Libby Hill Park

Tanner has been so busy. So so busy. He actually is in a huge hole he needs to dig himself out of right now. He was keeping up with his homework and taking measurements for the research group. But got behind on writing a set of lab guidelines and getting his proposal together for his own research. So we have not been doing much together. I will make sure to take more photos of things in our neighborhood, etc.

Libby Hill Park. This view is supposedly the view that named Richmond. A dude was looking down from the bill back in the late 18th century and it reminded him of Richmond-upon-Thames outside London. We took some crappy pictures. This was also back in February, so no leaves on the trees yet.

Tanner was impressed with the gas lamps 

So this is the only photo of the actual view down onto the river. It was really lovely, and this does not really capture it. 

Looking back toward the city. 

The cobblestone road through the park is where the bicyclists came up during the UCI race. It was pretty epic. 

We drove around a lot in some of these neighborhoods afterwards. It was really nice actually. We drove past some other parks. I know Seattle is known for being park poor, and I am impressed with how many parks are in Richmond. We also saw some cool houses, and drove past some restaurants and other things we have read about. 

Random bonus pictures. 

A different day we drove into the same lot as this store, we were going to Pet Smart. It was a really nice hobby shop! We had fun looking at all the stuff. Tanner wants fancy remote controlled stuff. 

Also, not impressed with the cart wranglers at Costco. Actually the service we get all establishments is not as good out here. 

February Storm and getting a new job

So we had a snow storm in February. It was pretty bad by Virginia standards, and compared to what we are used to. In the city I think they decided we got six inches of snow, but obviously more piled up along some streets, depending on the wind and things. In some areas outside the city they got up to 14 inches or so.

It started snowing on Friday, and snowed off and on through the weekend. Tanner had at least two days of classes cancelled. I worked from home, so that was easy. Until I had a phone interview and then an in person interview with this new non-profit I work for.

Just starting

By Saturday morning it had all melted again, before the next wave. This news lady is right outside our apartment building! 

Getting late on Saturday

I didn't take many photos on Sunday, this was late in the day on Sunday, really piling up

I am not a fan

They got at least one lane plowed downtown where we live, though some streets were plowed poorly and then sanded. Our car got buried on the side of the road, we had to dig it out. That was ridiculously hard. Luckily a nice neighbor loaned Tanner a snow shovel. All we had were some ice scrapers, a heavy metal skillet and some kitty litter. The pan actually did help a lot.

This was also back when we had to park like 7 blocks away from our house. Because we didn't drive the car every day, so we parked on streets that don't have time limits on the parking spaces. So we had to walk over there to see how the car was doing

I saw this and freaked out. Our car was not quite this buried, thank goodness

Tanner did a spot on job digging it out. He drove it around the block, on Monday, before going to class. Then parked it right back in the same spot. Tuesday warmed up and tons of snow melted. So I was able to go to my job interview in the afternoon. 

I have to say I was totally freaked out! Job interviews are stressful. But I hate driving in any adverse conditions, I didn't know where I was going, I had to dress up and then walk through the snow. I had a meltdown and called my mom like five times. I just really need to plan ahead for things, and not knowing what the weather was doing was tough. It turned out all right. 

It took another week for the roads to get plowed and snow to melt outside of the city. Some neighborhoods even in the city were snowed in for a long time. While I feel like a lot of criticism of the city is deserved, in this case I don't think they could have done better. It only snows like this here every 15 years or so. 

Bonus photos. When I found out about a week later, after a second interview, that I did get the job. This is at Perly's, the place across the street. We got the fish board, with three kinds of preserved fish. It had smoked trout, which was really delicious. Plus bagels, cream cheese spread, pickles, capers, some veg. Then on the left are the Jewish Eggrolls, they are like pastrami and other meats, then fried. They come with a duck sauce, and a spicy mustard sauce. We each got a local beer. It was all really delicious, and pretty affordable, since we only got those apps. 

My job is going okay. I don't want to talk too much about it since my blog is tied in part to my name. This is the kind of environment where if I complained online, in a private venue, they would write me up for it at work. 

Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Winter

Hey blog, long time no see.

I had to get a new job finally, and so I wasn't doing much on my computer besides that. Then once I got a new job, I was coming home tired. Getting used to working outside my house again took me a while.

I am going to make up posts in chronological order. This one is from back in January. It was actually like 50 degrees that day. The Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden is north of the city. It was free in January, since not much was blooming. So we had a really nice walk.

The garden was originally the grounds to a families mansion, it went through many iterations and fell into a little disrepair. It has been kept up and expanded for many years now, and has become one of the best botanical gardens in the U.S.

 Before going into the conservatory we walked around some of the other gardens. They have a cute, small medicinal herb garden. The properties of many plants are what developed into modern medicine. 

The conservatory had lots of ferns and leafy plants. They also had a nice orchid collection that was blooming.

Cute little mini cottage, you could peak in the windows. 

They had a little Japanese garden as well. It was okay, but of course Tanner has seen the real thing. It made us miss home a little. They have a building that looks a lot like the Shoreline Community College campus, that serves as a cafe and tea  house, that looks over the Japanese garden. It was closed in the winter, but made me home sick. 

They had a really nice collection of carnivorous plants. These pitcher plants are local to Virginia and are endangered in the wild. Tanner was really into the carnivorous plants of course. 

They have a HUGE kids area. It was amazing, giant tree house, little play houses, a garden, instruments, logs to play on, wind chimes. There were a lot of families and children there when we were. There was a little girl with bangs whose voice sounded a lot like Olivia, even though she was Latina. It made me SO homesick! There are so many things that are more fun if we can bring Olivia and Owen. 

I really like this area, they are still developing it. It will be a collection of dwarf conifers around the bottom of the lake. 

There is a meadow of grasses and wild flowers that aren't blooming yet. 

LUNCH! After the Botanical Garden we stopped for lunch at a place by our house, we even had a Groupon, so yay for cheap dates. It is called Cultured Swine. They focus on fusion sandwiches and tamales. It is a mix of Caribbean, Mexican and American flavors and dishes. 

Sorry for the upset lady in the picture. It has a cute local beer menu and we didn't know they have a Happy Hour. It is only a few blocks from our house. 

As you can see it is tiny

They have a collection of hot sauces

This was a Caribbean flavored one, they make it themselves, we loved it

Sideways photo? I got baked Mac and Cheese and Potato Salad. 

Tanner got a pulled pork sandwich. It was really delicious. They have a smoker out back, and smoke their own pork. We even walked around the alley so we could peek at the smoker.