Our Virginia Visit

This post is well past due...Back in mid February (now a month ago) we took a long weekend and headed out to the Charlottesville/D.C./Leesburg area to check out potential places to relocate to (you may recall our relocation poll had Leesburg as one of the options, but did not fair to well in our reader's opinion).

Upon arriving at Dulles airport outside of Washington D.C. (which we want to let everyone out there know is one of the most ghetto airports we have ever been in) we headed in our VW Rabbit rental down south 2.5 hours to the home of the University of Virginia, otherwise known as Charlottesville. While in Charlottesville we ventured down to their pedestrian mall, met with a realtor in the nearby town of Crozet, and drove through most of the neighborhoods that surround the University of Virginia. The reason that Charlottesville was a potential relocation site was due to a number of factors (nearby Shenandoah National Park, mild four season weather, surrounding wineries and outdoor activities, proximity to D.C., 3-4 hrs. from The Outer Banks of North Carolina, and many more).

After spending a day and a half in Charlottesville and getting a good feel of the area, we then began our trip northbound, heading towards Leesburg, a suburb 45 min. northwest of D.C.. But before reaching Leesburg, we stopped for the better part of the day in a relatively small and historic, yet growing town of Culpeper. The reason for the stop was that Chris' residency director had put Chris in contact with a dentist-colleague of his that he had met while serving for the army in Alaska 20 years prior. We figured this would be a good opportunity to find out firsthand what the dental market was like in the northern-Virginia area. The stop was well worth it, as the dentist (unnamed for professional privacy) and his wife spent the entire afternoon and evening taking us around the area, showing us their beautiful office, and basically trying to sell us on moving out to their neck of the woods. All in all this was the highlight of the trip, as we felt that they gave us the most firsthand knowledge we could have possibly received.

The final leg of our trip found us exploring the town of Leesburg, Ashburn, and the surrounding countryside. Of all the areas we saw while in Virginia, this was definitely the place that we felt most comfortable and at home with. The town sports a nice historic downtown area, complete with restaurants, art galleries, and other historic shops/spa-type places. Beyond that there are many older historic homes, and beyond that, there is a huge building bonanza taking place. Leesburg is the county seat of Loudon county and is currently (pre-sub prime fallout) the fastest growing county in the U.S. at a dizzying 30%. While in the area we took time to check out the magnet-status Loudon County Hospital, a potential place for Emily to work, located between Leesburg and Ashburn.

After finishing our time in Leesburg, we headed back to Dulles and headed back to Dallas (we'd like to say we headed home, but somehow that just doesn't feel right). So what did we think of Virginia overall some may ask? We liked it...the question we have yet to answer is whether or not we loved it enough to move there in spite of the fact that we would know absolutely no one. The female half of us seems to like the idea of moving somewhere where we at least know someone. So we will continue to keep all y'all (plural for y'all) in suspense as to where we'll end up...

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