This year, our Michigan State girl's trip was a chance to bring my friends to my parent's beautiful river house in White Stone, Virginia. This was an exciting weekend for many reasons, one of which was that even thought this has been a family destination since they bought the house in 2013, it's the first time I've hosted friends there on my own!
We had big plans for a weekend filled with sleeping in, visiting a spa and sitting by the pool. It was ideal.
Sarah found us spa appointments at The Tides Inn, which I had heard of but never thought of beyond a hotel stay. As it turns out, the spa was wonderful, we ended up staying for lunch at their casual restaurant, The Fish Hawk Oyster Bar and returning for a drink and dessert the next night at their fancy restaurant, Salt & Meadow. This is a beautiful spot not only for the view but also the historic waterfront property.
There was a tragedy/comedy part of our stay. My parents have put countless hours into tending the koi pond that was on property when they purchase the house. They shopped for, transported and delicately tended this pond for a decade, and it seems that every season it seems to have a new challenge to learn, fix and pay for. This particular season it was an algae breakout - so severe that a professional company needed to come in, remove all of the fish and scrub the pond clean. These very large koi fish were now decently old, and either they were too stressed or improperly handled, so once they refilled the pond and re-homed the fish (which took place just prior to our visit), they all promptly died. As a demonstration of how dedicated my friends are, they helped me gather up the carcasses to be disposed off the dock and into the river. It was real gross.
We visited Miss Mary's Seafood and bought all kinds of delicious items; dips, crabcakes and scallops to make at home. We found a wine bar in White Stone that I cannot remember the name of, but we ordered a couple of items to share and spent the evening telling stories and catching up. We learned that rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft have not made it to the Northern Neck yet, but I'm crossing my fingers for next year.
We had a bit of fun decorating the back fence in preparation of the 4th of July, but we were lucky to still have the beautiful weather that you get in mid-June. As always, this was a great weekend to reconnect with my dear MSU girlfriends.
