Visiting Richmond, VA

Josh and Lee are getting married in Virginia, so my mom flew up this past weekend to help plan the rehearsal dinner.  Kern and I drove down to spend Sunday with them and see some sites around the city.

We started with brunch at Millie's - an amazing cafe featuring all kinds of special omelets. 

I opted for the "Benny" - eggs benedict on a croissant! 

There was a friendly dog outside of Millie's!

Josh and Lee took us to see their respective houses and we got to meet their roommates.  Lee's house is adorable--straight out of pinterest.  Lee gave us a driving tour of the neighborhood and downtown area.  We got to see where the rehearsal dinner will be held--an awesome restaurant called Urban Farmhouse. 

Richmond is full of beautiful old brick buildings.  A lot of the historical sites are very well preserved. 

We went to St. John's church, where Patrick Henry delivered his famous "Give me liberty or give me death" speech in March of 1775.  (Another stop on our unofficial American history tour of Boston, Philly, and Williamsburg!)  St. John's is still an active church, but they also have a healthy tourism site.

It was really, really cold!

We ended the day by visiting Josh and Lee's church, East End Fellowship, which meets in the Robinson theater. I hope you will take a moment to read about how the church started and their amazing mission here.

Lee moved to the Church Hill neighborhood and worked as a teacher at CHAT and Josh eventually joined her and now works for Blue Sky Fund, a non-profit committed to getting inner city kids into the outdoors--taking them camping, fishing and hiking, activities many of us may take for granted but are once in a lifetime for them.  It was obvious to me how much of an impact Josh and Lee have made in the community by the way they talked about the people in their church, the activities that they selflessly give themselves to and the warm welcome that mom, Kern and I received just from being connected to them!

The service was moving and real--I could tell people were being encouraged and ministered to in the way the congregation interacted with one another.

After church we had time for dinner at Bottom's Up Pizza before hitting the road to return to DC.

The day went by way too fast, but it was more than worth it.  There is still so much more I want to see in Richmond...I can't wait to go back!