travel

Pennsylvania Weekend

December 10, 2014 · 2 Comments

So I didn’t come back Monday, as I said I might have.

But you know the holidays and how busy they are, like all the time, so I’ve opted for comfy PJ nights with the hubs sipping hot chocolate and watching Christmas movies.

But we did take a short trip up to PA (short as in four days, because that drive is anything BUT short) to see my mom and sister.

I got to see my aunt and uncle, eat my mom’s spaghetti (which is the shizzzzzz by the way), go shopping in Lititz for candy galore, and head to a hockey game.

Reading, PA has also made national news with their ugly tree, which they have dubbed the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree — single red ball and all.

Here’s some pics from our trip:

this is for real y’all — my mom has the leg lamp. the soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window….

stell-dog didn’t dig being thrown in front of the fire. at all. but dammit, I needed a cute picture.

my mom’s mantle. so pretty.

“the” spaghetti. I could eat this every day.

sweaty hockey players, fun music, and the cast of Frozen was there –what else could you possibly want out of a night at the Reading Royals hockey game?

the poor sad little Christmas tree.

my sister and I ate the hockey game.

stella was not happy with the 13 hour car rides, especially when we had all the treasures in the back seat.

It was definitely a welcome break — and now I have a table of Santas/snowmen/assorted holiday decorations and candy from Wilbur’s. And of course getting to chill with the family.

All in all — it was pretty great.

Charleston Day 2

July 7, 2014 · 2 Comments

Instead of the obligatory “this was what happened on my Fourth of July,” I’m going to throw you all a curve ball and talk about day 2 of the Charleston anniversary trip.

Don’t worry, though, that Fourth post is coming.

Our second day, we got up, a little hungover, and decided that we needed breakfast. We found this cute little place on Queen Street, appropriately named Queen Street Bakery, where they were known for their crepes and iced coffee that contained three times as much caffeine as regular coffee. I was in heaven. I usually don’t take anything in my coffee, but this coffee really didn’t need anything. Even B who isn’t as much as an avid coffee drinker as myself agreed that nothing additional was needed. Plus, the place carried Cheerwine — the best soda on earth. I think I’ve confessed my love for it before, so I won’t make you listen to it again.

Also, AU runs the world in case you didn’t know.

savory crepe, with mozzarella tomatoes and basil. and a spinach salad on the side.

sweet crepe with bananas and brown sugar and chocolate. and that whipped cream was like heaven.

After breakfast we walked around admiring the homes we’ll never be able to afford, and probably to walk off some of that breakfast before heading to the beach.

We drove the short drive down to Folley Beach – a beach that allows no alcohol. Zero — and they have officers that walk around and check. Which pretty means, they don’t want you to have any fun. The water was warm, but this beach wasn’t our thing. Rocky sand — no alcohol allowed — and absolutely no places to park. Hence our beautiful parking ticket — for what, might you ask. Well, our tires were 1/2″ outside the white line — and while none of the cars in front of us got parking tickets for the exact same parking job, our poor little car with the Alabama tag sure did. Needless to say, there will be no fun had at the beach, and the parking police make sure of that.


happy beach day.

That night was the best night of the trip — the best part of the whole trip. We had reserved tickets for a sunset catamaran sail — it was raining when we showed up, and we were afraid the ship wouldn’t sail. But we settled in to a nearby restaurant bar for beverages — until the rain let up and the captain announced only a fifteen minute delay. It actually ended up being a beautiful ride.

We ended the night at that same restaurant with some amazing food — or it could have been because we were starving. I did have the most amazing shrimp burger I could have had. Which made for a pretty happy girl.

The sail ride was incredible. We ended our trip with a fancy brunch the next day and then proceeded on to our seven hour trip back home. It was definitely a welcomed escape from reality for a bit, and it was so beautiful.

Charleston Day 1

July 2, 2014 · 2 Comments

Normally I hate splitting up vacation posts, but I took a lot of pictures and don’t want to picture overload anyone, because that’s not very nice. Is that a run-on sentence? It sure feels like it could be, but the commas and stuff look correct…any grammar police out there, please feel free to let me know.

But that’s way off topic. Anyway, hubs and I decided to take a long weekend in Charleston to celebrate the long five years we’ve been together. We took off Friday, but drove to Atlanta on Thursday to help split the long drive.

We ended up eating at The Porter in Little Five, and it was delicious! I had the shrimp and grits with an amazing IPA, and B had some delicious looking sandwich thing that actually was pretty delicious. I didn’t take pictures, because I was starving and gobbled that thing up pretty damn quick.

Next day, we got up and faced a four and half hour drive before getting to Charleston. We decided to run around and explore before our dinner reservations that night.

the pineapple fountain!

selfie snappin fools.

first drink for B during the trip — a dark & stormy

my first beverage — a refreshing Moscow mule.


got to walk through a pretty old cemetery…some plots as old as the 1700s.

After our obligatory first drink and snack (because I thought I was going to die of starvation), we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

B had made reservations at Cypress, a pretty fancy little joint. And I will just tell you that the food and service were both fantastic. It even started pouring down rain while we were in there, and they have a cute little bar upstairs, where we rode out the storm.

first time ordering champagne at a restaurant.

our amazing appetizer with three spreads. soo delicious.

i’m a steak girl through and through. perfectly medium rare steak with beer battered onion rings . did i mention how fancy I am too?

b had a seafood stew thing with mussels and all sorts of goodness.

and white chocolate truffles, because five years yo.

After dinner and our after-dinner drinks, we headed across the street to the Gin Joint for our night cap.

It was a perfectly quaint little place with old fancy drinks and a section for you two pick two words and the bartender will make his own drink for you. I didn’t get quite what I asked for (which was sweet and refreshing), but it was good nonetheless.

Of course, this is only day one, and there’s lots more to come!

Five Years

July 1, 2014 · 6 Comments

I have been an awful terrible blogger. I barely wrote last week, and decided that starting Monday’s post at 930pm was a good idea. In addition to that, I barely commented on anyone’s blog, and for that I am truly covered in blog girl shame. In all fairness, we did have internet problems, and my computer is dumb.

So had it not been for super awesome Casey from AT&T coming to fix our shizz, you would be left without my amazing words of wisdom for today.

Not that I have many, because, well it’s 930 at night, and I want to go to bed.

This past weekend hubs and I spent our five year anniversary in Charleston. Our five years have been sprinkled with hard times — really hard times — and for some reason through everything, it has prevailed. It’s not perfect, nor will it ever be.

It was a great trip, and I’ll indulge more details later. I just had to clear my blogger conscience and post something.

Asheville Happenings

June 11, 2014 · 1 Comment

I am so terrible at keeping all of my trips in order. I wrote about what I ate during this trip, but never actually talked out it, shared my pictures or anything.

Something cooler always happens, and I’m just like, eh..I’ll get to it later.

But then I never do. Or when I do, it’s like four months later, and I can’t fully remember the trip. One of the main reasons for going to Asheville was just to get out of Birmingham. Don’t get me wrong, I love it here, but sometimes a girl needs to just get the hell out. You know what I’m saying?

So we sort of split the trip in two, stopping for dinner in Atlanta, and then continuing the trip. I would like to say I stayed awake the whole time, but no, no I didn’t. I always lose those bets saying that I will. But it was night time, and I was tired.

So one of the main draws of Asheville are the breweries. I think there are about fifteen in the area, but we were only able to fit four into one day. The lucky thing about that is that most of them are within walking distance of each other (they even had a walking route to follow to the breweries), and well, walking is better than driving any day when all you’re doing is drinking all day. So here we go:

Up first was Asheville Brewery. Don’t remember much about the beer, but I know I had an IPA, and I didn’t hate it.

Up next was Hi-Wire Brewery. We had the flight there, and watched people play the giant Jenga. The thing I remember most about this place was how easy it was to get to the bathroom there, and you didn’t have to find a million people to get it.

Next up was Twin Leaf Brewery. This was the prettiest one out of all the ones we went to. The bartender was super fun, and they even had balloons. Who hates balloons? No one, that’s who.

And the very last one we visited was Burial. This one was my favorite out of all of them, simply because I liked the simple feeling of the place, and what they put their flights in. And the names of their beers. See, boys, girls are simple.

Sorry for the super long post. I do feel better that I got it all out. Phew. Now I can carry on with my life without the burden of knowing that I made this trip and told no one about it.