Things To Do
Downtown Mall
Our absolute favorite place to wander around and grab some excellent food. Stop by Millers for some Dave Matthews history, house made pimento cheese and a cold beer and then Sal's for the best "pink lady" sauce you've ever had. If you're lucky, you'll spot our favorite local artist painting (@oilpaintsmith). There's also an all you can play arcade called Decades Arcade that we love. It a fun way to fill your time if you love some nostalgic pinball and pacman as well as new!
Wood Ridge Farm Brewery
Our official first Instagram/ Facebook photo together was from here on one of our first dates. We went here during COVID with very few people around and saw a spectacular sunset and took a pic to let you guys know we were dating. We love coming to this place for their ambiance, sunsets and stargazing! It is a strange brewery with peacocks roaming, a driving range, tiki bars, emergency airplane landing strip and an old fire truck (of course, Tyler loves it). Beer is good, vibes are better. It is a 35 mile drive West of Charlottesville, but well worth the trip!
Virginia 151
There are 7 wineries, 6 breweries, 3 cideries and 2 distilleries and counting on this one scenic byway. Debbie enjoys the wineries like Afton Mountain Winery, Veritas and Hazy Mountain and Tyler enjoys the food offerings at the breweries like Blue Mountain Brewery and Devils Backbone! It is about a 20 minute drive from Charlottesville and fun if you have some time to spare!
Blackrock Summit
If you feel the need to stretch your legs hop on to the Shenandoah NP for one of our favorite most scenic (and easy) hikes! It is a 1 mile hike with a 715ft elevation gain to reach the summit where you'll meet incredible views of the Shenandoah Valley, Massanutten Mountain, and beyond. It's been a favorite for photo ops of Jameson and Tyler adventuring over rock scrambles.
Rivanna Trail
This Charlottesville city trail runs alongside the Rivanna river always enticing Jameson to jump in. We loved walking a 4 mile loop on this when we lived closer to the city and it will always hold a special place in our hearts. If SNP is a little out of range and you need some nature to reset you, this trail is a great way to help with that. We parked at Riverview park and would walk 2 miles on the trail to the left following the river, under the bridge to the rugby field Tyler played at for a summer and back.