Things I Learned About Charlottesville

There were a couple things I noticed about Charlottesville that I thought I'd share with ya'll.

I started picking up on some of them before I even arrived.

1. FASHION

This lovely lady was on my flight to C'Ville and she sort of stood out.

I'd says she was late 40's early 50's and she was wearing a large jumper, a plain sweater, orthopedic sandals, a lost expression on her face...

and at least 3 different colors of dye in her all-gray hair.

This gentleman was wearing his LONG hair in dreadlocks. He was easily over 6 feet tall, and his hair came down to his calves maybe even his ankles when he was standing.

He was with a very pretty woman who was wearing a pink cotton dress, chic glasses, and an arm-full of tattoos.

The more interesting thing, though, was not the wearers of these hairstyles... No, the other people were more interesting. Here in MS if someone strolled by looking like this, everyone would stop and stare. Not so in VA, these people were normal and not given a second glance.

Another thing I noticed the first night I was there - At dinner, we were surrounded by a lot of teens and young families (aka people who would be most likely to wear the latest trends).

The women wore their pants up high and their shirts were short, stopping AT or just above their high pants...

It was surreal because I haven't seen that LOOK since...

The women (and men, too) also were very into COMFY SHOES which makes sense since they're more active than we Mississippians are...

BUT the Italians are big walkers, too, and their women know how to dress but, I digress.  ;)

I saw way too many TEVA sandals, tennis shoes with skirts and the like... The following are women's shoes like I saw all ages wearing with dresses, shorts and long pants...

I found this photo online and it matches the style I saw:

2. CARS

The Virginians love their Suburus!

I cannot tell you how many Outbacks I saw. They were about as common as our Honda Accords and Ford Trucks. There were also a healthy number of SUV's, but not the big honkin soccer mom variety. They seem outdoorsy and eco-concious at the same time... I only saw ONE pick-up the whole time I was there.

In addition to the TYPE of car they like, I also noticed that a whole lot of them seemed to embrace bumper stickers! And not just one or two, no no... If a car had ONE bumper sticker, it was just as likely to have 15 of them... And a fair amount of Obama stickers were there, as well.

Since there are a lot of cars ... There was also a lot of parallel parking to go around. I was glad Brad was driving ;)