Author: Susan Sorensen

Talk about a gift that keeps on giving: In 2006, local philanthropist Fred Scott donated an antique carousel to the Virginia Discovery Museum, which oversaw its installation on the Downtown Mall. After 15 years and millions of rotations by seven horses (the VDM estimates that more than 100,000 children ride the carousel every year!), the beloved whirling wonder—one of the oldest remaining self-propelled carousels in the country—was in need of restoration.

Re-enter Scott, who, in honor of the museum’s 40th anniversary, made a generous pledge to restore the 1910 carousel to spinning glory. Then came a matching grant challenge from the Perry Foundation, and area families, businesses, and foundations quickly stepped up. Local contractor Martin Horn and artist Christy Baker did the work, with a monetary assist from Apex Clean Energy, Bama Works Fund, The Caplin Foundation, Chilton Trust, Loring Woodriff Real Estate Associates, Martin Horn, S&P Global, and Virginia National Bank. 

During the May ribbon-cutting ceremony, Janine Dozier, the VDM’s executive director, said restoring the carousel, which is free to ride and open to the public during the museum’s hours, was “truly a labor of love. …After what has been a long and difficult two years for everyone, reviving the carousel [is] a wonderful gift to the families of Charlottes­ville.” To which we say: Giddyup!

It takes a lot to surprise Sarah Fay Waller. No, she’s not a spy. Nor is she a volcanologist or a roller coaster designer or an underwater welder. She’s a wedding planner, and when she says she’s seen and heard it all (say, a bride who dreamed of synchronized swimmers performing during the cocktail hour), believe her. 

“I’m always up for the adventure of the unexpected!” Waller says. “And any opportunity I have to ensure that a couple’s day is a true reflection of their individual styles and personalities, as well as a blend of their relationship together, is incredibly meaningful to me.”

A University of Virginia grad with a master’s degree in art history, Waller started Day by Fay in 2017 after spending five years assisting a friend with her wedding planning business. She says a semester in Rome, where she immersed herself in the city’s classical art and architecture, literature, music, and tradition, still inspires her style, “a blend of timeless and whimsical.”

Waller’s primary focus, though, is on the planner-client relationship. The first thing she offers her clients is a 45-minute video call, during which she learns more about each of them, their vision for their wedding, and the kind of support or guidance they’re looking for when it comes to their day. “It’s so important that the relationship is a mutual one in which direct conversations can be had with total transparency, and expectations can be managed.”

Waller says one of the things she enjoys most about the wedding planning process is presenting a couple with their design board, a reflection of their lifestyles and a vision for their wedding with “a uniquely curated design…[that she’s created] just for them.” Another favorite moment is on the wedding day, when Waller and the couple walk into the reception space and see their design brought to life, just before guests are invited to join them.

Speaking of guests, there tends to be fewer of them these days, she says, because two-plus years of a pandemic has altered the way many couples are heading to the altar. “It’s caused people to rethink and reconsider so many details,” Waller says.

Weddings are smaller, and couples are willing to get married sooner or during the off-season, so they don’t have to wait for an available Saturday. Ceremonies and cocktail hours continue to be outdoors, and couples opt for plated meals instead of a buffet, where guests are touching shared surfaces and using the same utensils and dishware. 

But those smaller wedding ceremonies are often followed by larger cocktail hours and receptions with extended family and friends. As for other trends, Waller says she’s seeing “some absolutely incredible floral installations, which we can never get enough of, and some jaw-dropping veils.” And while she’s “a sucker for a sweet sparkler send-off,” she’s “always excited” to see alternatives—whether it’s a petal toss, a post-ceremony receiving line, bubbles, or glow sticks.

But at the end of the (big) day, Waller says what she loves the most about weddings is “celebrating two individuals committing to each other in the presence of the people who mean the most to them: their families and friends.”

What beats tucking into a big ol’ plate of Huevos BlueMoonos? Tucking into a big ol’ plate of Huevos BlueMoonos while enjoying a rooftop view of the city. Always a stellar bet for breakfast, the Blue Moon Diner now boasts an open-air space with primary-colored tables and chairs beneath large umbrellas atop its recently renovated West Main Street digs. And did we mention there’s a sweet little bar up there too? We’ll take a Ghostly Bloody with our eggs, please.

Jennifer Naylor, affectionately known as Mama Bird to those who frequent her Sussex Farm stall at area farmers’ markets, serves up a wide variety of Korean kimchi. It changes with the season, from cabbage or cucumber to apple or radish (to name just a few), and Naylor swears by what she grows on her farm: local, fresh, and seasonal ingredients. When asked about the other secrets to her delicious success (check out the long line outside her stall if you doubt us), she says she makes her kimchi from an “authentic Korean recipe” that she learned from her mother.

The real secret, though, is “knowing the vegetable you are working with—the water content, taste, texture, etc.” And then there are the Korean chili peppers. “I grow my own to supplement, but the bulk of [the peppers] come from Korea, where my aunt has an organic farm,” Naylor says. “She sends them to my mom, hand-harvested, sundried, and milled the old-fashioned way. I’ve yet to find the same quality here in the U.S.”

“One to two to three to two to one, and now two. And I’m never going back to three.” That’s Suzannah Fischer, eyes closed, recounting the number of O’Suzannah shops she’s owned at one time since she first opened her eclectic boutique in 1996 on the Downtown Mall.

Before going out on her own, Fischer worked retail for years, everywhere from Barr-ee Station on the Corner to Bath & Body Works at the Fashion Square Mall. And when the opportunity to buy an existing business in the current Corner Juice spot presented itself 25 years ago, she pounced. But before the place officially became hers, Fischer and her mother “went to Virginia National Bank in Barracks Road during a freak snow storm, so my mom could cosign a loan for $30,000 so I could buy it.”

Success came quickly, something Fischer credits to her persistence, a strong work ethic, and a knack for curating. “I love the whole process of finding goodies, putting them together, and selling them to cool people,” she says, adding that it’s important to balance high-end items—a handcrafted backpack made by Pennsylvania artisans or a sterling silver poppy-seed pod necklace—with things that children can afford to buy their moms for Mother’s Day. 

And when it comes to displaying it all, Fischer says “colorizing” is the key to making it work. “A theme—the cookbooks and candles all in one place—would look nauseating to me,” she says. “You can really make something out of so many different colors and shapes and price points in one place. It actually can take on a theme too, if it’s about a certain color.”

A quick spin around her Second Street space (her other store, devoted to all things babies and children, is on the Downtown Mall), confirms this. Various shades of beautifully displayed red merchandise are on white shelves near the cash register. Books look just right next to bags, which are near tea towels and scarves that share space with wrapping paper, puzzles, water bottles, socks, soaps, journals, and cards. A few feet away is a section full of black, white, and gray bowls, candles, pencils, stationery, umbrellas, lotion, mugs, vases, and more books.  

“Books are what I like the most,” says Fischer, who places “these crazy-large book orders” the moment she gets home from the various markets where she finds much of her stock. “It’s my very favorite thing when they come in. Books make every section of the store make sense; they bring a cohesiveness and make the whole thing look so tempting.”

Over the past year, however, she’s been all about puzzles. “I bought puzzles up the watoots” during the pandemic, she says. “And cookbooks and chocolate bars.” The shift to online sales was difficult (“I didn’t know what I was doing when I wasn’t greeting people at the door and helping them find cool stuff”), but she’s still here, and business is steady—on a recent rainy Wednesday afternoon there was a stream of customers who were looking for everything from hostess and birthday gifts (yes, she’ll wrap them for you) to items with the word “Charlottesville” on them. 

“I wouldn’t trade doing business in Charlottesville for anything,” Fischer says. “I was born here, my mother was born here, her mother was born here. I know Charlottesville, and I can’t imagine being anywhere else.”

If you’re expecting the same old, same old (a basket filled with dress-up clothes, say, or some beat-up Legos and a small train table or two), you’re in for a huge surprise when you step inside the Virginia Discovery Museum on the Downtown Mall. 

The first thing you see is Amazing Airways, a tangle of tubes adhered to the front window that allows kids to experience airflow as they yank levers and slide shafts to send balls and scarves whooshing through the twists and turns of a pneumatic air system. A few feet away is the Magnet Wall for gravity exploration, and across from that is the Automoblox, designed by Charlottesville High School BACON (Best All-around Club of Nerds) students to teach little ones about force, mass, motion, and friction. And that’s just the beginning of the fun (and learning) in the Front Gallery, which was completely renovated in 2016. 

Next door is the Construction Zone, equipped with several building spaces to create architectural wonders while facilitating teamwork and gross- and fine-motor skills, and a log cabin that allows kids to travel back in time to experience life in 1700s Virginia. Not far away is the book-filled Literacy Lounge, the calm and quiet Sensory Studio, and the Creation Station art space. In the museum’s real-world Back Gallery, renovated in 2018, children can run a bank or post office, simulate a visit to the doctor, cook up goodies at a café, and tend to crops on their farm. 

When asked if some exhibits are more popular than others, Janine Dozier, VDM’s executive director, says everything is “designed to encourage children to use their imagination to incorporate elements from all of the exhibits into a custom museum experience each time they visit.” It’s not uncommon, she adds, for the staff to find a robot created with Construction Zone blocks in the Colonial cabin, or coins from the Financial Fundamentals bank tucked for safe-keeping in a Literacy Lounge book.

“As the museum has worked to fulfill its mission of being a place for play and learning for all, we have developed more richly layered exhibits for use by all ages and abilities,” Dozier says. “To inspire children to use their imagination, there are no rules for how to engage with an exhibit—it’s up to every child to chart their own adventure.” 

Founded in 1981, the VDM is in its 40th year of consecutive operation. It moved to the Downtown Mall in 1990, and, according to Dozier, has “been a key driver of the downtown economy ever since.” Before the pandemic, the museum had welcomed more than 70,000 visitors a year, 23 percent of whom are there thanks to free admission programs. The Discovery Museum’s “most important work in recent years has been ensuring that it is an inclusive and accessible resource for all families in our community,” Dozier says.

But the VDM took a huge hit when COVID-19 forced it to keep its doors closed for more than a year (it reopened in May to groups with reservations and for scheduled programs, and hopes to reopen for general admission around Labor Day). And while its free or low-cost virtual programs were well-attended during the shutdown, the museum lost over $400,000, and will rely heavily on donations for the foreseeable future. Dozier hopes to raise $200,000 through the museum’s Discover VDM, Again campaign (vadm.org/donate), which, among many other things, will allow for the refurbishment of the iconic Downtown Mall carousel. 

“The Virginia Discovery Museum is a cornerstone of arts and culture in Charlottesville,” Dozier says. “Everyone is welcome, and everyone at the museum shares the common interest of seeing all of our community’s children learn, find joy, and thrive.”

Former UVA pitcher and Major League Baseball player Sean Doolittle made national headlines last year when sporting events were shuttered, and he reminded us that “sports are the reward for a functioning society.” 

If that’s true, the University of Virginia is functioning just fine. 

Since March, UVA’s student-athletes have earned four national championships (women’s swimming and diving, men’s lacrosse, and individual titles in women’s tennis and track and field). The women’s soccer team made it to the College Cup semifinals and the rowing team finished fifth in the NCAA Championships. The four female swimmers Virginia sent to the Olympics each returned to Grounds with a medal, and several of the UVA alumni who were in Tokyo added to the count. 

And then there was the baseball team. Circling the drain with a 4-12 ACC record at the beginning of April, the Hoos improbably earned their way to the College World Series in June. 

Along the way, we got to know the team’s relief pitcher, Stephen Schoch, who became one of college baseball’s greatest characters thanks to an ESPN interview about refusing a Dippin’ Dots bribe: “I heard a fan offer free Dippin’ Dots if I blew it, Schoch said after a dramatic regional win. “The price of Dippin’ Dots, with inflation, is just unreal. So, for a brief moment, I was like, ‘Damn, Dippin’ Dots sound good.’ But also I thought in the back of my head, we win today, we win [tonight], we’re gonna be here another day. That’s more per diem. So that means I can buy my own Dippin’ Dots and be a winner.”

When asked if anything makes him nervous, Schoch, a 24-year-old, sixth-year graduate student who throws sidearm and is known to punch himself in the head while on the mound, said, “Caves, mainly.” And then, looking around the baseball field, he added, “Nothing really. I don’t see any caves out here.”

Virginia baseball coach Brian O’Connor told a Richmond radio station that Schoch is “an interesting cat. …He’s been around a few blocks a few times, and he brings a looseness, a belief, a confidence level that you can do anything.”

Alas, Schoch and co. were eliminated from the College World Series by No. 2-seed Texas, but the closer came through one more time for the Cavs: A large box filled with three massive bags of Dippin’ Dots (cookies and cream, rainbow, and banana split flavors) was delivered to Schoch to share with his teammates. 

As for baseball, he said it’s “just a game. There’s gonna be way harder things in life. I think I’m a cool guy. My dogs think I’m awesome. My teammates like me, and my friends like me.” Reward enough for anyone, if you ask us.