Another Glorious Weekend

James & I decided to take a day trip up to Charlottesville today. It's 80 miles NW of where we live and it took us about an hour and fifteen minutes. Last night we researched the different places we wanted to go while we there. So our first destination was the downtown farmers market. We arrived at 9 a.m. to streets of Charlottesville filled with people milling around, some with their animals, other with their young children, looking at a variety of vendors at the market. There were many farmers from the area selling an abundance of beautiful veggies, some meat farmers, artists, coffee roasters, bakers, kettle corn, banjo players...etc. It was one of the best markets I have been to...and we ended up with 8 large bundles of basil (for pesto I will be freezing), 20 lbs. of tomatoes, onions, garlic, kettle corn, and two cups of iced coffee! :) We realized there was much more to see in the downtown area so we hauled our treats to the car. The downtown part of Charlottesville consists of hundreds of stores/shops/restaurants, but it is closed to any vehicles. The streets are paved with red bricks for about a half mile; with flowers and trees lining the street. There are restaurant vendors who have outdoor seating in the middle of the paved street with shades. It is quite a tranquil and relaxing setting! So we visited an incredible bookstore...New Dominion...and found many books to buy. We had to narrow it down to two...a book about Virginia Piedmont area...and another one by a local artist about living simply. (i'll post the title later). The bookstore had complimentary coffee and homemade cookies...let's just say Jamie was in heaven....literally! I had to visit a knit shop..where I became ambitious and decided that I am going to make Jamie a sweater. So I'll keep you posted on the progress...although it could easily take me a year! :) We perused some local art stores and saw some incredible work..which we eyed but realized we had to control every urge to buy things! There was also a wonderful store that sold some Ten Thousand Villages items and part of the store was dedicated to this local nonprofit called Innisfree. It's a community that exists for mentally disabled adults (18-84), and they produce amazing work. Check them out at innisfreevillage.org. Simply amazing! Natalia...I thought of you! Anyhow, that was wonderful! We found out that the town of Charlottesville is ranked 6th in the country for being "green"...which is neat to be close to people like that!
We finished the day by heading up to an apple orchard and picked 20 lbs. of golden delicious to make applesauce & apple pie filling. We really had such a wonderful day and can't wait till our next visit up there....Jess get ready! Peace & love to all...