Happy Anniversary to Bill and me!  We’ve made it 8 fabulous years and look forward to many many more.  We enjoy thinking back to our early years and thinking about how different our lives were in the beginning and how we have learned so much since then, both in terms of being married and experiencing more of this wonderful world in which we live. 

For our anniversary, we decided to spend the day in Annapolis and finish up the day with dinner at L’Auberge Chez Francois in Great Falls.  It has been on my ‘want to try’ list for a bit, so I’m happy to say I can cross that one off the list. 

The location of the restaurant, for those of you who are not local, is buried in Great Falls in a tiny little country looking building, surrounded by McMansions in every direction on curvy little no-shoulder roads.  The area really is beautiful and the homes vary so much in architecture that it’s a shame to have to wiz by them and not really get to enjoy their splendor.  Maybe another time! 

The inside of Chez Francois reminded me a bit of the Bavarian Inn style restaurants in Frankenmuth back home in Michigan - highly adorned with knickknacks and paintings of country villages on the walls.  A very ‘country’ feel as opposed to the sleek interiors of most of the elegant restaurants we have dined at.  Our server was from northern France and was in the US studying Business at Montgomery College for the past three years.  We were pleased to have an authentic sounding server for the evening, because after all,  “but-tar” with a rolled r, just sounds way cooler than boring “butter.”   

We started our meal with cottage cheese and garlic bread (huh), followed by a sampler piece of quiche, a mushroom crepe for our starter, the Roquefort salad, and Filet Mignon for the main course.  Bill had a medley of beef tips, lamb, veal, and lobster.  We finished our meal with Grand Marnier soufflé’s - piping hot from the oven. 

So how ‘was’ the food, you ask?  Well…  it was really delicious, wonderful mushrooms, extremely tender Filet, perfectly done Soufflés, etc.  But, I can’t say it was the best I’ve ever had.  The food tasted fresh and was definitely tasty, but it didn’t have that “oh my goodness, this is heavenly!” taste to it. In fact, for lunch we had gone to Caroll’s Creek in Annapolis and Bill and I had Rockfish and scallops and we were blown away.  I just didn’t feel like the food at Chez Francois blew me away and I was really hoping to be in sensation-heaven after each bite.  However, to be fair, I’m not much of a standard meat and potatoes girl.  I like steak: Filet and I like it with sauce: Béarnaise or blue cheese please– I don’t want something that tastes like roast.  So in fairness, I think a true steak-and-potatoes lover might have appreciated it more.  Also in fairness, the restaurant definitely had a unique ambiance with the country inn feel and people all around were having a good time.  That definitely added to the plus side. Additionally, this restaurant knew what it was (little French country inn) and everything aligned with that self-understanding. 

Ok, so will we return?  I’d have to say it might be a while.  To this day, one of my all time favorite meals from the area was at Lightfoot in Leesburg and I can’t help but compare more of my meals to that one, especially when I have Filet.  I think it was a truly wonderful experience and I’m very pleased that we did finally go and try it out.  It’s just personally, not my bag baby.  Cheers for now…

View Photos of Annapolis/Dinner

Bill and I hosted a venison tasting party this week-end to celebrate Bill’s successful hunting season last year.  We had a truly wonderful time even though we lost our electricity about an hour into the party.  Everyone was a good sport though and stuck around hanging out by candlelight and a camping lantern.  Good times, good times…  Check out the photos!

Bill and I just returned from a most-lovely and relaxing week-end at The Tides Inn, in Irvington, VA (Northern Neck). Even though I thought their web site showcased a beautiful resort - I became more and more skeptical as we continued to drive forever - and see very few cars. I mean - it’s Memorial Day week-end, where is everyone!? The town of Irvington itself is nothing much to speak of - cute, quaint and itty-bitty. The next town over, Kilmarnock, had more ’stuff’ like a Wal-Mart, pharmacy, etc., but only a handful of small restaurants. My point being - we were in the middle of nowhere, but the resort itself proved to be beautiful and all we needed anyway.

The resort itself is small, consisting of one two main small buildings for lodging - one with balconies and one without. The property also had tennis courts, a golf course, 2 pools, and 3 restaurants. We enjoyed a dinner cruise on the historic “Miss Ann” yacht the first night and ventured into town the second night for dinner, so we cannot attest to the quality of the food in the restaurants. However, the food on the Miss Ann was outstanding and we did enjoy gourmet breakfasts in the main Chesapeake dining room each morning.

We chose to spend both days lying by the pool, which was ideal for me. It let me simmer a bit from just being in much-busier-Boston and also catch up on future trip reading. We did rent a kayak and paddle around a bit and that was a nice break from doing nothing. I came down with a stupid cold half way through but it didn’t really damper our trip. Today, on the other hand, I don’t feel so swell.

In retrospect, I would definitely return to the Tides Inn if I was looking for a relaxing, scenic break, without the hustle and bustle of some of the other waterfront areas. However, if I wanted more shopping/sights (which I generally tend to want), I think I would return to St. Michaels instead.

And as always, I took a gazillion photos: View The Tides Inn Photos

Trina and I just returned last night from the 2008 HOW Design Conference which was held at the Hynes Conference Center in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood.  The conference focused on a variety of graphic design hot topics - such as logo design, visual communication, and a few more technical topics like proper CSS design.  Overall, I felt the conference was very beneficial although I admit I wish there would have been more technical based session choices since my current job focuses primarily on web.  The good thing is that basic graphic design knowledge can be used in both traditional print and web, so all knowledge gained will be knowledge used!   We also enjoyed a variety of cuisines while on our trip and got in plenty of casual sightseeing.  The weather was fabulous with the exception of one chilly evening, but our hotel was connected to the conference center so in the mornings we didn’t have to venture out. View Boston Photos.

My parents just headed back to Michigan this morning after a visit with us here in Virginia and a mini-jaunt to Rehoboth Beach.  We had lots of fun and it was great to see them!  Check out the photos: View Photos.

Spot the impostor…

We had a lovely Easter at Matt and Michele’s house - even though I did a bad job at taking photos: 2008 Easter

Bill and I met up with our friend Brittany last night at the Wildfire  restaurant in Tysons Corner to catch up with her and to try out a new  restaurant.  The atmosphere had that dark wood interior with an  upscale, 1950s luxury restaurant feel.  Although I haven’t eaten at  nice Chicago restaurants, I would picture this type of restaurant  being quinessential Chicago - where you’re looking for the pin  stripped suits and Marilynn Monroe types.  Cute!

The food was very tasty - although we’ll be back to try some of the  encrusted steak specialties.  Please - anytime you want to serve me a  steak smothered and encrusted in blue cheese, feel free.  Wonder if  that would work with venison?  Hum.  Well - I didn’t have that steak,  so we’ll have to go back at some other point and give that the  official taste test.  Our server had a great personality and was very  outgoing… when he did make it by.  We waited far too long for our  drinks and food, but the conversation distracted us from being antsy.

Would I return: Yes?
Would I recommend to someone else?  My best friend? Yes
Would I take relatives there?  Probably not - just a tad stuffy.

I’ve officially finished converting over my web site and my photos to a new system… and I’m very happy and satisfied with the result.  My old service, fatcow.com, had some difficulty with the blogging system I was using and it took forever to pull up my blog on the old system.  This new hosting service, bluehost.com, is fabulous - pulling up my blog quickly and offering plenty of hosting perks (50 mySQL DBs) to keep me happy for a while!!

In other blog news - I’ve decided to add some of my favorite blogs, sites, and other random stuff - all located on the right-hand links bar.

I’ve decided to retake control of my blog - meaning that I am no longer stuffing the free nicoleheath.wordpress.com blog into my nicoleheath.com frame window. I’m hosting it again on my own server in the hopes that the service at fatcow.com has improved some. We shall see. The reason is because I wanted to match my photo and blog site in terms of colors and styles. I’m not there yet but it’s closer.

Since I haven’t written in a while, here are some thoughts:

Bill and I, along with some of our friends, tried out the new Benihana Japenese steakhouse out here in Dulles this past week-end. We had a great time and I thought the food was very tasty and fresh. I definitely want to go back! We have minimal swanky places out this way in suburbialand, and although this place is definitely not swanky, it is entertaining and had a decent atmosphere. I’ll take it!

In other news - Bill and I are taking ballroom dancing lessons again and are enjoying them. We signed up for the next session after this one as well - in the hopes that the classes and lessons will actually stick this time. The only thing we remembered from our class 7 years ago was a few swing moves - so let’s hope this time around we make a better investment and remember something!

Travel News: Trina and I will be going to the HOW Design Conference in May this year - and I can’t wait!! It is being held in beautiful Boston and I think it will be the perfect time of year to visit. Other travel plans include my parents visit in April (not sure if we will travel from here or not yet), Michigan at some point, Cape May in July and Italy in November. And then home to Michigan for Christmastime. I’m feeling a bit stuffed up in our house lately since the weather has been colder and the days short, so thinking about travel is doing me good…

Bill and I went to Jasmyn’s Cotillion class this evening (go to Photos > Events > 2008 Cotillion) and it was very enlightening. We live in a very privileged area and it’s interesting to see how the Northern Virginian-types live their lives! If only we would have had Cotillion as kids - then we wouldn’t have to be starting from scratch at our ballroom lessons in our 30s! (Ok, I’m so in my 20s).

I think that’s all that has been going on with us. Jobs are the same, house is the same…

I don’t even want to get into it right now… but the bottom line is that I have switched my photo sharing software over the week-end because my dearly beloved Phanfare service decided to switch ‘business directions.’  Maybe good for them - but it’s horrible for me because the very fundamental requirements I need in a photo sharing service have been thrown in the trash.  So… I’ve decided to go with the software called Smugmug.  You can see how the new software looks by clicking on “Photos” or viewing the new site here: http://nicoleheath.smugmug.com.  What do you think?