Crossroads Coffee and Ice Cream and a Stride Through Time

A few weeks back the Good Wife signed our family up for the Richmond Stride Through Time event.  The purpose of the event was to get some good exercise as a family and to see some of the historic sights in the historic Fan district in Richmond.  The best part is you get to go through a lot of the historical sites during the race, as the course goes through most of them.  An added bonus was the Good Wife's sister was visiting us that weekend and we had another boy with us we were watching that day.

So off we went that Saturday morning.  It was a warm morning, but not too bad.  We were all walking along and having a good time seeing a lot of the buildings and historic sites.  One impressive site was the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart.  The most impressive part was the pipe organ in the back of the church.  They had an organist playing the entire time so you could hear how great it sounded.

We also got to see some historic figures along the way, or at least people that were playing the part.  They told us about the historical significance of certain areas, such as Scuffle Town...

...and Stonewall Jackson School.

As the "race" wore on, everyone was getting hot and tired.  We even made a short cut and eliminated part of the course.  Walking along, feeling hot and tired, I glanced over to my right, and there it was, written in a puffy font, like balls of ice cream atop cones...Crossroads Coffe and Ice Cream.

Both of those items sounded good, but the ice cream really sounded good.  So we veered off the race course and went into Crossroads, ordering up milkshakes for everyone.  The usual Saturday morning crowd was in the shop, looking at us in a quizzical manner, wondering why we all had race numbers pinned on our shirts, but were standing in a coffee shop getting ice cream.  We tried to explain that we were in a "race" but not really.

They had a great selection of homemade ice creams, and their coffee menu looked really good too.  It had two separate seating areas inside, along with a nice patio area outside that was dog friendly.  The front of the counter had a large cork board that seemed to serve as the community center of the area, listing events and activities happening in the area.

We walked out and continued on our "race", each with a milkshake in hand.  Oh it tasted good.  And not just because it was sunny and hot outside, although that helped.

Looking on their website, there are two locations in Richmond.  Although I haven't been back yet and haven't visited the other location, both of these locations are on my list of things to do, and not too far in the distant future.

The race continued on and everyone got tired, especially the youngest two.  The Good Wife is amazing, and for a little while decided to punish herself by carrying not one of them, but both at the same time.

She went a lot further than I ever thought she would.  Never say she can't do something, or the next thing you know, she will be doing it.

Approximately 7K later, we finished the 10K event.  With all the kids in tow, we felt that it was a nice accomplishment.  No one really complained and everyone had fun.  We got to learn about some of the historic sights in the Fan district of Richmond, and we found a great coffee and ice cream shop in Richmond!