…to Grandmother’s house we go! Yep, last weekend I headed to my dad’s parent’s house to bop around on the boat, and this weekend I drove down with my mom and my stepdad to the Northern Neck of Virginia, where my mom’s parents live!

See that blue dot in the lower right hand corner? That’s where we went. Also, for a quick reference, my apartment is right outside Washington DC, which is in the middle of the green circle at the top of the map (which is the Beltway, in case any of you have ever driven around DC and been confused about how the same road can be going north and then west. It’s a big circle!).

But, I’m getting ahead of myself. Before we left for the three and half hour drive, we had to fuel up with breakfast, of course!

Nothing beats my stepdad’s bacon and egg sandwiches. Served with a ton of breakfast potatoes, on the side. Seriously, his breakfasts are amazing.

Then we piled into the car (me in the back seat of my mom’s teeny BMW convertible next to a huge cooler- ugh) and drove down south. On the way down, we stopped to pick up some crab meat for crab cakes and everyone was so sweet and spoke with a southern drawl. They all knew my grandma and had plenty of nice things to say about her: Well that Mary-Jane, she makes a mean cake now, lo’d have mercy. It was so funny and exactly what you think of when you think of a little country store in the south. I may or may not have mentioned that I felt like Scarlett O’Hara. Yep. It’s that kind of place

When we arrived, I took in the comfort that is always present in a grandmother’s house.

All those bright windows led to the outdoor deck which faces the river. So nice, right?

Soon the boys (grandpa and my stepdad) set up the smoker so we could have yummy smoked ribs for dinner (along with crab cakes…clearly we were hungry lol)

Meanwhile, the ladies sat on the deck sipping chilled white wine and daintily snacked on chips and homemade salsa (like how my descriptions are extra-propper and southern-sounding? ha).

In addition to the chips, salsa, crab cakes, and ribs (sheesh) we had tomato basil & mozzarella salad, potato salad, and my grandma’s sweet potato pie. Yum!

After dinner we spent the rest of the evening relaxing, chatting, and enjoying the company. We hadn’t seen my grandparents in a long time!

Being on the river was so incredibly peaceful.

In the morning, we were able to get some fishing in. We caught quite a few fishies, but I don’t like hurting them so we threw them all back. Ha! I think we would have had to throw them back anyway though, because they were all pretty small. The majority of the fish were rock fish, croakers, and spot fish.

Hey little fishy!

My mom caught some too!

And of course, my stepdad did all the hard/gross stuff like putting the worm on the hook, casting the fishing rods, and taking the fish off. Basically, he did everything except reel in the fish haha.

I guess he’s the real reel reason behind our fishing success (see what I did there? lol).

After fishing we washed up and headed back up to the house for some breakfast. I didn’t take any pictures since my grandma doesn’t quite understand the whole blogging thing and thinks cameras and phones are rude at the table, but here’s what it looked like before we sat down to eat.

That would be her homemade fig preserves on the table, which I was lucky enough to take home with me. Woohoo!! We also had eggs, bacon, ham, scrapple, biscuits, and her homemade gravy. Is that a southern breakfast, or what?? I had a tiny bit of everything and it was delicious. Her cooking is legendary in my family. Yum.

After breakfast we packed up our stuff and headed back north. On the way we stopped at a produce stand where I bought a bunch of peaches, plums, zucchini, and what I think is called a sweet dream melon, which I’ve been told is a mix between a cantaloupe and a honey dew.

I’ve already eaten two of the peaches (omg they are so good) and put one of the zucchinis to good use!

Stay tuned for the recipe!

Not long after I returned home, however, I got a text saying I had to go in to work. Boo. I spent my Sunday afternoon there from about 3 until 7. Yuck.

Eventually I returned home, greeted Fabio and Jack who were in New York for the weekend, and moped on the couch because I’d been at work for so long and I was cranky. Then I watched Lion King on ABC Family and immediately cheered up (how old am I? pouting like a kid and then I cheer up to Disney movies…). I totally want to thank ABC family for playing the best movie ever exactly when I needed to watch something cheerful. You rock, ABC.

Anyway, how was your weekend? Did you do anything fun? Go anywhere cool? Catch any fish, do any baking, or watch Lion King?? Share with me please!