Cupcake Crawl

We started last Saturday at the Alexandria Old Town farmer's market.  There were stands fillled with delicous baked goods, fresh fruit, and one cup cake stand.  This is where we gathered with other yelp community members to begin our cupcake crawl.  Our cupcake crawl had fifteen total bakeries we were going to try and then pick the best cupcake in the Alexandria-DC area.

We had our first cupcakes at a stand in the farmers market.   The flavors were oreo and pinnapple upside down cupcakes.  They were good but we knew there had to be something better out there.  We all walked over to Lavender Moon Cupcakes.  It is such a cute little shop.  All the cupcakes were presented in a beautiful display.  We waited anxiously to try these cupcakes.  Trent ordered the Orange Cream cupcake that had a blood red frosting.  I had the Buttermilk Chocolate with Mexican filling - the filling had cinnamon in the mix!

The cupcakes werer AMAZING!  No really, the best cupcakes I have had.  You should all make the trip to Alexandria and get one of these treats.

The group we went with was cooperating with Yelp - the restraunt review site.  We had official score cards to fill out.  We gave Lavender Moon 5 stars!  To see the final results watch here.

Up

We just saw the cutest movie: Up.  It is about an old man that goes out to make his late wife's wishes come true.  It was funny, sweet, sentimental, and animated.  This is not a post saying "Oh my gosh.  You HAVE to see this."  It is worse.  This is a "I love my husband more than chocolate, ice cream and brownies" post. 

As we were watching this movie, I began to tear up.  This is a usual scene.  One thing that I love about Trent is his response when I begin to tear during a movie.  He will cuddle up to me, put his arm around me, and just hold me.  It is so sweet.  During the movie, this was happening often.  At the end, I looked over (he will kill me for this) and he had a few tears in his eyes as well.  Adorable.  We both became teary-eyed at the thought of not having each other. 

Yeap, this was a sickning post but I don't care.  I adore him.

Destination PA

Trent and I both love Pennsylvania.  We are captured by the green, rolling hills, small towns, and the Amish/Dutch culture.  About a month ago, we were trying to decide how to spend our Labor Day weekend.  I came across the Hamburger Festival.  It is held every year in Hamburg, PA.  It was an easy decision with such events as mooing contests, mold a mound of meet contest, burger eating competitions, and amazing hamburgers. 

We arrived in Hamburg at noon - just in time for lunch.  We went straight to the mooing contest.  I was trying to talk Trent into participating and he agreed if I would also enter the contest.  I agreed. We waited in line, next to a man dressed in a cow suit, for a turn to give our best moo over the airways. 

We walked through the exhibits, was handed free jerky, and met the Dairy Ambassador.  In order to give a proper vote for the best hamburger, Trent and I waited in seperate, long lines to get two very different hamburgers.  I ordered the A1- Peppercorn Hamburger and Trent ordered the Garlic Mushroom Hamburger with freshly fried sweet potato chips.  Our favorite was the Garlic Mushroom Hamburger.  It was the best hamburger either of has have eaten.  As we ate, we talked with some local folks about the area.

After eating, we drove to Lancaster County.  We went through an old Amish home.  The owners have opened it up to the public and have added other Amish style buildings.  It was interesting to learn about the Amish lifestyle.  We also bought some very yummy pear butter.

My wonderful husband had set up our accomadations for that night.  He wanted it to be a surprise so he did not tell me where we were staying.  I love surprises! I love trying to figure out the surprise even more.  I did a little homework and found a few possibilities.  I ended up being correct but it was still a surprise.  We pulled up to a wonderful Bed and Breakfast that was in the middle of a cute town named Pottsville.  The three-story victorian homee was built on a hill and is the oldest gothic revival home in the USA.  It was gorgeous.  The house has been remodeled to include jacuzzi baths and comfortable beds. 

The Partridge Bed and Breakfast also comes with a great assett: the owners Willey and Rose.  They were both very welcoming and talkative.  They gave us a suggestion to go to Maroon's Bar and Grill to watch the BYU game.  As we were driving to Maroon's, my fantastic husband read to me the history of the Maroon's national football team and champions.  It was quite a contraversy back in the day.  We watched the game while eating a very good crab cake.  As we were leaving, we saw Willey and Rose there and we stopped by to say hi and see if they had a recommendation for ice cream.  They suggested that we get a dessert that was not on the menu.  It was vanilla ice cream with rasberry sauce and came with funnell cake fries.  The owner came over and met us and friend the funnell cake himself.   Oh my gosh...it was amazing!!!!!  We took it back to the Partridge House and watched the rest of the BYU game in the living room, which had chairs that gave you a heated massage.  Then BYU WON!!!! 

One of the best days ever!!!

The second day we woke up and had a great breakfast made by Rose.  We said goodbye and made our way to the Pottsville Branch for church.  Then we were off to Gettysburg. My wonderful mother sent us a CD of a driving tour of the battle ground.  It was fascinating and touching to think about all the men that died during that one battle.  It reminded me of the brutalities of war and the sadness that must have filled these men's and thier families lives.

Surprise and Familiarity in Old Town

I am excited to join my wife in her blogging. Reading Mandy's sharing of her adventures was one of the ways in which I got to know her myself. My apologies to her loyal followers who may have to put up with me on occasion, but I hope that I can make a contribution as we continue our exploits together.

Last Saturday, Mandy and I decided to head into Old Town Alexandria, one of our favorite places, on the rumor that there was a historical celebration going on. When we got there, it turned out that the extent of the event was these two gentlemen hanging around in costume:

However, at least they were hanging out in the lovely yard of what is called the Carlyle house. We learned that John Carlyle was a British merchant and one of the founders of Alexandria in the 1700s. He married one of the daughters of the influential Fairfax family, which must have resulted in quite the Northern Virginia power couple. One of the signs of their wealth was this house, built when there were only a couple of other structures in Alexandria. Mandy and I enjoyed the sunny afternoon, wandering in the gardens around the house and reading about the city's history.

From there, we thought we would walk around the neighborhood a bit before getting on with our Saturday errands. Just a couple of doors down, we stumbled upon a lollipop-windowed little shop named Candi's Candies. We rushed in to check the place out, and soon found ourselves pointing out to each other all of the different little treats and sharing tales from our childhoods. We grabbed some of our favorites off of the overflowing racks and barrels and filled up a bag. We enjoyed our afternoon adventure very much, and we were surprised that despite our many expeditions to Old Town we had never noticed either of these places before.

Barrels of Taffy

Yesterday also marked three months from the day Mandy and I were married, and our little walk took us past the square where I proposed to her. Like our discoveries yesterday, Mandy often surprises me with a facet of her goodness and love that I haven't recognized before despite the years I have known her. Yet, at the same time I feel such a warm familiarity with her, and our friendship and laughter often take me back to my days as a candy muncher, when life was simple and there was fun around every corner.