Eating our Way through Virginia

It may never happen again.
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Enjoying a meal with each of our kids, in their own homes, on three consecutive days.
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And, oh, it has been wonderful.
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We left Near Philadelphia on Friday mid-day and arrived in Alexandria, Virginia, a little after four. Amy wasn't expecting us until after five, so we went down to the shopping area and, well, shopped. There was a terrific store there that might well have been called Grandparents' Downfall. We found some cute overall outfits for Sam's first birthday and Joe, the guy who just loves to play with hand-puppets with kids, picked up a life-size white fluffy duck.
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Andrew and Amy entertained us royally. Their guest room is comfortable and they wanted to explore a French restaurant in town that they'd passed before. And so we did. It was very charming inside and the food was good. Joe opted for some berry-filled crepes for dessert, despite Andrew's warning that he was making crepes for breakfast the next day. And so he did. They were filled with cut up bananas and poached peaches and sprinkled with sugar. Joe pronounced them better than the French restaurant's. A&A were still in the mid-to-late stages of the headcold, so we didn't hang around long after breakfast. We left around 11 in the morning and continued our trip to Anastasia and Tom's place in Richmond.
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As on Friday, we were blessed with minimal traffic. We had no trouble at all getting there. We visited at T&A's place and they started talking about going out someplace for some lunch. We spoke about the crepes that A&A had made and Tom got to drooling and decided we should go over to Can-Can where he knew he could get a good crepe. We all did. These were chicken and mushroom lovelies. Nice. But not as good as A&A's.
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Saturday evening T&A decided we should go out to dinner at Helen's restaurant downtown. And so we did. And what an experience it was! The reviewer only gave Helen a 12 out of 20 on whatever scale they were using. We gave it an A+ on our scale. It was just a wonderful meal, and we would gladly return to Helen's anytime we had the opportunity. You might want to consider it if you are ever in Richmond: http://www.gayot.com/restaurantpages/info.php?tag=RIRES030601&code=RI
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We didn't have dessert there. Anastasia had made brownies and Tom a key lime pie at home. And we were given our birthday gifts a little early. We stayed at a Holiday Inn since T&A really don't have a lot of room for guests, and returned to them this morning for Anastasia's home-cooked breakfast which was just yummy. It included a Southwest version of those breakfast casseroles and she was kind enough to share the recipe.
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Driving home, we considered whether to stop at Annapolis. The second best quilt shop I've ever been in, Cottonseed Glory http://www.cottonseedglory.com/cottonseedglory/index.htm is there, and we've often stopped and had lunch in downtown Annapolis and then Joe takes a nap in the car while I peruse the quilt shop. We decided we really needed to stop. The thing is, though, the restaurant we like in Annapolis is a French place that specializes in -- you guessed it. We partook of the chicken and spinach variety which were better than Can-Can's, but, again, not up to the standard set by A&A. Joe needed an ice cream cone after we ate, and we wandered around the waterfront while he ate it. I was tired by the time we got to Cottonseed Glory, and actually didn't buy anything. That shop used to carry the Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazines, and I was anticipating picking one up, but apparently they've discontinued them. Our LQS doesn't carry them any more either; the only place I know that does is that place out in Bird-in-Hand that has the green rulers. Anyway.
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So we're home again, safe and sound, after another day of really not much traffic on I-95. Tomorrow night we're having dinner at Chris and Sherry's. Chances they'll serve crepes? Slim to nonexistent. Unless they read this blog in the morning!