Posted by Joe Barnes on March 9th, 2010

This past weekend was one of those weekends that makes me feel blessed and grateful to live in the Charlottesville area — a place with some many interesting things to do and people to hang out with.

I started my weekend off on Friday evening at the opening reception of “Our Water, Our Future” at the Charlottesville Community Design Center.  “Our Water, Our Future” is a unique and informative exhibit on the Charlottesville-Albemarle community water supply system presented by Charlottesville Tomorrow.  In addition to walking through this engaging and interactive exhibit about the goals, details, potential cost and impacts (both good and bad) of the areas 50 year water plan, I got to spend some time with several of good friends I have made over the past few years and met some new ones along the way.

Friday evening was capped off by a wonderful dinner at one of the many fun restaurants on Charlottesville’s pedestrian Downtown Mall.  As expected, not only did my wife and I have great time with our dinner companions, we ran into and chatted with a few other friends and colleagues from the area. 

The weather this past Saturday afternoon was spectacular.  Having a sunny day in the mid-60s was extremely welcomed after the rather unusually snowy winter we experienced this year.  My wife, 2 boys and my Boston Terrier, Hunter and I headed down to The Corner, picked up some sandwiches from Little John’s (including my favorite sandwich of all times, “Five Easy Pieces”) and had a picnic  at and long stroll around my favorite place in the entire world, The Lawn at the University of Virginia.

Sunday was another great day, weather and activity wise.  After church and a bit of grocery shopping, my oldest son and I went to the Virginia versus Syracuse lacrosse game.  We were thrilled when Virginia, ranked 2^nd in the country, beat number one ranked Syracuse, 11 to 10.  Go Hoos!

Sunday evening was Oscar’s Night.   For my wife, a great movie buff, it’s like Christmas, her birthday and July 4^th all rolled into one.  Typically, she is at home watching it from the red carpet through to the Best Picture award.  The rest of us in the family try our best not to disturb her. This year the Academy Awards were even more exciting for her.  We attended the live telecast of the show at the Paramount Theatre on the Downtown Mall.  Charlottesville was one of only 51 places across the world have live telecast like this.

Dressing up, walking down the own red carpet, sampling food from several Charlottesville restaurants, attending a pre-party sponsored by Virginia National Bank, in addition to watching the show in high definition on a movie theatre sized screen is seems like it is the next best thing to being in Hollywood.  I’m really looking forward to next year’s Academy Awards.

The highlight of my weekend occurred on Saturday morning.  Each year around this time, we hold the Bundoran Farm Community Association Annual Meeting.  In addition to going over the property owners association’s business, we spend time bringing everyone up to speed on what has been accomplished over the past year and what we are looking forward to the following year and beyond. 

While the meeting was long – starting at 9:00 AM and finishing up around 12:30 PM – we enjoyed every minute of it and left energized and inspired.  It is such a privilege for everyone on the Bundoran Farm team to work with a group of property owners that are so caring, thoughtful and respectful about the land and their neighbors, not to mention just fun to spend time with.  What a diverse group of people with interesting background sharing common appreciation for this legacy landscape. The more time I spend at Bundoran Farm and with the families that are making this place their home, its easy to see how the future this wonderful place will be in good hands with the wonderful people living here.

Next weekend, maybe I will just take a long nap.  Or, maybe I won’t.  I’ll just have to see what is happening around town.

Filed under: Bundoran Farm Events and Occasions, Education and Inspiration, General, Project Updates