April 9,10 Richmond VA

By Chris Ransdell

Friday's drive from Charlotte to Richmond was pretty straight forward.  Some of the local expressways around Richmond, in particular VA-288, were beautifully built and maintained.  This was our first stay at a Hyatt House hotel.  Hyatt House is probably in the same vein as Residence Inn or other extended stay hotels.  Hyatt really takes things to a high level though and it was a very welcoming and upscale place to be at.  The location seemed odd at first, directly adjacent to a new lifestyle (outdoor) mall.  I worked quite a bit the day we arrived and was very tempted to make dinner on the tiny but beautiful two burner smooth top stove in the room.  Instead we ate at PF Changs at the other upscale mall across town.  There was an impressively long causeway over the James river on the way to the other mall.

Saturday I worked some more and then went shopping for job interview clothes with Brian. We started at Macy's for pants and shirt and then finished up at Dillard's for shoes and socks.  Brian isn't a natural born shopper like I am but he did good and stayed patient and engaged enough to try on a few things and assemble something that was both business appropriate and maybe a little more bold than he sometimes wears.  Dinner was at TGI Friday's.  Brian here...I didn't get too many pictures in Virginia, but I did take a picture of the fountain in the middle of the walkway between the shops right next to our hotel.  It was a beautiful outdoor pedestrian only walkway.


The entire time we were in Richmond we didn't really go downtown or explore much.  That said, the overall impression was that it is a very prosperous area with a lot to offer.

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