David and I were excited to get up and going today.  We had an appointment with a realtor here in Richmond, Luke, to talk about living in downtown Richmond and the two or three nearby neighborhoods we might be interested in.  He met us at 9:00 and gave us a driving tour.  There are some condos in downtown Richmond and in an area called The Fan District and in an area called Carytown.  

As I understand it, downtown Richmond is just that, the central urban area of the city.  The Fan District is primarily a historic residential neighborhood with late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century homes.  There are a ton of restaurants, bars and shops that are all very walkable.  The appearance of The Fan District is sometimes compared to the Bourbon Street neighborhood in New Orleans.  The Carytown District is an urban retail district at the West end of the Richmond Museum District with stately homes and some condos.  We loved all three neighborhoods.

We only looked at one suitable condo but it wasn't quite perfect.  It was in the center of downtown.  It was the second floor of an 1870 building -- two bedrooms and two baths.  There is an elevator in the building that takes you directly to your condo and opens into your living space.  Pretty darn cool!  BUT, no parking in the building.  It also wasn't quite light enough and the master bathroom was next to air handlers which were pretty noisy.  I was just enthralled with the elevator opening into the condo!!!  

To sum it all up, Richmond is definitely now on the list of possible walkable cities that we could live in.  

After our meeting with Luke we checked out of our hotel and started the long drive to Ohio.  We drove I-95 North and, of course, got tangled up in the traffic in the D.C. area.  Luckily there were no real long delays, but just the number of cars on the highway made it slow going.  We planned to drive only half-way today since we had such a long drive yesterday so we stopped for the night in Bedford, PA.  Our drive tomorrow to Lake Mohawk will be more pleasant and not so long.

We checked into our hotel and asked for a recommendation for a restaurant for dinner.  The hotel clerk recommended Jean Bonnet Tavern which is a tavern from the 1860s.  It was a VERY cool place with a great menu.  We just split an appetizer and a salad so had room for dessert!

Mine was called chocolate confusion and David had 3-layer carrot cake.  They tasted even better than they look!

Now we are safely tucked into our room looking forward to driving to Ohio and visiting family and friends for a few days!

Be there soon!