Hey friends, today I’m going to be sharing about two cities I have traveled to since moving to Virginia, part of my goal of exploring the east coast! Lynchburg is nice and all but it was really fun to go out and go to some bigger cities.

Roanoke

My sweet husband surprised me a few Sundays ago with a mini road trip to Roanoke. It was a beautiful drive! Once we got nearer the downtown area, I just about drooled when I saw the high rise buildings from the freeway because it reminded me of Portland.

Our first stop was Sweet Donkey Coffee House. The house was so cute and cozy, and there was lots of outdoor seating as well in case you want to bring your dog (there were plenty there I wanted to take with me). I ordered a chai with espresso which was amazing and enjoyed relaxing in the beautiful yard.

Next, we headed downtown and wandered around the pedestrian mall, which had several cute shops in it! It was a great place to window shop. My favorite place was a store called Chocolatepaper, which sells–you guessed it–chocolate and paper. It was the dream store.

We visited a free art museum – the Taubman museum of art. It was a small museum but it had some fun exhibits. I especially enjoyed one exhibit with butterflies and birds made from recycled materials and old records.

We took our packed lunches up to the Roanoke Star, a blue ridge mountain landmark. It had a great view of the city and a cute park that we ate at. There were lots of trails around, too.

Our next stop was the local mall, which sounds like a dumb thing to do on a day trip, but there was a MACY’s and an ULTA and I just about cried when I walked into them because they are the closest ones to Lynchburg.

A good day for me is not without ice cream, so Matt took me to Blue Cow ice cream, which kind of reminded me of Salt and Straw because it had a lot of unique flavors. I got the salted butter almond and a special flavor that had chocolate with different candy bars. It was delicious.

After wandering around downtown more, our last stop was at Alejandro’s Mexican grill. The Mexican food here is certainly not the same as California’s, but I was extremely impressed with the salsa bar at this place. There was a great corn and bean salsa with lots of flavor that I put on everything.

It was a GREAT day spent with my hubby and I hope to go back sometime soon!

Charlottesville 

Before starting my new job, I decided to spend one of my last days of freedom on a solo day trip to Charlottesville.

My first stop was Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s house. I didn’t actually get to see the house since it was expensive to get tickets, but I did take advantage of all the free things like a mini movie, museum, and shop. It was really beautiful and fun to learn about how he was really into architecture. Also it had some amazing views!

Next, I drove to the University of Virginia to visit the free art museum. The museum was pretty small, but I was impressed at how huge and beautiful the campus is!

Apparently, Charlottesville has one of the longest pedestrian malls in the nation, so I decided to spend some time there next. The shops were pretty cute but I only spent about an hour there.

My last stop of the day was my favorite part – Carter Mountain Orchard near Monticello. I got some fresh apples and cider donuts that were amazing, and spent some time enjoying the wonderful view!

I had a fun time wandering the city by myself and getting in some me time before starting work.

Thanks for reading, and check back next week for Friday Favorites!