The Hood

I already knew that our new neighborhood is great and that there are plenty of wonderful places and things to do within walking distance of us (ie. Starbucks, Alexandria Pastry Shop, a wine and cheese store, a froyo place, the T.C. Williams track, Shirlington and all of the fun restaurants down there, etc.).  Then, the other night CP and I went for a walk and our neighborhood suddenly became even better. There is a Great Harvest bakery here!! That means that I can try to justify inhaling all of their incredible baked goods by walking over there, woo!  When we discovered it the other night and went in, the girl working there could not have been any sweeter. I told her that it was our first time in and not only did she offer us generous samples, but then she gave us two mint chocolate chip cookies that were the size of our faces since it was our first time there. Mint chocolate chip cookies!!! Y.U.M.  Can't wait to drop by every Friday for a fresh blackberry cream cheese scone and a coffee on the way to school. Great Harvest also happens to be a few storefronts down from Baskin Robbins, which we also didn't realize was so close to us. Their chocolate peanut butter ice cream will always have a special place in my heart.

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Naturally, after CP let me bask in my new found bakery glory, we spent some time at the bike shop next door.  I keep telling myself that it would be fun to get into biking so that I could ride (errrr...trail behind) CP, but the reality is that I would much rather run and I've never been a big fan of bikes. Perhaps that has something to do with the traumatic experience I had one time while I was in NYC with my parents. We had rented bikes in Central Park and mine had taken a few too many trips around the park.  I can't quite remember the specifics pre-wipeout, but the take away is that I flipped over the bike after I hit a bump, which resulted in a very bloody face and very upset little girl.  I vividly remember sobbing in a filthy Central Park bathroom while my mom tried to clean me up. Hence the disdain for bikes.

I digress. I love our neighborhood. Even though our actual house still has parts that need to be painted, carpet that needs to be pulled up, and packages that need to be delivered to our actual address (I may or may not have written the wrong house number on our patio furniture order, which has resulted in me leaving notes with the people it was delivered to asking if we can have our packages, pretty please...), but at least when all we want to do it throw our hands up in frustration, we can walk over for some ice cream instead!