Roanoke & Annapolis

 

Two of my favorite people in the world are Aimee and Alicia, and while they love traveling, they also live in really cool places - so we went to visit there!

Aimee and Will live in Raleigh for real, but they bought a vacation home in Roanoke, Virginia. I'd never been to Roanoke, and it was wonderful. It's nestled right in the mountains, and there are wonderful trails that lead to places like the picture above - McAfee Knob! It was a gorgeous 8-mile hike with a huge payoff. We also hiked part of the Appalachian Trail to get there.

In Roanoke they also have a star that sits on top of a mountain (it was not lit while we were there, but Aimee said it has been every other night), and we drove up there and hiked down - so pretty.

Roanoke had a great restaurant, brewery, and music scene! We visited so many cool ones:

Green Goat - Sat outside, perfect weather, along a trail

Blue Cow - We walked here after hiking down from the star. Alicia said it was the best ice cream she'd ever had, and I always say that.

Wasena City Taproom - Sat outside again! Beautiful.

Golden Cactus - Could not beat the atmosphere. I wanted to take pictures continually.

Big Lick - Gorgeous mural, great band, and we ordered food from Tuco's while we were here.

Martin's Downtown - Will and Aimee said I would like the band here, and wow, did I! Cinamateque - heavy on the brass, lots of fun to dance!

Parkway Brewing - Another beautiful outdoor place 

Fork in the Market - Downtown Roanoke, lots of people and...karaoke! Aimee graciously joined me in a duet. 

I loved walking around downtown Roanoke, because there were so many places to see. Will and Aimee took us everywhere, including a park that overlooked a concert venue, a store where I bought my new favorite earrings, and to the top of a parking garage with a view of the city and where we hiked earlier that day. 

Annapolis

We drove to Annapolis, and Alicia and Bobby took us out on their boat! We toured around, and we saw so many jellyfish in the water. I learned on this trip that Bobby won the national championship in sailing when he was in college, so I peppered him with questions, and he even let me drive the boat. It made me very nervous I was going to run into anything. Later, after I handed the controls back over, I saw were were going four miles per hour. Ha!

We stopped at the Yacht Club and ran into their friends. One of them showed Billy, their five-year-old, the trick of taking off your thumb, and his amazement was so fun to see. This trick NEVER gets old!

We saw where Billy takes sailing lessons, and we saw slightly older kids driving their tiny little sailboats. Bobby asked Billy sailing quiz questions, and it was so interesting to learn about things I never hear about in my normal daily life. (Sailing conversations since I left Annapolis - zero.)

We went to their house, which is 1.5 miles from the ocean, so we walked there to see the water.

One thing that was funny in both of these places. We have cicadas, but our cicadas are muted compared to their cicadas. I saw one there, and they were the same size, but they must have so many more. Aimee said she recently was at a party where the cicadas were louder than the music. I couldn't get over it.

Billy started kindergarten the next day, and we got to see Alicia and Bobby take him in, and it was nice to be part of their first day of school prep.

School starts here on Monday...it's been a fantastic summer. Thank you to Aimee and Alicia for one last trip!