At the beginning of September, Ped’s Chief Canine Officer, Lulu, took my husband and me on a trip to Charlottesville, Va., to celebrate our beloved friend Amy’s 40th birthday. The owner and genius behind Rock, Paper, Scissors and Scarpa, Amy became my bud years ago, thanks to shoes, when we originally met at trade shows!

Know who else lives in C’ville, Ped fans? Ped’s creative associate, Laura! Plus, our friend Kimmy made the trip down from New York City. It was quite an eventful weekend! If you’ve never been to Charlottesville, you really should visit—it’s a beautiful town, bursting with history and overflowing with great shops and restaurants.

The first day, we had lunch at Hamiltons’ before shopping on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall. When I stopped into Eloise (on nearby Water St.), who did I run into but my childhood friend from California, Jason!!! I had no idea he lived in Charlottesville. What a great surprise!

Reunited and we feel so good--Jason and I ham it up for the camera on the left, and Kim, the hub, and lovely Lulu relax at Hamiltons' on the right.

That evening we met Laura at MAS, a fantastic tapas restaurant in C’ville’s Belmont neighborhood. Our waiter entertained us by aerating the wine.

The MAS waiter has us spellbound with his wine pouring technique.

The next day, Amy arranged for us to have a special tour of Thomas Jefferson’s famous home, Monticello (we got to go upstairs!), and then we spent the rest of the afternoon helping Amy prepare for her big birthday bash!

Kim and Amy pretend they're spinning and scratching. (We left it to the professionals that night.)

Then it was time for the big party, where everybody had a blast!

The dance floor is jumping!

As usual, we Ped-sters had as much fun as anyone!

My husband, me, and Laura (who looks a little disheveled from all her dancing), happy to be at the party!

The next day was devoted to clean-up and recovery, although we did take time to shop for amazing pottery at The Barn Swallow. Then we all met for our final dinner in Charlottesville at TEN, which serves up fabulous sushi on the Downtown Mall.

After our whirlwind trip, it was back to Ped HQ in Berkeley. But we left a little bit of our hearts in Virginia, which truly is for lovers!

Stay tuned—you never know where Lulu will take us next.

Tags: Charlottesville, Dayna's travels

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 27th, 2009 at 10:10 pm and is filed under Dayna's travels. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.