Clifton Inn

We are getting married at Clifton Inn next July! So its a little weird that we have never eaten dinner there. My mom got us a gift certificate to Clifton, so for our anniversary we decided to treat ourselves to a fancy night out.

Clifton is a classy place. Not only is it a beautiful place, but the staff is great and the food is amazing. I had halibut, local quail, and a chocolate tart. Betsy had parmesan and pear ravioli, duck, and toffee bread pudding. We were also served a delicious little zucchini corn fritter before our meal was served. It was all great and I can't even decide what I liked best. Betsy liked the bread pudding and the fritter the best. Betsy's not a fussy food person, but she said "it sure was good." We like dressing up too. The best part about the whole night, though, is when we walked out the front door of the house. It is gorgeous, especially on a clear night. The property is really something. We are very excited to spend our wedding day and night here.

Cassis

So, a friend of ours knows some people who work at Cassis and he took us out for dinner there the other night. We actually didn't realize Cassis was worth checking out... The first time we went to Cassis was the first time we went out to bars in Charlottesville. It was a weird scene filled with cougars and "interesting" music. We basically wrote off Cassis, but we were wrong.

All the food we had for dinner was delicious. Our friend had the steak tartar as an appetizer and loved it. We all split roast duck breast with blue cheese polenta - yum. Betsy and friend had sea scallops, which were are waitress' favorite dish on the menu and I had the lamb. It tasted like it was slow cooked all day -- very tender and sweet. The whole menu seemed to have an autumn feel. The lamb was very much comfort food with lots of autumn/winter flavors and the sea scallops were very rich.

Cassis is on Water St. right next to Mono Loco, across from the Clock Shop. It is a little pricey, but we put it in the same category as Zocalo, so it's worth it. Also, it's a popular spot for Darden professors and wine tasting parties, so it seems to have a solid reputation.

Bang!'s Second Chance

The first time I went to Bang! I wasn't all that impressed. I don't know if it was because I had heard so much hype about it, or because the service wasn't that great, or even because we didn't order the right things, but the second time around made up for it. I met my friend Meg for dinner there the other night. We sat outside (which I loved - except for the major mosquito bites I woke up to the next morning) and I noticed that they have new menus. I think they may have cut out some of their menu items and scaled it down a little. We tried a mushroom ravioli/dumpling thing, pork tacos, coconut rice, and a vegetable noodle dish. Each one was really yummy and I love the tapas/family style way of eating.

Two thumbs up for Bang! the second time around.


They also seem to have really good cocktails...at least they looked good :)

Mono Loco

We had been to Mono Loco for breakfast, but hadn't made it over for dinner yet. That all changed last night. Another visitor - another restaurant, so we checked out Mono Loco. The food was really good...not up to Continental Divide standard or even El Puerto, but it was still good. There is a lot on the menu and it is hard to choose just one thing. They have a lot of seafood options too which I found a little surprising. Our friend, Randy, had a salmon burrito and thought it was very tasty. I wasn't as impressed with my dinner (so much so, that I forgot what I ordered). I thought it would be a contained dinner (like a taco or burrito) but it ended up being a loose salad-type of dish. They do serve a lot of food in terms of quantity and I would go back just for the atmosphere. Randy pointed out how many restaurants take advantage of outside seating in Charlottesville, and Mono Loco is no exception. I really like their outdoor area.

Boylan Heights

Speaking of burgers, the Econ Dinner Club ventured over to Boylan Heights on the Corner for our last get-together. Thumbs up all around. The burger varieties are so fun and different and not to disappoint. Charlie had some crazy concoction with onion rings, chili, wing sauce, everything on it - and it was goooood! I had a plain cheeseburger with avocado on it - delish! And their fries are delicious which automatically adds points in my book (they also have sweet potato fries - a good choice).

Service was a little off - granted we had 12 at the table - but overall another repeat restaurant in Charlottesville!

Henry's

Last weekend, we had a couple of visitors and decided to check out Henry's on the downtown mall. Charlie and I had seen it a couple of times while walking around (it's kind of hard to find since it's downstairs, under another storefront). We all had burgers and they were really really good. I had the Henry burger with an egg on top and it surprisingly wasn't very greasy or heavy.

A fun place to go for a casual dinner.

Dr. Ho's

Yummm Pizza...

Today, Charlie and I went on a yard sale search. We drove out towards Scottsville and on the way back decided to check out Dr. Ho's. I first heard about this little pizza place on the way to my sister's wedding when we got a little lost and ended up out by Dr. Ho's instead of at King Family Vineyards - whoops!

Anyway, the pizza makes up for the name. Charlie thinks it might beat out Mellow Mushroom and Christian's. The crust is great - very light and fresh. They have great toppings and I think they use all local vendors to supply their ingredients.

Worth getting lost for.

Giraffe!!!

Betsy has lived all around the world...Liberia, the Philippines, Nigeria, Indonesia, the UK. She has done all sorts of great things like visited remote villages in West Timor, gone on safari in South Africa, hung out with orangutans in Indonesia, and laid out on the beaches of Bali. But there is one thing that Betsy has always wanted to do, and it took her all this time and a trip down Interstate 81 to near Roanoke, Virginia to finally do it --- that is hand feed giraffes of course!!

In Natural Bridge, Virginia, there is a place called Virginia Safari Park. It is about 75 minutes from Charlottesville, just north of Roanoke right off of I-81. It costs $14 per adult, and there is some pretty neat stuff to do there. The main attraction is to buy animal feed from the front gate and drive through their 180 acre park. When you drive through the park there are animals EVERYWHERE! There are tons of different types of deer, moose, pot-bellied pigs, zebras, ostriches,

emus, camels, llamas, buffalo, and more. As you drive through you stop and hold buckets of feed out the window and the animals come right up to you and eat! In fact, sometimes they come all the way into your car (Betsy got surprised by a very hungry zebra).

After we drove around (it took at least 45 minutes, maybe longer), we parked the car and walked through the Safari Village. This is a walking tour that is especially well suited for the kiddies. There are goats, really big tortoises, monkeys, birds, and a warthog. The kids can hand feed some of the animals like the goats. But the main attraction is at the end of the walking tour, the giraffe feeding station. There are four giraffes, two parents and two babies, in a large field. You can stand up on a large platform about 15 feet in the air and if one of the giraffes comes over you can feed it. The problem is that the giraffes are perfectly content chewing on the grass in the field. We waited up on the stand for about 30 minutes, and finally "Katie" the giraffe came up to us and let us feed her some millet. By the way, Betsy thinks every giraffe is named Katie. She was a beautiful giraffe, and very shy, but she got up the courage to come up to us. Betsy hand fed her 3 times! We stood right next to her. I think she liked the attention because after she was done eating she stuck her head over the fence and looked at all the people in the park.

the train

We live right by the train tracks...

Yesterday's train took over 9 minutes to clear the tracks so I could drive to work...



9 minutes...

Charlie timed it.

Dear Bayley

Dear Bayley,

Recently you were at Old Dominion Animal Hospital and were given your rabies vaccination. There is a law in Virginia that requires your vet to notify the local Treasurer's Office whenever they vaccinate an animal.

At this time, in the records at City Hall, it does not appear that your owner has bought you a current dog tag. Dog tags are required on every dog more than four months of age and the tags are required to be purchased every year by the last day of January. If by chance you actually DO have a City of Charlottesville Dog License for 2009, please have your owner call (434)970-3157 and ask us to correct our records.

Please ask your owner to fill out the application form, send it to City Hall in the enclosed envelope, along with the appropriate fee, and we will mail a license to your home. If this is not done within 30 days, it will have to be reported to Animal Control that an unlicensed dog lives at your house.





Seriously....this is the letter we got in the mail the other day....addressed to Bayley Murry.

#1 - Bayley gets a name change before I do! Who knew he wasn't a Moats anymore...
#2 - Charlottesville is seriously on top of their game
#3 - Vienna is not...and neither is Newark, DE



Bayley has his first license for a whopping $4!