A couple of weeks ago, I had the double pleasure of a weekend visit from my good friend Heather, followed by 6 days in central Florida, visiting sites along the Gulf Coast. What a great way to start off the month!

When Heather came down from Philly for the weekend, we spent Saturday wandering around the shops and art galleries of Old Town Alexandria. It was the first really nice weekend weather day of the spring, and Old Town was teeming with people out enjoying the good weather. We spent a lot of time in the Torpedo Factory Art Center (www.torpedofactory.org), a former torpedo factory that’s now a series of artists’ studios and galleries. The galleries feature everything from paintings to sculptures to photography to mixed media — pretty much anything you can imagine. There’s something there to suit everyone’s tastes, and the prices are reasonable. I saw several items that I would’ve liked to buy, but I need to solve my little unemployment problem first! Anyway, if you find yourself anywhere near Old Town Alexandria, I highly recommend taking the time to wander through the Torpedo Factory galleries. The place also holds a special meaning for me since two very good friends of mine held their wedding in the Torpedo Factory’s main hall several years ago.

Following our stroll through the Torpedo Factory, Heather and I stopped for a few glasses of wine on the outdoor deck of the Chart House restaurant (www.chart-house.com), which sits right on the Potomac River. While I tend to try to stay away from chain restaurants, I really like the atmosphere at this Chart House, especially on a gorgeous day when you can sit out on the deck and watch the people along the boardwalk in front of the Torpedo Factory or the people boarding and departing the various river cruise boats that dock right next to the restaurant. What I particularly like is that the staff never rushes you, and doesn’t mind if you order nothing more than a glass of wine or a beer. It’s a great place to relax and soak in the atmosphere of Old Town and the river.

Later that evening, Heather and I had dinner at my current favorite restaurant in Northern Virgina, which I’ve written about before: Evo Bistro (www.evobistro.com). Heather is a fellow Spain-lover — in fact, it was Heather and her husband who first took me to Spain — so she loved all the wonderful tapas dishes on Evo Bistro’s menu. As usual, it took a while to make up our minds which of the many great dishes we wanted to order. Heather ordered scallops, while, after much debate, I ended up ordering what I always order: beef carpaccio and patatas bravas. Yum! And then, of course, we both ordered dessert — the amazingly wonderful Key lime mousse. We had a hard time convincing our waiter, though, that we each wanted an order of the mousse; he brought us one, and when we corrected him to say we wanted two, he gave us two spoons so that we could share. We finally convinced him that we each wanted our own mousse, and he brought out a second one. It’s too good to share! We even convinced the group at the table next to us to order several, and they agreed that their Key lime mousse was fantastic.

The next day, Sunday, Heather and I headed out to the Virginia hills to visit a couple of wineries. Both wineries I’ve mentioned before in this blog: Phillip Carter (www.pcwinery.com) and Chateau O’Brien (www.chateauobrien.com). The women who conduct the wine tastings at Phillip Carter are loads of fun, and I ended up walking out with two bottles of their Chardonnay — and I usually don’t even like white wines! But their Chardonnay was excellent, and after Heather and I enjoyed a glass in the winery’s great hall, I just had to buy a few bottles. The tasting we had at Chateau O’Brien was particularly interesting since it was conducted by the actual winemaker. Usually the owner conducts the tastings in the Reserve Room, but he’d just gotten married the day before and was off with his new bride (who usually conducts the tastings in the other tasting room), leaving the winemaker to handle all the tastings that day. Congrats to Howard O’Brien Jr. and his new wife! Anyway, Heather and I enjoyed a glass of Chateau O’Brien’s apple wine (made from apples from an orchard just around the corner) out on the winery’s large terrace, overlooking the Virginia hillsides.

After visiting those two wineries, we headed back to Alexandria, where we had tickets to see Gavin DeGraw (www.gavindegraw.com) in concert that night at the legendary Birchmere Music Hall (www.birchmere.com). I love that place, and have seen so many fantastic musicians and bands there over the years. Gavin’s show was fantastic. I hadn’t been a huge fan prior to the show, but I’d heard that he puts on a great live concert, so I decided to go, and was very pleasantly surprised at the music, Gavin’s energy, and his connection with the crowd. Of course, the fact that he looked so buff in a T-shirt didn’t hurt! I’d go see him again in a heartbeat — excellent show!

So, for just two days, we managed to pack in a lot of fun — good friend, good wine, good weather, good music. It doesn’t get much better than that! Shortly after Heather left on Monday morning to drive back to Philly, I left for the airport to fly down to Florida for the next 6 days. More on that in the next post. And check back later in the month, when I’ll be going to the Vintage Virginia Wine Festival and writing about that. But now, on to Florida…