october backlogs: the state fair

Remember that time we almost died trying to go to the state fair?

Well, luckily, this trip was nothing like that! :)

We were thrilled to be going back to North Carolina for the state fair -- and not only we were going back, but we were going back with friends who went every year! NC natives!
This was exciting on many levels, but mostly because they knew where all the best fair food was. And fair food is the reason for fairs.

But let's back up a little bit -- our day actually started downtown.
We were leaving around lunchtime for the fair, so we had some time to kill -- and some other friends of ours, Jon and Emilie, had asked if we wanted to meet at White Hart that morning for some coffee and a trip across the street to the farmer's market. We happily agreed.
Little did we know it was all one big clever ruse to get us to White Hart.

As you know, our friends Allison and Greg had moved back to Illinois after graduating law school...

We walked into the coffee shop, and around the corner I saw Emilie and Jon at a table.
As we rounded the corner I spotted another friend from church, so I went over and gave her hug and started chatting - out of the corner of my eye I saw Dusty go over to Jon and Emilie's table, and I felt eyes on me.
That's when I saw Greg and Allison next to them!
It took me a really, really long time to compute what exactly was happening. I don't even think I said goodbye or "excuse me" before walking away from the girl I was talking to, mid-sentence. It was a very strange experience. But...but..you're in Illinois! But you're gone! What is happening!

They had moved back. Without telling us, without telling anyone really!
Greg had taken a job about an hour outside of Lynchburg, and they were officially back in our lives!

(As I'm writing this, they're currently back in Illinois -- they were here for almost exactly 3 months before deciding they needed to be back home, for good. But more on that later!)

After such a crazy and exciting shock, we were off to North Carolina! We promised to help them unpack and move in during the week, and left downtown in very high spirits.
We carpooled to NC with Colin and Victoria, and headed over to the fair!
We got there right as the sun was setting, and prepared ourselves for a perfect evening of lights, sights, and all-you-can-eat goodies.
Just a little bit of a life lesson, though -- don't drink too much liquid, and go to the bathroom before you get into the fair. State Fair port-a-potties are the devil.

It was such a fun night!
Hot french fries with vinegar, bloomin' onions, mini donuts covered in cinnamon and sugar, corn on the cob, chocolate covered cheesecake on a stick, fried cookie dough, more hot french fries with vinegar (they were my favorite), games, fireworks.

Just so you know, I didn't eat all that food. It was a group activity.

We also got to meet Victoria's sister Shelby, who joined us, and it was so much fun!
We walked around, toured the various exhibits, and Colin and Victoria held up their tradition of getting a button made with their photo on it. Victoria and her family have been doing it for years! To get the buttons made you go into this weird little button-clad gypsy shack, and we were a little worried they'd be taken by the gypsy inside. We told them to yell if they were stolen, or turned into chickens.
Dusty and I went a little ways away and were able to get a photoshoot in, and we went on our merry way! (The gypsy made them a button, but nothing more).
Eventually the boys got sucked into the tricky games that bleed you dry of all your cash. Specifically the fishing pole/bottle game, if you know what I'm talking about. Most fair-goers do.
You hold a fishing-type pole with a ring on the end, and your goal is to drop the ring around the neck of the glass bottle and pull it precariously upwards. If you're able to get it standing up, you win!

We didn't win.

But, who cares?
(hint: the boys did).

Still, it was a perfect night. We enjoyed being childish with our skipping and singing and smiling from ear to ear. 

The night ended with a fireworks show, and we wearily said farewell to the fair and all its glorious haunts. We waved goodbye to the gypsy, shuffled our feet into the night. It had been such a cool evening, a little drizzly at times, but sweet and autumnish.

Once out in the parking lot, we realized that the fair's many pleasures end pretty abruptly once you're out of there. Suddenly you become afraid of being mugged or killed in the dark alleyways, where you're forced to park because of the immense crowds.
Luckily we had been able to park fairly close, so we gave Shelby a ride to her car - which was a wise choice, because it was the sketchiest little backyard parking spot ever, and I'm pretty sure I saw evil eyes in the bushes. Or it was the bloomin' onion talking.

We headed out and went to our shared hotel room at the Red Roof Inn.
Once we got ready for bed, Dusty looked at me, holding the souvenir cup we had bought with that look in his eyes. Dusty has a weakness for souvenir cups. I'm not really sure why, but he has to keep them. It's a compulsion, a weird kind of collection. I finally said no, no, no, we do NOT need that because we have 500 Dickie's cups that you also have to keep (even though I keep secretly throwing the old ones out.)
Dusty acquiesced, then turned to Colin and Victoria and asked if they'd want to keep it.
Colin said "Noooo," right as Victoria meekly said, "Yes!"
It was then, after a lot of laughter, that we started to realize that Dusty and Victoria are the same person, and Colin and I are the same person.

We chatted a little longer and drifted off to sleep, looking forward to the next morning when we'd be touring Colin and Victoria's college campus!

Chapel Hill is kind of magical.

We started out the morning by grabbing breakfast at a cute little waffle shop on their main street. It's a really big, lush, active campus with a great line of shops and restaurants. It was actually a really chilly day, so it felt great to slide into a booth and order some waffles and hot coffee.

All the leaves were mid-change, and the sun was shining. It was a beautiful fall day.

We ended up getting more coffee down the street at Caribou Coffee before continuing our luxurious tour of Colin and Victoria's yesteryear. 

I'm not sure you could get any more different than our college campus experience. The brick, the hundreds of giant trees, the green.
We walked along and they told us tales of their years there, roommate stories and the perilous experiences of waking up late to class and managing to somehow sprint there in one minute flat. 

College is such a magical time. What's weird about making friends here/as an adult is that often you miss some of the most bonding experiences that you're used to having together. Things like high school, college, or weddings -- most of our friends from home we've either known our whole lives, or met in college. We've been in/at their weddings. 

Because most our friends here are already married and (obviously) out of college, this was an extra-special experience to be able to have a glimpse of what their lives were like when they were just dating, going to college and making all these memories.

And, for what has become a very typical thing for the four of us, we decided to set up the camera on a nearby bench in order to take ridiculous pictures.

(It turns out we're really, really awful at trying to time jumping).

Hehe.

Once we had finished our tour, we hit the road to head back home.
We stopped by Southern Season and shopped around a bit, because it's a pretty fun specialty department store. We sampled some cheeses and I filled a candy bag with gummy frogs, because they're my favorite and I can never find them anywhere. I think I finished the entire bag by the time we made it back.

Needless to say, it was the beginning of many more fun trips with Colin and Victoria. Or, Colinoria. 
It was a great North Carolinian weekend.

a day for disney

We knew trying to include a trip to California in the midst of our time in Arizona was going to be tricky.
The truth was, this was most likely the last time we'd be coming home to Arizona until we move back in August of 2014.
Things may change, who knows, but for now that's the only thing on the calendar.
So we basically shoved absolutely everything we could into this one-week trip. We did it, and we did it well.


On Wednesday night, May 22, we arrived in California with intense cases of deja vu.
Driving the same roads we had driven hundreds of times throughout our college career was weird, to say the last. As we pulled up to the exit for CBU, we both had the jitters. We realized it was basically our two year anniversary since graduating from CBU and going on our last choir tour as seniors; we hadn't been to CBU since May of 2011. We both remember vividly gathering up that last bit of stuff from our tiny little campus apartment, ringing our doorbell for the last time, and walking away with tears streaming down our faces.
That seems like forever ago. 

I was going to surprise Dusty, but ended up having to tell him that I was having our friend Jon meet us at CBU for a quick visit. He also brought along his girlfriend, Lisette, and a few other choir friends, Evan and Bob. It was so much fun, and such a random assortment of friendly faces.

We walked around campus to reminisce, and to see all of the new improvements. It's crazy how much a place we once knew so well can change in so little time. I guess it's the same with people, too.
I really hope we have another reason to visit CBU soon, because I would love to go and eat in the caf and experience it in the glory of school days. We're old alumni now!


We left CBU and our friends in kind of bittersweet spirits, but it was really, really good to see them and totally worth the 10pm campus visit.
Next stop was Mission Viejo, as we were spending the night with our very dear friends Britany and Bryce!
They were going to be joining us on our Disney visit and we were thrilled. We got to their apartment late, so we couldn't scream in excitement across the parking lot, but my soul was screaming.
We had seen pictures of their apartment and I talk to Britany on an almost-daily basis, so it felt like coming to a place I had been to before. It felt so nice to be with them again! We stayed up late, the boys began a (phone app) Battleship tournament that will probably last until they die, and we all finally went to sleep in anticipation of the early morning and amazing day ahead!

Waiting for the tram always brings out the crazy excitement. It's jittery, you want to push everyone out of your way, you can already smell the churros...

 Once it was our turn, we all happily hopped on and took our seats.

Before long we could tell something was wrong.
Something deadly, something disastrous.
But only for Britany, because she was the only one who had never had chickenpox before.

The little squirmy child behind us was covered in chickenpox, people.
Dusty's expression slowly turned to horror when he observed the many scabby spots (which my mom says probably means he was no longer contagious, but I'm still pretty perturbed by the whole experience).

In My Big Fat Greek Wedding, there's a moment when the bride is walking down the aisle and per the supposed Greek custom, all her Greek relatives begins spitting at her.
The groom's father shockingly exclaims, "Ohmygod". 
For us, this was one of those moments.

Forget Waldo, where's Britany!

We hadn't been to Disneyland since our senior year of college, and since then they have redone the entire entrance to California Adventure. It was like a completely different park!

We had a stellar group. Dusty's friends Steven and Rob, Britany and Bryce, the two of us, and then Becky's birthday group of her, her sister Katy and her friends Emma and Aubrey!

Becky's group got there before us and were in line for a ride, so our arriving group decided our first stop would be Cars Land.
We could not wait to experience this reincarnation of Radiator Springs from the movie Cars. :)

It was so much fun! They did such a great job. It really felt like we were walking through the movie.

We walked through the entire area, then hopped on the Cars Land ride. Which was so fun.

We also made a quick detour over to Tower of Terror while we waited for our fast passes! Probably one of the best rides in California Adventure.
I just love Disneyland!

All of our ride pictures throughout the day were cracking me up.
I never buy those photos, but I think if I ever did, I'd have a mighty fine collection from this day.

It started out as an amazing day, cloudy and cool, before it got kind of muggy and hot. But it was still a perfect day, in the high 70's to 80's.

We met up with Becky's birthday group around Paradise Pier, and spent the rest of the day together as a large group. It was awesome.

While we waited outside of Midway Mania, we grabbed our first churro of the day and began trying out festive hats. It was the best thing we could think of to pass the time.

Waiting for Becky, Disney-style.

The birthday girl!

Battleship. Obviously.

My friends :)

As we made our way through the park, we were constantly greeted with loud music and even some Phineas and Ferb floats, which prompted some dancing among some (Britany) of our group.
These pictures are probably the best things I've ever seen, but in order to protect the rockin' moves of my dear friends and their privacy as dancers, I'll only share one.

And away we went!

At one point we totally ditched the boys and went on a girls-only trip to the Ferris Wheel.
The Disneyland Ferris Wheel has certain carts that rock back and forth perilously. So naturally we chose this option.
A few of our girls were not very into the idea, but were very brave in going with us anyway.

And it was awesome.

After we met back up with the boys, we went around the corner and grabbed some bread bowls for lunch and hung out for a while in the shade.

Rob had to go to work (he works at Disney, and happened to get Dusty, Steve and I in for free), so we all bid him farewell before heading off to our next stop. We rode a few more rides (including Soarin' and Goofy's little roller coaster), then headed off to another great place.
Which happened to be Starbucks!
I can't really explain my extreme pleasure that there is a Starbucks in Disneyland. It kind of combines two of my favorite things in the world!

I'd love to know what this conversation was.

 With happy drinks in hand, we headed off to the Magic Kingdom!

Cute happy montage:
(Sometimes, words aren't even needed.)

Ah-mazing day.
It's always a little hard to throw together a group of people that known each other on different levels, varying from strangers to best friends. But all in all the entire group was so chill, and we just had a blast going from place to place. I was so glad we were able to celebrate with Becky on her birthday trip, and hopefully her sister and friends didn't mind us crashing too much! :)
In my opinion, it was the perfect day.
I kept referring to this trip as "the suicide trip" to California because we drove over 13 hours roundtrip for a single day of fun. And it was totally worth it.

She's...42?

There we go. :)

Our last stop for the night was the best pineapple delight in the world.
The pineapple Dole Whip stand at the entrance to Adventureland!

 After a long day of crazy fun, we needed a treat to end it all.

I can't help but think of Becky whenever pineapple (or pina colada) is mentioned, because we ate way too much pineapple growing up...and honestly had a lot of weird pineapple memorabilia, like jewelry and fashionable shirts and stuff. One of these days a tacky-tiki-pineapple-string-lights birthday party is gonna have to happen for one of us.
I call dibs.

Great day, everyone.
Not gonna lie, this whole post is making me quite wistful.

Our time in California was almost up.
We said goodbye to everyone, then rode the tram back with Britany and Bryce, and said goodbye in the parking structure.
It was a very quick goodbye. No carrying on, no crying, just a "See ya!" and running for our lives before things got too sad.
I stood and hid behind a pillar, staring at them walking away until they disappeared.


We drove an hour or so to Redlands, where we spent the night with our cousins :) we stayed for an hour or two, catching up and talking about life. I've really missed living near them! They're the best.

The next morning we had one more stop to make.
On our way home, we exited in Indio and got to see our beloved, impregnated friend Lauren.

Her and her hubby Aaron are expecting their first baby in September, and are so excited. And we're excited because she's going to make such a great mom. It'll be great to watch their little family grow, and before too long we'll be much closer and can visit more often!!
Spending three years in Virginia has meant that we miss a lot of things...pregnancies, babies, birthdays, holidays. So I'm really glad we got the opportunity to actually see her before her little boy is born, when she's still in the happy expectant stage.
Picking her up and seeing their condo, and sitting and having breakfast with her was so lovely. I've missed my little friend.

We went to a cute local breakfast spot, and just enjoyed each other's company like the old days. We caught up on each other's lives and munched on waffles and omelettes. Not much can beat that.

We still had two glorious days in Arizona to have, to hold and to cherish from this day on.
But those are for another time.

In love,
Cait