Wow. It's Sunday already, how can that be?? The time on Girls Weekend always seem to go by so very fast. Our original plan for today was to go to the Edgar Allen Poe museum this morning, then to our Escape Room experience at 5pm. Instead, we spent a leisurely morning in the room until we were starving and I suggested that we go out and get breakfast rather than having our fruit and yogurt breakfast as we have been having the past couple of days. Mainly because I had finished off my yogurt the night before!! I did a little research and determined that Weezie's looked like a good choice for breakfast, so once we both had showered we walked the few blocks to the restaurant. We did have little bit of a wait, seems this place is a favorite for breakfast. Kathi and I both had eggs, over medium, with crispy bacon along with whole wheat toast for Kathi and an English muffin for me. I don't know if the food was exceptionally good or if I was exceptionally hungry, but everything tasted absolutely delicious. Once we were done eating we starting wandering back towards our apartment and found ourselves getting drawn into many of the great shops along Cary Street that we really hadn't taken the time to explore yet. This quickly led to a revision of the days' plan. Rather than go to the Edgar Allen Poe museum today and rushing our way through it, we decided to go ahead and browse the shops here until it was time to go to the Escape Room. We found a couple more delightful vintage clothing shops as well as some clothing boutiques that had WONDERFUL stuff that was outrageously expensive. We also made our way into a cafe that was displaying and showcasing the art of a couple of artists that were actually there. In addition we finally made our way to the local bookstore, Chop Suey. Funny name for a bookstore, huh? And their resident cat is named Won Ton (who, unforturnately was not on the premises because he was at the home of the bookshop owner recovering from a unknow mishap that resulted in a broken jaw.....poor baby) It is mainly a used bookstore, but, as so many used bookstores have done with the demise of so many of the BIG bookstores, they also carry a number of new books, too. One unique and interesting thing that they do at this bookstore is have a few shelves of books that are wrapped up in plain brown wrapping paper and twine with a general description of the book inside. They call these books "blind dates" that you can buy and take home to unwrap and read. What a charming idea!! I didn't buy any of these books, but I LOVE this idea!
By this time, it was time to call Uber (which I have decided is truly a great service), and catch a ride to our Escape Room experience. Now for those of you who are not familiar with Escape Rooms and wonder just what the heck I have been talking about, let me tell you about it!
Escape Rooms are becoming a hot ticket across the country. Each Escape Room has a different story behind it to help you get started. You and several of your friends, or co-workers or strangers, depending on who has booked the experience at the same time that you have, are locked into a room for 60 minutes, in which time you are to find clues and solve puzzles in order to get out. Megan and I did one of these while we were in New Orleans and I am now hooked. I don't want to give too much away, but both of the rooms i have been in have included notes left lying around with cryptic messages that are meant to be clues to where to look for keys to locked chests, or desks which lead to more clues. Both of the adventures I have done have started in one room and had clues that eventually led to a secret door (both have been bookcases) that opened up into another room. In New Orleans, Megan and I were the only ones trying to solve all the clues and puzzles and we came close, but didn't quite solve everything in the hour we were given. In this adventure, Kathi and I were with a group of 6 other people, who all knew one another, but we all collaborated in our effort to solve everything, unlock everything and get our. Again, we were close, but were defeated in our efforts. It is SO MUCH FUN and I would highly recommend it for anyone who is looking for something to do that is different than dinner and a movie. It gets one moving (we had to climb a ladder and crawl through a passageway for this particular experience, for example) and using your mind in order to get out of the room. It is challenging, but fun. And, of course, they will let you or any of your party out of the room if they decide that the whole thing is not for them.
Once we were out of the room, we did a little grocery shoppimg at the Martin's grocery store that was in the same shopping center as the Escape Rooms, then ubered our way back to our apartment. We did make a quick run out to a local pub/pizza place, the Mellow Mushroom, to fill a growler that Fiona provided for us with a berry cider. Rather than going our for dinner, we snacked on cheese and summer sausage and fruit and watched "The Perks of Being A Wallflower".
Not long after the movie ended we crawled into bed and crashed. The Edgar Allen Poe Museum in closed on Mondays, so tomorrow we plan on visiting the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (EVERYONE we have talked to here has said that we should go there), and the Poe museum on Tuesday.
Until then...............
Last full day of our Richmond, Virginia Girls Weekend adventure. Sigh. It always comes too fast. Once again, as always with our trips, we have thoroughly enjoyed our stay here and have seen and experienced many things that this charming and historical city has to offer. Museums, cemeteries, Segway rides, and wonderful dining and shopping experiences. Girls weekend is the best!! Today after our morning rituals, Kathi uses her Uber app to get us a ride to the Edgar Allan Poe museum. This will be the second Poe museum that we have visited on Girls weekend, the first one having been in Philadelphia, a few years back. Unlike that museum, which was located in a home that the famed poet and story writer had actually lived in, this museum is located in the oldest house in Richmond and, while it is in the neighborhood where Poe grew up and spent the majority of his childhood, it is NOT a house that he every actually lived in. Apparently those have all been demolished. However, they do have quite a collection of many pieces of furniture that were in the home he lived in as well as some pieces from some of the places where he worked. They also have several original writings of his. The man wrote incredibly small and neatly, I must say!! We wandered around in the museum and on the grounds for a couple of hours. The museum also includes a model of the city of Richmond as it was during Poe's life time, along with some wonderful illustrations done by a young English street artist that were intended to accompany Poe's poem, "The Raven". The 43 watercolor and ink illustrations, by James Carling, are not the ones normally associated with this work, but certainly do an amazing job of capturing the mood and feel of the piece.
