our big date in northern virginia

I drove up to Springfield after work on Friday because my family decided to have a picnic memorial on Sunday for my Grandma, who passed in late July. More on that later.
Andy suggested that we go for a date in DC on Saturday, before relatives started coming into town. For about a year now we've been talking about going to Horace & Dickies (they may have the worst website I've ever seen), so we decided we would probably go there -- and if not, we'd at least go out on a lunch date together.

Saturday morning arrives and I'm thinking Andy is not going to want to sit on the Metro for 45+ minutes for a sandwich... even I don't want to do that. So, I tell him we should try to go somewhere closer. I suggest we get sandwiches at Potbellies, he suggests we go to the Pentagon City mall food court for some bourbon chicken (hehe), I suggest California Pizza Kitchen or one of The Great American Restaurants. He suggests Wegmans.

My cute grocery store non-perishables manager turned Kelloggs sales representative wanted to go to Wegmans for lunch. He LOVES Wegmans. I've seen the store front before and it's really impressive, but I figured it couldn't be much different than a Whole Foods. But my guy kept bringing it up. Babe. It's awesome. Please.

He was right. It's amazing. If you have a Wegmans near you and you haven't been - GO.

We held hands and strolled the store aisles, receiving samples of things like baked beans, organic chips, cheese, wine and beer. Then we explored all of the specialty items and ooh-ed and ahh-ed at the cheeses, seafood, meat and bakery items. We were even offered a sample of grilled swordfish. uh YES PLEASE. We pointed out all of the desserts that we wanted to try. We explored all of the different lunch options - sushi, homestyle food, pizzas, subs, soups, salads, vegetarian, Indian, Asian, Italian...

We ate a leisurely lunch on the second floor, overlooking the busy customers picking out their specialty treats (note the balcony in the pic). We bought coconut lemon danishes and a cheese roll for dessert. I kept checking my phone for updates on my friend, who was in labor. Then, a text message with a picture of Kevin and Jackie's newborn son, Gideon James, arrived. I blinked back happy tears and we sat there smiling and shaking our heads in awe at God's little miracle.

Wegmans is the perfect place for a lunch date.