Roadtrip: Richmond

A few things I picked up.

This past weekend, I got a chance to take a road trip to Richmond, Va. For some unknown reason the city truly intrigues me (trust me, I don't know why). When I saw that Kinky Keenya was hosting Return of The Curls, I knew that would be the perfect reason to have a road trip, however, I didn't know if I had the time off from my side hustle. Luckily I did, so I asked a friend if she'd like to take the journey with me and she was game.

Let me just say whenever I'm taking a trip or visiting a friend, I go straight into planner mode, I guess its the analyst in me. I went directly to yelp.com to start my research. There were quite a few places that I won't visit although I didn't get a chance for all, but they are on my mental Richmond to do list. I can't lie, I kinda go a little overboard with getting things just right so that my (high) expectations are met. Honestly, when I go on a trip/vacay, my inner Rachel-Ray-$40-A-Day comes to surface, I am indeed a BIG foodie. But second are my living arrangements. For me life is all about the experience, right? Since I was sharing a room with someone, I wanted to make sure that it was budget conscience.  I mean, I searched and searched, read review after review and was unable to simply choose a hotel. I ended up making myself frustrated and simply chose one of the unpublished hotels. I got the hotel at a discounted rate and paid before I actually knew which one, luckily for us it was 4 star, so that was kool. We ended up getting the Omni.

The trip down to Richmond wasn't as bad as I thought, I can not drive long distances and I took my car. On the way there, I saw sooo many small restaurant chains and stores that reminded me of my small town (Waffle House, Shoe Shoe). We arrived at the room and it really was nice, well the foyer. I've seen better rooms, but hey it worked for the night. We ended up going to the event and staying for all of about an hour. Had we known the fashion show would be later we would have arrived later. The main company (curls.biz) that I was interested in didn't even product to sale. Epic Fail. There were a few of other well known brands in the building such as Karens Body Beautiful. And there were a few vendors that had t-shirts, jewelry, and other handmade items for sale. My friend and I ended up buying a pair of African earrings. I also saw a few subscribers (well mostly my friends subbies, lol). Funny thing is, I always play the role of not being on YT, trips me out when I tell subbies and they actually believe me.

After our short stay at the Expo, we decided to get a lil bit of shopping on. I read that Short Pump mall was pretty hawt. I guess the portion that I omitted reading was that it's actually a town center and not an actual mall. It wouldn't have been a problem if we weren't getting a preview of what hell felt like that day lol. I mean it was super hot and the whole town center, walk-outside-from-store-to-store concept just ruined it for me. Next up was time for a bit to eat so we stopped at a place that I'd bookmarked earlier called deLux. The pictures on the website made the restaurant/bar seem more interesting. However, the reviews I read on the food were on point. As an appetizer we ordered the salt & pepper calamari (just to spill the beans, I am having a secret love affair with calamari right now and could eat it everyday).

Although there were other venues, I'd like to visit, we left after stopping by one of the local favorite eateries, Peraly's. The food was all that and then some. I swear their salmon patties taste identical to mine. This restaurant reminded me of my grandma old house. The decor was very quirky and we had the BEST waiters (probably in town). Did any of you all attend Return of Curls? Also, if you live in Richmond, let me know where  the locals hang.

A piece of the hotel, salt & pepper calamarie, and breakfast

I kept being asked if I were part of the Fashion Show (nope, just fashionable).

For the record I had on pants not tights, lol!!!

I'm like WTF