I had a soft start to the weekend on Thursday night when I went to dinner with my longtime friend and neighbor Madeline, and her sister. It was super nice out, so we sat on the rooftop of Capital Ale House (they have the BEST black bean burger!) After dinner, we drove home and Kenny called me and told me he had just gotten off of work and was headed downtown, so I turned right back around and walked back downtown to meet him. We sat on the rooftop of Magnolia's and had some guac and drinks and it was SO nice!
On Friday, I had a half day at work, so I came home and started baking this DELICIOUS berry mascarpone layer cake recipe that I've been dying to try. When my mom got off of work, I went with her to a farmer's market and we got some local strawberries for the filling.
Later that evening when Kenny got off work, we went to see Booksmart. We really liked it! It was funny and kinda weird, and it had a bunch of actors and actresses that we love. After the movie, we came back and cut the cake with my parents and watched the JMU vs. UCLA softball game. The cake was SO GOOOOD. It reminded me of a strawberry Smith Island cake, and the mascarpone icing was some of the best I've ever had. Everyone loved it, I will definitely be making it again.
On Saturday, Kenny and I slept in a bit and then I had a nail appointment. I also tested out a new drugstore self tanner (review to come!) After I got my nails done, Kenny and I ran around town for a while and had such a good time! I love just running errands and spending time together and not having anything specific to do.
That evening, we were planning on going downtown for drinks with our friends Olivia and Pop, but the weather was being sketchy and it was storming off and on. We decided to go anyway around 5:30, and were just planning on going to Billy Jacks to try and score some of the *currently unreleased* Bold Rock hard seltzer, but they were out, so our night couldn't stop there. It POURED again while we were there, so while we waited out the rain, Kenny and I shared some onion rings and I got a good ole G&T.
After Billy Jacks, we went over to Jimmy Madison's in hopes of sitting on the rooftop. They had all of the tables closed off because it had just rained but let us sit at the bar which was really fun. None of us had ever sat there, and it was completely under cover, so when it began pouring again after we got there, we stayed completely dry. I love grapefruit cocktails (see here and here) and Jimmy Madison's has a grapefruit gimlet that is a new favorite of mine. I also ordered a bees knees which I had never tried there before, but I didn't love it.
When the rain stopped, the sun was setting behind the clouds creating a beautiful pink and lavender sky. We went out to the edge of the rooftop to take some pictures, and then headed back out. At the beginning of the night, Kenny had asked if we should go to Ruby's which is our favorite bar to go to for dancing (when we ever do that... like every six months haha). At the time, we were like HA, no way are we going to make it that late (they open at 10:00), but at this point it was a little after 8:00 and we were feeling good, so we felt like we'd make it.
We headed to Clementine which is upstairs from Ruby's and got some more drinks (another grapefruit one for me, who knew?!), along with some AMAZING falafel, which is one of my favorite things from there. We ran into our wedding DJ there who is such a great guy
While we were at Ruby's a super bizarre situation happened that I still can't explain. I'll keep the story short but I still wanted to tell it because it was SO weird. (I'll preface the story by saying I rarely "go out" in the OUT-out sense, so have very few experiences with belligerent drunk people, and I never get insanely drunk ever.) We got down to the bar shortly after it opened so it wasn't very crowded, but there were two guys sitting near our group of four. They weren't doing anything weird, just drinking and snapchatting videos of each other. As it became more crowded, one of the guys went somewhere else and the other one stood up from the table they had been and came and stood behind us.
As were dancing, each of us began to notice that this guy was FILMING us on his phone. It was super weird, and he just KEPT doing it. It was clear that he was filming us and not anyone else because he was right behind us and kept looking up at us from his phone screen, and never moved. The longer it went on the weirder it got until eventually Kenny went over and asked him to stop filming us. The guy told Kenny to mind his own business (along with other assorted unintelligible slurring) so Kenny left him and we just assumed he'd stop after being confronted. Well, he DIDN'T; he continued to film us in the exact same way so Kenny went over to him again, and he still denied that he was filming us and basically told Kenny to eff off. He KEPT doing it to the point that it was SO uncomfortable that I was ready to leave. Kenny went up to him one more time, but at that point we all knew he wouldn't admit what he was doing or stop.
Shortly after that, three friends of his came over and we could tell that he was telling them that Kenny had confronted him about filming us because he was pointing at us and they were all looking over. A girl that he was with got on her phone and GOT IN OUR FACES FILMING US basically mocking us for asking her
After our strange ending to an otherwise super fun summer kickoff of a night, we all headed home.
On Sunday, Kenny headed home to spend time with his mom and his best friend who is home from grad school, and I went on a vineyard tour with gorgeous Madeline for her birthday! Her friend from college was in town so after some pre-outing mimosas, we went with her parents, brother, and sister to her favorite vineyard, Marceline. I had never been there and it was SO adorable! It was relatively small, had a really nice outside area with a fire pit burning and gorgeous views, and three sweet cats hanging around! We got a bottle of the vidal blanc which was really good. Madeline's parent's had packed a WINNING spread of cheese, nuts, fruit, olives, hummus, crackers, salami... pretty much all the charcuterie essentials. It was threatening rain when we first got there, but the sun came out and it ended up being beautiful for the rest of the day.
After Marceline, we went to Cross Keys which is within spitting distance. I love it there, but it was pretty crowded and a live band started playing shortly after we got there, so we decided to skip out and go to Brix & Columns, which I had also never been to and had AMAZING views of the Massanutten peak! We sat inside, drank viognier and played rummy, which was so relaxing and fun.
When we were done at vineyards for the day, the crew headed back to Madeline's house. Her parents made us some AMAZING pizza with pre-made dough from a local pizza place. We hung around for a few more hours before I got sleepy like the grandma I am and went back home to go to bed.
On Monday morning, Madeline, her friend, her sister and I walked downtown to Heritage Bakery for some breakfast before her friend had to catch a bus home, and I had the best zucchini bread muffin! The rest of the day was low-key, I ran some errands with my parents and we took some lunch out to my grandparents, then I read for a while and cooked dinner for Kenny and me once he got back to town (I made this sweet and spicy sriracha tofu with steamed broccoli, and we both loved it!)
Did you have an amazing long weekend? I love how Memorial Day weekend always feels like the start of summer, it's definitely summer HOT here, finally! I love it when summer hits in full force, it's my favorite season ever and just makes my soul feel RIGHT š
Have a great short week!
xoxx, Laura
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