up his tools, and turns to us to say, "now, just don't turn it off 'cause it won't start again if you do."  Uhmmmm, excuse me?!!?  We're staying at a freakin' hotel, how does that help?  What are we supposed to do?  I explained to the guy that this was not an acceptable solution so he starts making calls to find a nearby repair shop that can take it on a Friday night.  Another 30 minutes later, after more dirty looks from the hotel manager, we finally find a shop that's open.  The AAA guy takes pity on us and agrees to caravan to the repair shop since we have no idea where we're going and we need Kristal to follow behind in her car so she can bring us back to the hotel.  Another 45 minutes later (Boooo! to city traffic!) we finally drop the car off at the shop, but now we're late for our dinner reservations :(


The whole time we'd been dealing with the car drama my contacts had been absolutely burning and my eyes were watering.  I really don't know why, but since I always carry my glasses with me when I travel I figured I'd just pop up to the room and take them out.  We run up to the room and realize the key doesn't work.  Did they kick us out of the hotel?!?  Well, I was carrying it right next to my cell phone the whole time, so maybe I just deactivated it.  We go back down to the lobby to sort it out.  My wallet and ID are still locked in the room (all I have is the non-functioning room key and my cell phone) so I try to explain the situation to the front desk clerk so they'll give me a new key.  As soon as I start to mention the car trouble, a light of recognition comes across his face, "Ohhhhhhh, that was you guys?  I heard about that!"  So he makes a key and we rush upstairs for my glasses.  Only then do I realize that my glasses are not in the room, but rather in Kristal's car which we've just had valet parked :(  Knowing that we were already super late for dinner, I decide that maybe if I just change my lenses out for a new pair that my eye will recover.  It was basically my only option.


Thankfully, when we finally make it back to the restaurant (attached to the hotel), Bobby had saved our table for us and we're seated immediately.  The waitress has evidently been filled in on our saga, asks if the car trouble has been sorted out, and gives us some complimentary glasses of wine (again, thanks to Bobby).  I think we all feel equal parts embarrassed and appreciative of everyone's kindness.

We are all so completely ready to sit back and enjoy our wonderful meal (and another bottle of wine).  My philosophy for this whole trip was "to eat like I'm on vacation!" so we had foie gras served with duck confit, scallops with squid ink, rockfish with gnocchi and wild mushrooms, schnitzel and spaetzle, and wild boar!  It was all amazing!

Everything seemed perfect; eating, drinking, catching up, laughing, until... the fire alarm starts blaring.  We look around to see if we're supposed to evacuate, but no one seems to be moving.  The wait staff looks a little panicked and you can see them consulting with each other and making phone calls.  After a couple of minutes they starting coming to all the tables to explain the situation; a car in the parking garage ran into a wall where a fire alarm was located.  Shortly thereafter we see a fire truck pull up to the building, then two fire trucks, and then three fire trucks.  We can't help but laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation.  By this point the alarm has been going off for over ten minutes.  Luckily, we'd already finished our meal, so we were ready to pay our check and get away from the awful noise.  On our way out we got to see the uniformed firefighters tromping through the hotel lobby.  (I'm sure that pissed off the obnoxious manager even more!)


The night did not end there, but this post does.  To be continued....