Hi! We’re Kyle and Stephanie Thomas, millennial innkeepers at the Indigo House in Virginia wine country. After years of working full-time in Corporate America, we built, designed, and opened a bed & breakfast for outdoorsy humans and kind dogs. You might not have realized that we’ve been running this B&B while maintaining full-time jobs (of which Kyle’s required significant travel). After years of practically living apart, and then living with guests when we were together – all while burning the candle at both ends work-wise – we are oh-so-excited to settle into our new era… our early retirement era. 

We never wanted our guests to think we were complaining about how we spent late nights, early mornings, lunch breaks, and weekends on this business. Instead, we want to thank you. We’re so grateful for your patience in our (sometimes) delayed responses sent at strange night hours. Or if we disappeared for 30 minutes on a Thursday morning while you ate breakfast, it was likely due to a conference call. And sometimes, you walked up to us while we sat in front of three computers – we’re sorry for that too. That scene doesn’t really evoke feelings of relaxation like you deserved on your vacation. We apologize for the way we were before our early retirement era… It was a bit workaholic-y. 

These were all our decisions though. We wanted to do the hard thing now so we could do the sustainable thing later. We wanted to take calculated risks and watch them pay off. We chose to sacrifice under the illusion that we could “have it all!” Turns out, we don’t want it all. In fact, we want a little less. And likely, very likely, we want to do more of different stuff.

We think there’s a big opportunity here at the Indigo and look forward to having the brain space and time to explore it.

Some potential new things for our early retirement era:

As Stephanie’s pulled back from technical writing, it’s freed up some creative energy to plan weekend experiences for awesome guests like you. Some ideas we’re considering:

• A digital detox weekend with exceptional food and disposable cameras (inspired by this)
• Grown Up Summer Camp (including pet-friendly games)
• Summer solstice garden party (with “bark”cuterie)
• More retreats, workshops, and even monthly community-building events (we’ve been dying to collaborate with a dog rescue service)

We’re all so very busy, which makes a weekend getaway even more essential in our self-care routines. But to be honest with you, it’s difficult to plan and price out events like this knowing we’re all a little more cautious about spending right now. But then we think about all our friends who spent m.o.n.e.y on out-of-state (or country) concerts, one-of-a-kind experiences, and unique dinners.

We want to continue delivering the five-star service you’re used to here at the Indigo while taking personalized experiences up a notch… all without breaking the bank. We want things to be worth your time and money and we also want to give you plenty of time to save up for them! Don’t be surprised if you see us opening up 2025 reservations exclusively for these types of experiences soon… We can’t wait to create something amazing for you.. and give you a little something to look forward to as we walk into the madness of an election season.

If you’re interested in learning more or have ideas for fun weekend excursions, reach out to us via email or leave a comment below. We’d love to see what you come up with!