Picks and Pans – Charlottesville, VA

Deliciously crispy dumplings, cold sesame noodles and steamed pork buns all for under $10….ummm, perfect.

Cate and Ashton introduced us to Charlottesville in style by taking us straight to this nature preserve. The walk around the lake at sunset is highly recommended, especially if accompanied by two such charming Charlottesville residents.

Ashton took us to three of the many wineries that surround Charlottesville, which made for an afternoon of about 20 different wines, innumerable bouts of philosophizing, one prolonged session of lounging in the sun and much fun with a very companionable group. We recommend Blenheim for the incredible view from the tasting room and, for $5 per tasting, it’s hard to go wrong. Kluge Estates has two different tasting flights, and although we found things to like about both, the sparkling wine option brought some happy surprises (especially the Blanc de Noir). Jefferson Vineyards is where we spent most of the afternoon because, in addition to having some decent reds, they also have an excellent lawn for sprawling out on in the late afternoon sun.

Spinach, tomato, feta, artichoke hearts and pesto on a perfectly crispy crust….sign me up! Their vegetable pizzas were so varied in type, but similar in their saliva stimulating abilities, it was extremely hard to pick a slice. Although I think it would be equally hard to make a bad choice.

It’s the cultural center of Charlottesville and we would have been remiss to skip out on this Jeffersonian classic.

Thanks to Harry Teet and their 99 cent per pound chicken we ate like kings for 4 days. Well, Ashton’s know-how around the kitchen didn’t hurt either.

Really nice park and a disc golf course to rival Philly. Lots of different terrain covering a large chunk of land. Watch out for the disc eating forest on hole 13 and for the hole 18 lake crossing that guzzled down 2 of our flyers… Well worth the 72 some holes we crammed into our 4 day stay, though.