Hello Hello! Matt, Riese, Wes and I spent the Thanksgiving holiday at the Salamander Hotel in Middleburg, VA. Riese’s 5th (!!) birthday was on Thanksgiving Day and we were lucky to have both sets of grandparents join the celebrations!
One of the best things about this hotel is the wide open spaces – plenty of room to run around which is good as this guy does NOT stop moving!
Here are some of the highlights of our trip.
Thanksgiving at the Salamander Hotel in Middleburg
time with family
The biggest highlight was spending time with family! It was great to have both sets of grandparents on this adventure, especially since Riese’s birthday was involved. She was SO excited the whole trip, it was really cute.
One of the big highlights for her was being able to ride a pony again! (She drove one when we first came to the Salamander for a couple of spring break nights in April.)
The horses were a big hit – the stables are a short walk from the main hotel so we visited them a couple of times during our stay.
Thanksgiving Morning Turkey Trot 5k
Matt’s parents babysat for us on Thanksgiving morning so Matt and I could participate in the 5K turkey trot the hotel hosted! It was lovely outside – cold and sunny – perfect for running!
The course was very nice too. It was all on property and mostly on trails. I haven’t run trails in a long time and it’s so beautiful!
But oh boy, those HILLS! We felt the route was 95% uphill… woof, not an easy 5km! Here was one of the short easy descents. 😉 I definitely felt that most of the runs I do today are flat!
Beautiful, isn’t it?
It felt really good to get out of there even though the course was so challenging with the hills. My watch only read 3 miles instead of 3.1, but whatever!
The food!
The Salamander Hotel has fantastic food. For breakfast two mornings I got their avocado toast which was basically a work of art with pomegranate seeds, pickled butternut squash sticks, cheese and edible flowers!
And one morning I had the veggie omelet with cheddar – also delicious. Omelets feel like a fancy breakfast because I don’t usually have time to make them at home on a regular basis!
I was also a big fan of their green smoothies and bacon.
For lunch, we kept things low key since Wes takes his naps at midday. One day we ordered room service (I had a plain salad) and the other day my mom hung around our room for us while Wes napped and Giant watched a show so Matt and I could have lunch alone could.
That was a nice treat compared to the other meals Wes has been arguing at — gosh, he’s a HANDFUL at restaurants right now. We had one dinner where he did super well but the rest of the meals required one of the adults to walk him around the hotel while the others ate and then exchanged ideas.
The day Matt and I had lunch alone was Thanksgiving – I had a Caesar salad with shrimp. Yummy! And not too heavy as we had our Thanksgiving buffet at 4:30.
We made gifts in our room for Riese’s birthday before heading to the buffet for an early Thanksgiving dinner. The buffet was amazing, y’all – so many options! We started with shrimp cocktail and oysters shared by everyone, then I moved on to a soup and salad class:
And then the main event! The turkey was really good but I especially loved the bread with the homemade honey butter whipping – so good!
For dessert we asked the staff if they could get us a birthday candle situation and they did, along with a massive plate of practically everything from their dessert buffet! Luckily, Riese was willing to share. 😉
I loved the mini pumpkin pies – ended up going back for another one!
The other two nights of our trip we ate at their main fine dining restaurant, Harriman’s. It was tricky juggling Wes (and his current “Destructo” mode – he’s trying to throw everything on the floor, including china, cups, etc. within reach, oof) ​​in a nice restaurant, but we managed and the food was fantastic.
I started the first night with a salad and oysters:
And then I had the lobster and some common sides not pictured.
The second night I had the same starters and then tried the fillet steak. It was super tasty but I didn’t think to take a picture!
Romp around the property
As I mentioned before, one of the best things about this hotel is the expansive SPACE! So great for kids.
Wes also loved this giant chessboard, especially when someone was trying to actually play it (and he was constantly moving the pieces around while I was trying to put them all right back after him…)
We had a really nice sunset a couple of nights!
And we also saw the sunrise a couple of times in the morning from breakfast (Early Bird Special… the kids didn’t sleep very well during our stay, which was unfortunate for everyone involved):
Until next time Salamander Hotel… thanks for the fun time!
