What it’s Actually like Living in Richmond, Virginia

[Music] hello and welcome to Richmond Virginia where I just moved 13 months ago Richmond is an amazing place for so many reasons and this week I feel like really showcases a lot of them so come along with me this week as I take you on the James River to Niche Richmond festivals local food spots and more also subscribe for more of my life and Richmond and Virginia travel tips all right let's go okay today we are headed out on a retro boat on the James River it's right behind me right there so cute and it seats up to four people so we brought our friends Olivia Jackson and Lucas is here as well we are headed out it's an hour and a half ride it's $150 for weekdays 200 for weekends I'll leave the link in the description below so that you can book it too and it's BYOB you can bring your own food your own drinks alcohol I don't know are you guys excited for this excursion let's go down to James all right let's go we just got on the boat it's fun we're going 4.5 mph that is all they will do but should be fun the sun's out made it kind of hot I'll admit so we're headed towards the downtown which is super fun and we're going to see like a little bit of the skyline you can't go too far because there are class 4 Rapids in Richmond which means lots of rocks they're going like it flows this way and we're going this way so it wouldn't work out but um it's fun being out on the James on a boat and this is an electric boow and I have to stand while driving do we talk about this I can't see I can't see unless standing we've made it to downtown you can see it right there and this bridge which we are not allowed to cross cuz the Rapids are past this bridge but oh my gosh it's so fun it's been a challenge to drive slightly because um it's electric boat I'm assuming is why the steering wheel is a little finicky but it's a f we've cracked open a few uh Sparkling Waters got a spin Drift We got some waterl I think they're doing spin drift and NA beer Jackson I think has and uh drinks are having drinks are being had these back here used to be uh tobacco factories and now they are Loft Apartments which is really cool that's something really unique about Richmond too is like you can find some really cool LOF departments in Old buildings we've got plained strips sea Sal we've got Boulder Canyon avocado oil and sea salt we've got we've got popcorn we've got hope sandwiches that didn't die oh they didn't die so I made these sandwiches from basil for our garden and then I made homemade bread and I even Mill the Grain and these two back here so they loved them what do you guys think thumbs up so good 10 out of 10 10 out of 10 wow hi how's the sandwich the sandwich is incredible and so are the chips I think all together it's a win-win win so actually I can sit while driving but I am slightly short and so I kind of have to so it's a little easier to stand so I'd say if you're about 54 and above you're going to be okay if you're 54 and Below you might need like either a booster seat of some type or stand while you drive this um cuz your seat's pretty low but the sun's kind of went away we have delicious sandwiches in our bellies James River is very calm today too which is nice Jackson to prepare a statement talk about how you would rather be watching Jeffrey I turned on the Vlog camera and Jackson's like do I have to what do I have to say um nothing unless you want to this his first time on the Vlog Olivia's this is technically your first time on the Vlog too but you're in the Vlog twice you're going to be in the Vlog twice so yeah the boat ride's actually been really fun and if you want to get on the James River and you're only in richond for a little bit of time or maybe you're even local and you just want to like cruise this is a great way to do it because you can rent this boat you go slow you don't need a boting license and you can be out on the James for a relatively affordable price how did you like it Lucas I really enjoyed it it got real peaceful when the away literally how are you two back there did you enjoy your time it's good yeah it's fun it's peaceful well are you Jackson put him on the spot to talk first timers now it'll be funny because you'll probably be in more Vlogs throughout you know your life and then we'll look back at this one and you'll be like look how far I've come you know I'll be a pro at some point you'll be a pro at some point it does happen right Luc I think he's going to start his sub Channel whoa Jackson I'm here to steal secret it'll be Jackson's hot takes literally um but I'm pretty sure I'm going to wear the same outfit tomorrow so why not you know it was cute and now I'm headed to the Watermelon Festival in Cary town they do this once a year around the second week of August and it's they they basically shut down all of car street well a certain portion of it and have tons of vendors with like watermelon themed things like watermelon themed food Etc and then restaurants on car street do like specials for the event so I think there might be live music usually at a Richmond event there is I've never been to one before last year I was out of town for this so I'm really excited and if you can't tell I have this lovely watermelon themed outfit on so let me let me show you the full fit so I've got this like lime green kind of shirt thing on and also pink shoes with green socks and this pink purse so I'm thinking I'm real watermelon like for this Watermelon Festival which is exciting and fun and I'm going to meet up with my friend Olivia and we're going to walk there and see what it's all about so let's go we're walking towards the Watermelon Festival right now and we're hearing the music so there is live music we're seeing the Vibes there's tents there's a lot of people walking towards it it's hype honestly I'm so [Music] excited so far we have walked a little bit of the strip very fun a few watermelon themed outfits I'll say and we just got watermelon Cosmos from 0.5 which is a sophisticated non-alcoholic sips so it's like a non-alcoholic store like it's a liquor store for not liquor which I love and that's so Car Town to me to have such a niche store like that and it's pretty good it has like a kick to it at the end like kind of spicy are you tasting that or is it just me just like a tiny bit now that you said it yeah which is interesting to be watermelon but we'll accept it little sipper nice on a hot day and we are continuing this is our first purchase though so far watermelon themed got to be I don't know what else we're going to find that mingle Woods up here so we'll probably pop in there and get something to snack on we've made it some minglewood now we're going to go in and see if they still have more cheesecake on a stick so we got the cheesecake on a stick they had tons left they knew what to do and also the Simon roll which they've never done before so we're interested in trying that but real quick let's taste test this cheesecake on a stick it's the size of my head oh no I can't I almost try to go like this I can't open my mouth that wide [Music] waa that is Rich tastes like an ice cream bar but with like a cheesecake flavor feel like you have to split this up with like four people unless you really have a sweet tooth this is insane really good though it's a solid manglewood Choice okay oh my gosh this is mess just ripping it you have to do okay here we go good really good I'm going to try this in and roll M this is very good it is moist well glazed I would say like the center has lots of glazing and the frosting is good yeah um new favorite I think they only do them on the weekends but this is [Music] good okay just tried big wife's mac and cheese and they have a vegan option I've never had it before it was good the top was like super crunchy so that was kind of like I wasn't super into like crunchy noodles but the sauce was pretty good and I like that it included a lot of peppers pretty solid where's Olivia we don't know where she went there she is what did you think of the mac and cheese it was pretty solid crunchy on top but uh good underneath yeah it wasn't bad flavor it wasn't like thick cheese it was more like liquidy yeah yeah but I don't know the flavor was there all right I'm trying the sausage tofu biscuit at tiny vegan this place is 100% vegan and they do like comfort food American comfort food here we go first bite of the sausage egg tofu scramble and biscuit actually the Biscuit's nice and salty and delicious I think she makes her own lentil um sausage patties which I like and the cheese is spot on yeah I would say this is a solid option and it's good even for lunch cuz that's what we're eating it as right now all right it is time for dessert and where else to get dessert but Ruby Scoops she does tons of vegan options as well at her store but today she's just doing soret which is totally cool cuz one of those sbet is watermelon watermelon Festival I feel like this is a great way to end it's a full circle moment it's on theme and a little bit of a lime but not too bad mhm very water melony tastes Super Fresh it's kind of like an Italian ice um like from my childhood this is the mint lemonade and I will tell you it's a flavor Journey cuz it's very in my opinion spearm miny lemonade I like the watermelon one more it tastes exactly like watermelon and it's so good I like the mint better she likes the mint better okay she's into that see it's it's taste buds but I like the watermelon better so I think probably switch I don't get the mint until the end and at first I get like the lemon she's said yeah it thw it threw me through a loop I think I'm team watermelon on this one all right we are having an evening at bingo beer company which is a place where you can get food drinks and also play Arcade games so me and Lucas like to do this for like a date night and today we're going to try some of the vegan options so it's really loud in here because it's like has a party atmosphere so if you can't hear me it's really loud apologies um but we're having a good time we just got a mocktail and we ordered a bunch of vegan options so we'll see what it looks like and what's delicious and the sun's still out and I like that this spread was insane I love the fried mushrooms and I love the impossible Burger um I'm so full they have a lot of vegan options apparently next up was to find out who was the ultimate winner Lauren or Lucas let's find out rig skall Legend didn't know I don't know they say air hockey is the ultimate game so so I got a fall out of the claw machine and I won first in Mario Kart which we couldn't compete in cuz there were people at that machine Fus did beat me it was very tight though in air hockey and in the ski ball but I went basketball so I don't know to me I think it's a tie all I know is we had a lot of fun we ate a lot of different types of food they have a lot of vegan options here which is surprising and delicious I would say bingo beer is awesome also we got a mocktail that was cool so you can drink you can eat you can have fun it's a really good hang out time SL Day night/ family get together sort of place um I really enjoyed it it was so fun hello and welcome to a very special day today is my very first free hangout with the vegan club rbaa which is a social club that I just started in Richmond I did a vegan food tour before this in Cary Town last month and this month is a free hangout at Cava club which is like a mocktail bar that also serves Cava so tonight randoms are going to come we're going to hang out people will make friends we'll drink Cava I don't know what to expect like a ton of people are scpd but it's raining really hard and there's also like a tornado watch so that's kind of interesting o look one spot a spot opened up right in front what do you think you should probably stay in there's more cars coming I don't know it's raining I got an umbrella though I guess but it's going to be really exciting to meet people maybe people I've talked to on Instagram before maybe people who just found out about it and don't know me at all I don't know it's uh it's going to be fun people are going to hopefully make friends cuz that was the biggest challenge for me and Lucas we moved to Richmond it took a while to find and make friends so I'm glad I was able to start this social club for vegans and non-vegans all are welcome and yeah we're going in there so we're going [Music] [Applause] [Music] in so the vegan Club Meetup was so much fun it was I'd say it was a success 30 people showed up in the rain we all heard about what Cava was or what Cava is and uh tasted samples and everybody was talking about it ca is interesting it kind of like numbs your tongue um but it does calm you it's weird and it tastes like a root like if you've ever had like danion root tea or something like that it's very earthy um but everybody enjoyed it uh I saw people exchanging numbers making friends stuff like that which is really cool because the whole reason why I started the club was so that people could meet friends cuz it was hard when we moved here we knew nobody so it was hard to make friends so I love that I have this like club now to make friends and um and that people can join you know whether or not you're vegan you can totally join this club and uh do meetups we're doing them every other month for the free Hangouts and then every other month in between we're doing like vegan food tours around different restaurants around Richmond which is really cool so people can try like what vegan options are out there and that's also open to vegan and non-vegan people of course today is a food day today we are going to go to w more Taco which is a local restaurant um they like specialize in Latin American food they just introduced their brunch today is the first day so we're going to go there and try like what vegan options there are for brunch I don't know what to expect but we've been there before for lunch and it was so good it's amazing like she makes her own vegan meats from mushrooms and it is it's like one of the best restaurants in the city I think and for vegan options anyway um and then later we're going to go to Stanton back up to Stanton which is in like more of the mountain area of Virginia uh for four course five course actually vegan dinner that's being hosted by Chef Aaron Gardner and he does I think monthly like Farm to Table dinners and this one's just happens to be vegan and it's also really cool cuz it's inside of a shop inside um Billy opal which is a store in Stanton so I'm excited to see what that's like meet people up in Stanton um and that'll be really fun evening and I'll take you along with that Adventure got to head out and try brunch you ready Lucas let's do it he's in there somewhere [Music] we have made it in and we have ordered the fresh squeeze orange juice which by the way is so good I always forget that like fresh squeeze orange juice is this delicious and like regular orange juice isn't you know what I'm saying it's so sweet and delicious I could go on for days about orange juice apparently but we got our food what we ordered was the vegan Chile killes and the vegan Honduran breakfast so there's several things on the menu actually I can be veganized the vegan breakfast burrito and I think one other item but I'm excited to dig into these they look absolutely delicious Maria is so good at veganizing things I think for the Honda and breakfast is just egg and it looks like Beyond like steak tips and then plain tains avocado beans and then the Chila kiles just looks like it's going to be delicious honestly they also have mimosas and French pressed coffee as options for breakfast so lots of really good things looks amazing why is this place always so good I never thought of like I don't know brunch with this Cuisine but now I understand it um I'm going to try a little bit of chil Kes too Lucas is like freaking out about it just going to pull one up with my hands though that [Music] good that the sauce the flavors oh dude it's insane everything here is perfect m should we try a little the Hond room breakfast yeah I think you're supposed to make like a little breakfast taco that's what it looks like Maria makes her tortillas homemade somebody came yesterday and they're like wait are you you're the owner I saw you in the video now you're famous we're loving it the breakfast taco that I made was so tasty plant PL tains are so good the Chile Kea are just like not topnotch um I'm excited to try more stuff next time we come but really solid brunch options and lunch options here and Maria is absolutely the sweetest um I made a video on Instagram and she said people are recognizing her now from the video when they come in to eat I think that is so funny but um she deserves it you know she deserves some recognition um her food is absolutely fantastic and today is a food day for sure oh the hair the hair and the wind look at this hair is it awesome it's it's really awesome hell yeah anyway that was so good today was her first day just kind of experimenting with like flavors and stuff but um so delicious they nailed it they are opening this next weekend so by the time this video comes out there open for brunch they'll be open from 10:00 to 2 on Saturday and Sunday now we're headed to Stanton it's like an hour and 45 minute drive yeah it's going to be nice going into the mountains and uh and uh I'll see you when we get there [Applause] [Music] so we have just finished at Aaron's house um he gave me a really cute tour of his garden I got to watch him cook some of the food um and he prepped for tonight's event and now we are here at the event space and so we're going to set up I'm kind of going to watch everything being set up I'm not going to set up myself maybe maybe I will and then the dinner so I'm excited the Space is really cute so I'll take inside and kind going to show you around [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] ah what an amazing week I feel like this is my favorite Vlog because every event I went to was so much fun and just like a really really good event and I think a really good example of like Richmond has to offer as well as like what's close by Richmond you know Stanton's only an hour and 45 minutes hour and a half drive from here and you can go to the mountains and you can go to the cutest little downtown and I don't know what my favorite thing was I really like the boats anytime I can get on the James River I'm like a huge fan thought that was a Vibe um as you know if you watched any videos on this channel everything is a vibe to me um that was a Vibe it was so cool doing my first like free hangout with the vegan Club RBA that was amazing and I'll make sure to leave uh the link to join in the description below it's free we do free and ticketed events every other month um it's been so much fun to meet those people and the five course dinner was delicious W more tacos is always delicious Watermelon Festival is really fun that was so cool to go around with Olivia and try all of my favorite like food places and see all of the restaurant owners who I've done reels with on Instagram before just seeing them again is always a blast and eating their food of course and also I was thinking to do something fun I don't know if it'll work but basically if you could leave me like a random question in the comments below next weekly Vlog I'll answer that question at the end of the Vlog so like every Vlog will end with like a question that I answer or that Lucas and I answer together just so you guys can get to know us a little bit more um I think that'd be really fun whether or not it's like Richmond related or like personal or whatever so if you drop a question in the comments below um I'll pick one randomly and answer that next week if it works I don't know if anyone will actually like leave any questions in the comments um I love comments but you know not everybody leaves one they just kind of watch silently but um yeah if you have a question definitely drop a below maybe this won't work and I'll never do it but I just thought it was a cool idea and also subscribe for more of my life in Richmond and Virginia travel tips and over here I have a playlist of more Richmond Adventures that you can check out if you want to just go through all the different seasons of Richmond and tons of things to do and see how cool it is and I will see you all next week week bye