life list #41: stay at luminhaus

Fill in the blank: People in glass houses shouldn't ____________.

After seven hours on the road, and a stop at Blue Mountain Brewery, we finally made it to the secret destination: Luminhaus. As we pulled in, the sun was setting and the house was starting to glow. We got out of the car and Larry exclaimed "This is awesome!"


And Luminhaus is awesome. It's a two-bedroom modern pre-fab home designed by architect Rocio Romero and built by Jennifer Watson and Barry Bless in the Blue Ridge Mountains outside of Amherst, Virginia. I'd been wanting to visit this place ever since we stayed at Lost River Modern in West Virginia last year. Modern homes are unfortunately few and far between in this part of the country. In fact, Larry commented several times during the weekend that he felt like we were in Northern California. Indeed.

The simple glass and metal rectangular structure is impeccably decorated with modern art and furniture. The views of the woods from the massive windows are stunning.

Surrounded by nature:


Dogs are not allowed at Luminhaus, so we had to leave the pups behind for this trip. But after admiring the large expanses of glass, I realized the number one problem we'd have living in a glass house: SNART. Yeah, this view wouldn't be so impressive with dog snot covering the windows:


As soon as we got inside and unpacked the groceries, Larry located the beer glasses. We poured a couple drinks and started exploring the place. Between my love of modern architecture and art, and Larry's love of books, music, and nature, this place was perfect for us! (Clearly the owners have similar interests!)

Beer glasses? Check!

Here's a tour. The living room:





Kitchen:


I would LOVE to be organized and minimalist enough to have a kitchen like this. Maybe it's only possible in a vacation house?

Bedroom #1. So colorful - I love all the art and patterns in here!




Bedroom #2. We chose to sleep in this room because it was slightly larger and the bed faced the window:

As soon as we arrived I hung up this birthday/art market garland to make the bedroom feel more festive:



And I left a little surprise on Larry's pillow. (It was a Nook.)
Even the bathroom was amazing. It was full of really cool art and it had a corrugated plexiglass ceiling - which wasn't exactly soundproof. (Tip: don't go to Luminhaus with anyone you aren't comfortable sharing bodily noises with!)

The house is situated on SIX heavily wooded acres. Basically, it's just you and the trees as far as you can see. We also saw several deer. Oh, and bugs. There are lots and lots of bugs. Luckily, we are never without our daily dose of DEET.

Here's a view of the back of the house. There's a platform deck for eating/relaxing/admiring the house from outside.

I really loved how the house glowed at night. There was even a little shed that lit up like a lantern in the evening. Larry and I already have plans to replace the dilapidated old shed in our backyard with something similar.




Once the sun went down, we discovered another challenge of living in a glass house: Moths are crazy for the illuminated windows. Seriously, the windows were covered with thousands of moths each night.

And not just any old moth. Meet MOTHRA:

EEeeeeeks! Mothra came back every night, flapping its wings against the windows. Let me in!

Self portrait with Mothra.

We slept well that night. Actually, we slept well every night. My body felt like jelly the entire weekend. It's hard not to be relaxed at Luminhaus.

I could get used to living in a place like this.

we're back!

View from the road this weekend - small town West Virginia. 
(Or is it Maryland? - I'll have to ask Larry because I can't keep track of all the little towns we drove through.)

Whew! We're back. We were home for a couple days after Larry's secret birthday trip (I promise to write more about that soon!) and then we hit the road again for another weekend out of town - this time to western Maryland and West Virginia to visit Larry's family and attend his brother's wedding. In the past six weeks, we've taken three trips. In the past week alone, we've slept in three different beds in three different towns.

We've been to the beach and to the mountains. We've driven through the countryside. We've vacationed with friends, visited family, and traveled solo - enjoying the solitude. We've celebrated birthdays and marriages. We've been out of state - and explored parts of our own state that we'd never seen before. We've eaten meals on the road (pretzels and Yoo-hoo) picked up from gas station mini-marts and we've made delicious home cooked meals. We've picked fresh berries in the woods and visited kitschy roadside attractions. We've woken up to deer outside our window and fallen asleep to giant moths buzzing against the outside of the glass. We've cursed the fact that the EJECT button on my car's CD player broke and we can only listen to one CD over and over and over again...

We've been doing things, lots of things, and I love it. This is the first summer in years (maybe since childhood) that has felt summery to me. Being away, exploring new places, roadtripping - these are the best ways to enjoy summer (so much better than sitting behind a desk all day - though the realities of the real world and adulthood often prevent this.) We've talked about how important it is to find ways to make it work - find ways to travel, find ways to visit family, find ways to have fun and do what's important to us.

I've got a lot of catching up to do, but I'm inspired. I feel motivated to start some big projects around the house and to try new things with my art. I'm inspired to keep seeing new things.

This is what summer is supposed to feel like.

life list #170: visit blue mountain brewery

As I mentioned, Larry and I took a secret vacation over the weekend. The trip was my gift to him for his 40th birthday. Unfortunately, a vacation spent sailing the Greek Isles was out of my budget, so Larry knew that we were going somewhere within driving distance in Virginia, but he didn't know exactly where.

THE PLAN: Get on the road mid-morning. Stop somewhere in the Charlottesville area for lunch. Arrive at destination early afternoon.

THE REALITY: Get on the road at 2 pm after several freakouts involving packing and general lack of organization. Get stuck in major traffic for hours. Bitch and moan about said traffic and why do we live in this area and why are there so many freaking people in this world?! Look at all the other drivers who are in our way. Comment that I would like to punch all of them in the face. Stop somewhere in the Charlottesville area for dinner. Arrive at destination just as the sun sets.

So, the drive down was a little frustrating. The trip was supposed to take us three hours and it ended up taking seven. By dinnertime we had only made it to Charlottesville (100 miles from home) and we were both cranky and hungry.

Luckily, I knew there was a brewery nearby - in Afton, Virginia - 25 miles west of Charlottesville. I'd heard of Blue Mountain Brewery before and had been wanting to check it out. Larry and I are fans of anything that involves beer, and a stop at a local brewery would be a perfect meal for Larry's birthday trip.


The setting was just beautiful and the brewery is quite aptly named for the gorgeous view of the Blue Ridge Mountains that you can enjoy while sitting on their patio. I commented on this to Larry as we were waiting for our cold brews to arrive and he replied "Mountains aren't blue. They're green." Say WHAT? Purple mountain majesties? Hello! Mountains are blue or purple. Not green. (I'm not talking about a mountain that's close enough to see the actual trees, I'm talking about mountains in the distance. Which are clearly blue or purple.) So I said "You don't think the BLUE Ridge Mountains are blue?!" and he said "Well, I don't see it." Huh.

(Please note the blue mountains in the background...)

Despite that little discrepancy, we had a great time sampling the beers, sitting outside, satisfying our appetites with some grub made from local ingredients, and taking a much-needed break from sitting in the car.

My favorite part about the visit was seeing the hop garden that surrounds the brewery. I'd never seen how hops were grown before and I thought it was pretty cool that Blue Mountain grows their own. I love a good hoppy beer. In fact, I love a beer so hoppy that it makes you suck your cheeks inside out - the hoppier the better! (Think Hop Wallop by Victory Brewing. Not only will this beer make your face pucker up like a toothless old man, but with 8.5% alcohol, it will also knock you on your ass. Perfect.)







We probably could've sat there for hours pouring beers down our throats and basking in the evening glow of the Blue Ridge Mountains, but since we had more driving to do, we could only sample the brews before hitting the road. But not before stocking up on our favorite beers - a six pack of Full Nelson and a growler of uberPils to enjoy over the weekend.

And so we got back in the car and continued south to our next destination. Luckily there was no more traffic at this point, just the open road and the sun setting over the Blue Ridge Mountains...

backyard pyrotechnics

This evening we got back from an amazing secret vacation. Three nights in the mountains - no cell phones, no internet - just me, Larry, and nature. It was just the break with both needed, and I don't think I've ever felt so relaxed. I've got lots to write about our trip - and 800 photos to edit.

Needless to say, after three hours in the car driving home, neither of us felt like sitting in traffic or on a crowded metro or sweating our faces off in the heat watching the DC fireworks. We decided to skip the community 4th of July celebrations. However, on the way home I did convince Larry to pull over at a roadside FIREWORKS stand to pick up a few fountains and sparklers for some redneckery in our own backyard.

Yeehaw!

delectable june!

Whoah. June was a month full of celebrations, delicious food, and adventurous eating.

In June I tasted sweetbreads at VOLT and frog's legs at Central. Both were delicious. (Neither tasted like chicken.)

In June we had a cake with a Roman Candle in it. Awesome.

In addition to the delicious restaurant dining, we also made some killer recipes. These three are definitely going to be on our list of top recipes in 2011:

• Pork Meatball Banh Mi Sandwiches (Holy hell, these were awesome. I didn't even use the jalapeno, and we were still sweating by the end of this meal.)
• Spicy Apricot Wings* (This was the second time we made this recipe in a week - it's that good. We first made it during our beach trip to the Outer Banks in May, and then we made it again after we got home.)
• Grilled Chicken Moroccan Style + Vegetable Barley Couscous (I altered this recipe so much that it's silly to link to the original, but the combo of spices - no matter what vegetables or type of couscous you use, is delicious!)

*I've never liked wings until recently (perhaps my problem is with buffalo sauce?), but now that I've discovered Korean Fried Wings and Spicy Apricot Wings, I've awakened my inner carnivore. Larry laughs and laughs as I morph into a voracious wing-eating animal vigorously ripping flesh with my teeth until there's nothing left but a pile of bones. I just can't help myself. GrrrROAR!

We also loved this Rhubarb and Raspberry Roly-Poly with Vanilla Custard Sauce. I just love the silly names the English give to their desserts. Just imagine Larry and I attempting a British accent while contemplating the invention of the roly-poly:

Larry: I know! We'll take a biscuit**, cover it with jaaaaaaaam, and then pour some custard on top!
Me: And we'll call it a Roly. Poly.

**The cake-like portion of the dessert tastes like an American biscuit, not an English biscuit (which is actually a cookie). Also, the Americanized version of this recipe uses butter instead of the traditional suet. Several reasons for this: 1) Who wants beef fat, or worse, mutton fat in their dessert?! (Answer: evidently the English) and 2) The only suet you can get in this country is covered with birdseed.

What we were eating and cooking this month: adventurous restaurant food and celebratory cakes, more strawberries, and flavorful and spicy meat.