Trip to Richmond

I don't remember the last time I went to Richmond.  It definitely was before it got its hipster groove on.  With time to do what we normally can't do, we packed a few snacks and headed 2 hours south to check out the Carytown section.  We saw cupcakes, tons of thrift stores, a fantastic toy store, a used book store, a cute little Japanese market, and a vintage video game store.  After lunch we went to check out Belle Isle on the James River.  The boys were so excited to cross the river via a pedestrian bridge which is suspended under a highway bridge.  You can see remnants of previous bridges in the river while crossing.  On the Isle, we ran around the various trails and made our way down to the river.  On a warmer day, it's a great place for a picnic.  Before heading home, we also took a spin around the Shockoe Bottom area to scout out things to do on our next visit.

The boys usually come away with treasures whenever we are on an outing like this or traveling.  It's just something that we like to do whenever we travel to new places.  The toy store I mentioned had a great display case of vintage tin robots that both boys really loved so they came home with us.  I think I got this tradition from my father.  Whenever we traveled, he would break all the normal rules and pretty much buy us anything we wanted - clothes, toys, and souvenirs.  His philosophy was that we'd either never be back or it would be a long time since our next visit so why not?  It was just what we did and now we're doing it with BB and DD.