Rewind: Two Year Anniversary (Cotton and Delicious)

It's been over a month since we enjoyed our second (cotton!) anniversary! It was a quiet, SWEET, and low-key weekend spent back at the Homestead and surrounding county. Delicious came along to help us celebrate! I want to post something before too much time passes, and I forget the details and give up writing about it (like the babymoon, birth story, and night nurse posts). So here I am doing a diligent rewind. 

Before we got married, we'd go on long weekends down to this beautiful part of Virginia. Just over three hours from DC, Bath County is a really nice, easy getaway from the frenetic pace of the city. If you're ever looking for a little pastoral therapy, why not try Bath and surrounding counties in Virginia? The Allegheny mountains are magnificent!

Clockwise: Back to the Homestead again for the third year in a row; last year (I was three months pregnant and would announce that weekend); our wedding day two years ago

Pit stop: Staunton, Virginia

On the way down, we stopped in Staunton. When I was growing up, Staunton had a reputation for white supremecist activity. These days it's known as a beautiful, sleepy historic town with antique shops and more cosmopolitan attractions, including great restaurants, like Staunton Grocery. At the recommendation of Mary and Ryan, we tried out the gastronomic surprise. They have a really  nice wine list and the food is a sophisticated, yet down-to-earth modern interpretation of Southern cuisine (e.g. herbed hushpuppies with bacon butter and chicken confit bbq!!!!). We celebrated with lunch, real vintage Champagne and some nice local asparagus with coddled egg, moules frites, and oyster poboy.

Mmmm

Next stop: Inn at Gristmill Bed and Breakfast in Warm Springs

We spent the first night at a local favorite. Just a mile from Hot Springs and the Homestead, the Inn at Gristmill Square is a very quaint group of guest houses and rustic rooms--a departure from the more commercial Homestead resort. We love it, and have made friends of the locals of the little town of Warm Springs, including Ryan and Mary, as well as Barbara of the Warm Springs Gallery. We each got an amazing massage at the Warm Spirit Spa (better and less expensive than what you can get at the Homestead) from one of two sisters who operate their independent practice at the Inn. The combination of Swedish, deep tissue, and hot stone massages was one of the best massages I've ever had. I highly recommend. We spent the late afternoon sipping wine, which we brought, on the porch of the spa house. Idyllic.

Scenes from the Inn

Barbara and G catch up; Maggie, Barbara's dog, on the porch of the Warm Springs Gallery; Delicious having his lunch in the gallery (after which we had to change his very full diaper...right there next to the artwork)!

 

Wine and rocking chairs on a porch in the country with nothing to do except...rock. Sweet.

The Inn also has a great little country restaurant that we love for its rustic but elegant fare. Every time we're in town, we have a meal there. The neat thing is that the place changed ownership just a couple months ago. I didn't really pay attention, but we were seated by a young woman, Kate Loeffler, whom we met two years ago. She recognized us from our wedding, as she was one of the sales reps at the Homestead who worked with us. In the couple of years since we last saw her, she had moved to another resort and then returned to buy the Inn with her husband, John. I love that this young, energetic couple bought the place and are starting to make some great changes, while still keeping the spirit of the place. For example, the Inn has this great wine cellar (literally an old root cellar), where you can pick from their selection. With John, who was the beverage manager at the Homestead, at the helm, the selection has grown and is now fantastic. They even started using real wine glasses, rather than just one-size utility goblets. Small but important details.

The food was great, as usual. G had the lamb, and I had a little filet. It was an interesting challenge to have dinner with Delicious in tow. He's on a schedule of eat, bath, sleep which starts at 7-ish. We pushed that a little, and he was good watching us eat for the most part. (I can't wait to give him a taste of real food.)

Dinner at the Gristmill is always nice (in a cozy sort of way). Bonus now that 1) Delicious got his first experience of it and 2) The new ownership knows what they're doing! Love the country plates and Delicious's expression

They also offer a cute little breakfast that they bring to the room in a basket. The guest rooms are in need of updating, but they're relatively inexpensive. We brought along the Pack n' Play, and Delicious slept well without complaint. (We were really unsure about how he would do on this, his first trip.) I guess the smell of home was still in the sheets.

Homemade biscuits and muffins; Delicious enjoying his Pack n' Play; breakfast delivered in a basket!

Backroads: Douthat State Park

After our one-night stay at the Inn (a Christmas gift from G's parents), we did some exploring of the county. G's dad lent him a guide to Virginia's back roads, and we found Douthat State park. It opened in 1936 and has some of the most breathtaking views in the area, and features a large lake for fishing, swimming, and boating. It's voted one of America's top ten best parks, with a neat little restaurant that offers southern/local treats like fried pickles (!) and sweet tea.

Destination: The Homestead

Our final destination was the Homestead. Our second year celebrating the anniversary at the place we were married. (Read about the first year here.)

The room was nice. Bonus that we got the second night free! (The resort is offering a lot of these discount packages lately.) As I walked into the room, there were Amnesia roses waiting on an end table. G surprised me once again, as he did last year, with the same flowers I carried down the aisle. So sweet. These unusual roses always take me back to that day. I love them!

The side view of the Homestead--a gambrel roof like our house ;) ; our room; Amnesia roses; scene of the surprise

We had dinner in the main dining room that night...with Delicious, of course. There's nothing like formula bottles and a stroller to up the class and romance! I had the mountain trout (the same as I had on the wedding day) and G had the Rib Chop. These days, after being acquired by the big ClubCorp, the resort management has made some changes, including the addition of a "new classics" section to the menu. They also painted the previously yellow dining room a grey-purple and styled it in a lot of mirrored, neo-art-deco fashion. I don't like it, but apparently, KSL/ClubCorp know how to run a resort and business is good.

 

We went for a walk around the grounds afterward. It's such a lovely place, especially in the Spring when everything is so green and in bloom.

Dinner scene; mountain trout, rib chop; after-dinner stroll along the grounds; Delicious in the wine carrier stroller

The next day, we walked around some more and stopped by our wedding site in the garden. Sigh! We also ran into Esme, our coordinator. She's part of our story, practically, so it was nice that she got to meet Delicious. Full circle.

The garden where we were married; Esme, our wedding coordinator with Delicious

Then we spent the rest of the day hanging out with Ryan and Mary at their Memorial Day trout cookout and then came back to the hotel room and had some special wine...from our wedding. G went to great lengths to reserve several of the bottles (which he had hand picked and arranged for the wedding). Delicious watched tv as we relaxed. We skipped the annual Memorial Day cookout (it's kind of a zoo and pretty expensive), opting to watch it from our room and order room service, as we opened our gifts to each other. The second anniversary is cotton. I got G cotton embroidered pocket squares and G got me a cotton apron, handmade by Etsy seller, Pamwares! Love it--the fabric is Ikea pattern Fredrika!

Two years!