arosto, you're great-o!

Sometimes, there are too many good things happening all at once.
For one, DICKEY'S IS BACK. You can imagine our excitement!
Comfort-food binges are now back in style.

Secondly, we're going to London and Paris on a romantic extravaganza in TWO DAYS!
I can hardly stand it! I'm almost packed (meaning 6-8 hours to go, most likely) and am brimming over the edge with daydreams about crepes and macarons. I tried to quickly learn French yesterday but it turns out, learning a new language is hard. 

And lastly, but not leastly, we have a new favorite restaurant in town!
We've talked before about Waterstone Pizza downtown, which we adore. We've been a few times, most recently during our two-year-anniversary celebratory weekend.
Well, the same company that owns Waterstone has developed a more casual pizza place called Arosto!
We were totally blown away by this place.
It's located in the same little complex along Wards road (the main Lynchburg road beneath the university, that holds all the staples like Target, Walmart and Starbucks) as Chipotle and Bloop.
It's perfectly located, and is brand new and ready for our service.

Talk about the perfect atmosphere to enjoy a fire-roasted pizza after a work day!
Affordable date night, coming right up!

One of the best parts about this place is that it's quick! The service is great and works so well for a quick lunch or time-crunched dinner. But it's also perfectly welcoming for a leisurely chat with mouth-fulls of pepperoni!
Although, we've been there twice -- and the second time the place was packed!
So the word is getting out. :)

But the best part about this dining experience?
The pizzas are build-your-own. That's right!
The menu is loaded with fresh ingredients for you to pick and choose from to create the perfect, melty concoction of Italian pie.
Red sauce, or white? How about pesto? Pepperoni, sausage, bacon...pineapple? Jalapenos? Would you like some delicious goat cheese sprinkled on top?
YES PLEASE.

Once you load up your pizza creation, they cook it right there in their amazing oven and your food is delivered to your table in a few minutes, a hot and drizzled perfection.

But fear not, my minions. For you indecisive folk, there is a ready-to-order menu as well. Specialty Pizzas and good old fashioned Cheese, Margherita and Pepperoni pizzas lie patiently waiting for you to speak their name.

They also have salads and sandwiches! Check out their menu to discover its pleasures.

If you're not hungry yet, I haven't done my job.

And if you're wondering, my job is to make you want to come visit so we can go out and eat together!

Arosto, yum! :)

In love,
Cait

the twilight zone

I absolutely love to eat out.
I'm the person that always leaves a good tip, loves to smile at the waiter or waitress, oohs and aahs at every tasty thing, and looks forward eagerly to the next stage of the meal, particularly the finishing cup of coffee with cream and sugar.
I don't have bad times at restaurants. I just don't. I always enjoy it. I know what to expect, I know how the system works...it's all pretty standard and I know what I like to eat, so I'm hardly ever disappointed.
Since moving to Virginia, we've had a great time experimenting with new places. We haven't loved and raved about every single one, but for the most part, we really enjoy the restaurants we've been to.
I think I've only written one bad review on this blog.

Well, buckle up, sailor, because you're about to enter...
THE DINING TWILIGHT ZONE.

It all started on one eerie Thursday night. It happened to be Valentine's Day, which would have explained the fancy way we were dressed, and all the pink and red being worn.
The amazing dress was bought weeks in advance, the anticipation for being worn growing with each passing day. The suit and tie was worn from morning to date -- one of the perks of being in law school and dressing up every day, there's no need for an outfit change for a fancy date night.

The drive: 19.9 miles, approximately 30 minutes.

Bedford.

Reservations had been made in anticipation for this night, and nothing could go wrong.
Reviews were raving, main street was hopping, bedford was charming and the restaurant was darling.
All the proper ingredients for an evening of romance.

Flowers adorned our corner table, and the other chairs throughout the restaurant were decorated with smiling people paired off in sweet couples or laughing in large groups.

7:15 - We sat on the same side of the table, the booth side.
Maybe that's where we went wrong.
Maybe, in the Big Book of Restaurant Voodoo, a curse befalls those who cuddle.
We'll never really know.

The restaurant was chatty and loud and clinking, so we sat side by side, perusing the menu and whispering sweet nothings. Like, "Cake". And "Creme Brulee".

7:22 - A woman arrives. She looks innocent enough. She informs us that she is not our waitress, but would love to take our drink order.
Water for me, cola for him.
7:30 - Our true waitress presents herself, helping us decide what to eat and how to decide between which steak and which seafood dish. She's quiet. Her eyes whisper evil. We order.
Appetizers: wedge salad for me, crab mac & cheese for him/us.
Entrees: salmon for me, steak for him.

A Valentine's Day card, for him:
And then the prince and the princess rode off into the sunset,
stopped at Ye Olde Pizza Shoppe on the way to the castle...
...and spent the evening in their leisure cloaks,
snuggling on the royal sofa and watching movies on the imperial flat screen.
Ours is my favorite fairy tale.

7:40 - The table to our left becomes occupied, with a sweet and rich-looking couple. They're visited by a neighboring couple, and the wife is wearing a fur coat. They mention their daughter lives in San Francisco and is working for Google. They're fancy. The table to our right seats a group of four, they receive their entrees.
A neighboring waitress notices our drinks are gone, offers to get us refills and more bread.
Bread? What bread? our stomachs cry.
Refills and smiles arrive for the tables to our right and left.

8:00 - The salad and mac & cheese arrive. Delightful. We scarf them down with reckless abandon.
Tables around us empty; the table to our left receives their appetizers.
We ask a next-door waitress for refills.

8:10 - Our waitress returns, just as we've forgotten her face. We introduce ourselves.
We ask her for more bread. She nods, avoiding eye contact.
Our food will be out shortly.
Lies.

8:20 - We get more bread. The sweet nothings are becoming less pleasant. Like "Vegan cake", and "Sugarless pudding".
The table to our left receives their entrees.

8:30 - The table to our right is enjoying their desserts and wine.

8:45 - We make awkward eye contact multiple times with our waitress, who hasn't come across the invisible line in the middle of the restaurant for half an hour.
We start to realize she's cast some spell on us - we are invisible and unable to communicate with anyone around us.
This is confirmed as the man next to us drunkenly yells, "where'd that weird young couple go!"
Or maybe that was just my imagination.
The table to our left receives their desserts and fresh coffee with cream and sugar.

8:50 - Dusty's eyes start to bulge and his wisdom-teethless cheeks look angry. I try to calm him down but all I can say is, "Bullion cubes", which aren't even sweet at all.

9:00 - A strange, gangly bus boy comes to our table. "Just to make sure - you guys have not received your food, correct?"
Dusty's imagination is running violently amuck and can be seen clearly through his eyeballs and I have to quickly answer, "No!" before he says anything.
The table to our left is now empty.

9:10 - Dusty fights his way across the cursed restaurant barrier, pushing back a troll and smiting a flock of fairies before he reaches the dungeon keeper, victorious.
He lets her know we would like to leave. We do not want our food, we just want to go home.
NEVER! she shouts, Dusty does a counter-spell, she softens, and says, yes. Yes. We will box up your food.
No, we don't want it. Dusty shakes his head. We just want to go home.
It's a busy night, the kitchen is backed up...
Righteous indignation flashes, No. No, it's not. We've seen successful eating, drinking, and happily leaving all evening. Particularly with that blasted table to our left. Do not lie to me.
She breaks down.
Take it all, all for free. 

9:30 - We pull out of the parking lot, cold and feeling weird. The Twilight Zone. 

I still have no explanations for any of the night's events. I'd like to think we were somehow invisible, that there must have been some kind of mix-up...it was one of the strangest experiences of my life.
We were just flat-out ignored all night long. We were exhausted and totally bummed out.
Luckily, the owner handled it well...she admitted that she had no good excuse, and that sometimes things just didn't go right. She gave us our food boxed up, and comped the entire meal. She even threw in a $25 gift card.

On the way home, we sang together, ran through McDonald's for cookies and shakes, and cuddled up at home.
Overall, I can't complain too much. It may have been a kind of wasted evening but I still have an amazing husband who makes even bad adventures a heck-of-a-lot better. :)

And I got to wear the anticipated dress.

We're planning on getting dressed up again, same outfits, and going out to a local restaurant for another fun dinner this weekend.
And meanwhile, I got to feel super fancy at work today with my salmon and potatoes for lunch!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!
How was your night??

In love,
Cait

lavender lattes

This is my ode to the lavender latte.

Oh, that you could be any sweeter.

Oh, that you could be any creamier.

Oh, that you could be any tastier -

Yet if you were, I may sigh
Of pure bliss, I would die.





I've had this tasty confectioner's drink a few times before, but it just gets better with time and life experience.

Last night we had a night out with a friend from high school!
Dusty and her little brother have been friends for nearly 10 years, and she is in town this week for an intensive for her master's degree.
Dusty, Natalie and I headed downtown for dinner and drinks ("drinks" meaning water and a coffee shop, but it just sounds better to say dinner and drinks).

We decided on The Depot Grille, which Dusty and I had never been to before.
It sits along the James River in a renovated old train station, surrounded by the twinkling lights of old brick buildings and the memories of days gone by.

It's really a pretty laid back spot, but it was so fun! The inside is really spacious.

Photo by Robert Miller Photography via Flickr

Once inside, we all ordered the bison burger which was pretty outta this world.
We talked about life, tried to draw our names upside down and backwards because our tablecloth was paper and they gave us crayons, and had a weird appetizer that I'm still not really sure about.

I dub thee, Crab Dip Covered in Cheese Atop a Soft Pretzel Roll, the invention of a drunk man.

But the Bison Burger was truly delicious. It was juicy and flavorful, and my baked potato was also delicious because it's really hard to mess those up.

If I could be a "guru" of anything, I think I'd be a guru of potatoes. From the ages of 0 - 14 if anyone asked me what my favorite food was, I would say "potatoes". Or "anything spicy". Or sometimes if I was feeling feisty, I'd say "spicy potatoes".
Now that I'm wizened in life (did you know wizened means shriveled or wrinkled with age? Gadzooks! Luckily gadzooks means whatever I want it to mean) I've realized that "potatoes" isn't really a proper answer to what my favorite food is, but it's also not a question I get asked very often anymore so I don't have a better answer.

After dinner, we decided to skip dessert in lieu of a far better treat at White Hart Cafe.
We had passed it on our way to The Depot Grille, so my craving for the lavender latte was in place long before dinner. Plus I knew Natalie needed to share in my enthusiasm.

P.S. You can actually SEE the drama unfolding at the table between our heads. I'm actually really thrilled we captured her wiping away her tears, because we had a table bet going on about what in the world was going on with those two.
When they finally got up and left together (which in my opinion should have happened half an hour before, when the tears first began to fall) we stared unabashedly and I almost called out, "Can you settle a bet for us?!?"
We saw them again in the parking lot, in the drizzling rain, hugging and (maybe?) kissing. We tried to guess what kind of profanities he would yell if we rolled down our window to ask if they'd broken up, and to maybe give love another chance. All you need is love, some hippies say.

All in all, it was a great night. I'm so glad we got to catch up with Natalie and spend some time in our current hometown with her!

In equally as happy news, it's going to SNOW today at 3pm.
I'm wishing for a fireplace, and work to be canceled tomorrow for a 3-day weekend!

In love,
Cait

small pleasures

Have you ever really watched someone make sushi?
It's an art. It's beautiful, it's fragrant, it's precise.
We finally found our sushi place, ya'll. It has happened.

It's called Wasabi, and it's a Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar.
It's actually about a 37 second drive from where I work on campus.
Which is a really big problem, if you know us at all.
We're easily derailed into food-related temptation.

It used to be a mediocre Mexican food restaurant, and it finally got remodeled into this fantastic spot.
It's pretty pricey, (we're keeping our fingers crossed for the development of a "Happy Hour" sushi night or something!) but it's really delicious and seems packed with new admiring customers! The place looks awesome, and the entire center of the place is dedicated to the Hibachi grills.
The sushi bar is off to the left, and it's really nice. The service was spectacular, and the sushi was delish.
It's possible we just haven't had good sushi in so long that we actually don't know how to tell if sushi is really good or not, but we liked it. A lot.
Which is why we went two nights in a row.
Oops!

The Volcano Roll
Our sushi glows, ya idiots.

The Lynchburg Roll

On our second night, we decided to try a few different rolls!
The presentation is just lovely. It's art, like I said.

The No Name Roll and the night's special, The Phoebe Roll

We ordered the "Phoebe Roll" because of the jalapeno!

On both nights, we ordered little avocado rolls - which were divine, so smooth and fresh.

On our second night, the sushi chefs handed us each a bowl of fresh tuna and avocados with their specialty sauce drizzled on top!
He said, "for dessert" with a big smile on his face, "on the house".
By golly, don't mind if we do!

 It was a great weekend. We shook our bellies like bowls full of jelly.

T-minus TWO days until we're home for Christmas! :)

In love,
Cait

it's been a while

Two weeks.

That's embarrassing!
I haven't even wished you all a happy July yet.
(and by "you all" I really mean mostly myself, because I think less than 10 people read this. I'm a tenth of my own viewership.)

Since I've last spoken with you, a lot has happened! Dusty and I went home for a whole 10 days, which was magical. We celebrated my best friend's wedding, and no, it wasn't anything like the movie. That would have made things a whole lot more interesting. And shocking. And awful.

Needless to say, the wedding was beautiful and it was wonderful to get to celebrate with her.
I want to do a full "home" post, which will feature a beautiful bride, an adorable baby, and lots of Mexican food. :)

After we got home, we were on the receiving end of a derecho. Don't know what a derecho is?
Neither did I.

de·re·cho/dāˈrāCHō/

Noun:

A line of intense, mean, widespread, and fast-moving windstorms and sometimes thunderstorms that moves across a great distance and invites all of its windiest friends to damage everything in its path, including trees and power lines until its satisfied that every town in its path is forced to live in barbaric conditions for as long as possible.

Oh. And also? It all happens in about twenty minutes. Maybe less? I don't know. All I know is we were out getting ice cream and the next thing we knew, people were dying and trees were falling and we were stranded outside of our apartment complex.

I also hope to do a full post on that interesting week.

In the middle of the city-wide blackout, the in-laws came into town. So we had to figure that out as well!

And somewhere in the middle of all that, there's some fourth of July celebratory activity.

THEN we went to Washington D.C. for the weekend. Which was the hottest, sweatiest, and stickiest I've ever been in my life.

While I'm at it, I'll go ahead and do a full post on that.

Which will probably include a full paragraph describing my humid body. It'll be good.

The bottom line is that I have hundreds of pictures that I still need to upload (none of which are of my humid body), but life has been batty. So once I do that, I'll have tons and tons of posts up my sleeve. And I'll bet at least half of them will be really interesting.

At the current moment, my parents are now here visiting. Which has been really awesome. July is just the month of family and trips and adventures. My mom has visited a few times, but this is the first time my dad has been here since we first moved in! So there's a lot to show him, and it's been really fun. 

And TONIGHT my aunt and cousin are coming in. It's gonna be a full house, and I kind of can't wait. 

They came in on Monday night. They came by train.

Let me say it again -- they came by train. 

The railroad sprawled in muggy dusk,

With wooden planks and metal husks.

Top hats and dresses, with long golden tresses.

Time long gone, of fancier people,

We stand around near a bell-chiming steeple.

Our loved ones draw nearer

And we grow steadily cheerer

All along the railroad way.

That's my poem, because I was feeling very poetic that night. Except I wrote it just now, because I'm feeling very poetic thinking about the poetry of that night.

I mean, come on. Who knew this even existed in Lynchburg? If you did, pretend like you didn't because I feel like we happened upon the secret garden of travel locations.

Welcome to Lynchburg!

Here they come!

When they arrived, they were ready for some barbecue. Unfortunately, all the good stuff was closed, so we went instead of Cook Out to get some burgers and shakes!

They have a super delicious mint Oreo shake there that I sometimes crave. 

This is a video I sent to torture a friend who is gone for the summer. I'm a pretty sweet person deep down.

Did I mention both Dusty and I got horrible colds? That was thrown in the middle of all this nonsense as well.

Although I think we're both better now, so things are looking up.

So Tuesday night, we did some grilled chicken, wedge salads, grilled veggie kabobs and Caribbean Snow (our favorite snow cone hut that we can't stop talking about) and we watched The Dark Knight, since mom had never seen it!

That was a nice fun night in. 

My parents went to the nearby National D-Day Memorial that day, too. Days are much more cheerful knowing your family is nearby. :)

Then yesterday, after a Starbucks run, and a whole day of work, we went straight to Jimmy's on the James for dinner.

Dusty and I first went there with a Groupon a few months ago, when it was really busy. We thought it was a really fun atmosphere, and really enjoyed the food. When we were there last time, I decided it was a place that I had to take my parents when they were able to visit next.

So off we went!

We were the first ones there, arriving right after it opened at 5pm for dinner.
We had our lovely fresh flowers on the table, with fun oldies music playing in the background.
Jimmy himself came by and talked with us for a really long time, describing the night's specials in detail.
Our mouths were watering by the end!
He's a really personable guy, who has developed a really lovely restaurant. We all decided to try something different. I got the Barramundi fish special. Oh. My. Word.

It was almond-crusted Barramundi with coconut cream. It was absolutely the most extraordinary dish of the evening. They only get it once or twice a month! A real treat.

My mom got the pork, which was also on the specials menu. It had been marinated and was served with a peach glaze. It was spectacular.

My dad got a house favorite, the Shrimp and Grits. Dusty also chose a house favorite, the lamb. It was really tender and delicious, with their buttery "spoon bread" on the side. 

One of the key menu features at Jimmy's on the James is the dessert.

Fried Oreos.

Now, don't judge. Basically, just imagine the most delicious funnel cake you could ever dream up, and that's what this is like.

Oreos are fried up in a thin, delicate, chocolate batter. They're warm and delicious, served with fresh cream and berries, with a chocolate drizzle. Ohmyyygooosshhh.

We had also heard that their donuts were extremely good.

But we had no idea how good.

Two honey-glazed donuts are grilled to a golden luster, topped with vanilla ice cream, fresh berries and a honey drizzle.

They had the most amazing crisp to them, almost caramel-y. 

Needless to say, we were waddling out of there, very happy indeed. 

We plopped on the couch at home, and watched an episode of So You Think You Can Dance to just relax and laugh and ooh and aah. 

:)

We're having a great week! That will only get better, I'm sure. 

I'll try to not be so lazy and upload my pictures and post some more next week.

But until then, so long, farewell, alveterzane, adieu, au revoir, goodbye.

In love,

Cait 

Ode to Charlotte

Revenge has become one of my all-time favorite shows.
Following a trail of deceit, betrayal and intrigue, this show centers around the wickedly fashionable socialites of the Hamptons.
Charlotte Grayson is the lucky daughter of the Hampton's most prestigious family, the Graysons.
Some of the best parts of the show are the stunning visuals that inevitably result from the absurdly extravagant parties, and the fashion of those that attend them.
Enter, Charlotte:

So if you haven't already, get acquainted with Charlotte and tune in to Revenge, and get ready for an explosive second season.

Speaking of Charlotte, we went to Charlotte, North Carolina this weekend!

Some couple-friends of ours generously invited us to accompany them to stay at her family's place in Charlotte. We had such a blast. It felt like a true vacation, with a gorgeous guest room and a new city to explore.

Jon and Emilie were anxious to show us around Charlotte, and we were extremely excited to see it.
Our first night, we went downtown for a late dinner at The Capital Grille. We had the best of absolutely everything!

We were so spoiled.
Food was constantly being passed our way, and we were stuffed to the brim with buttery deliciousness on every corner.
I had probably the best French Onion Soup of my life, and most definitely the best Lobster Macaroni and Cheese of my life.
I'm also becoming an addict of blue cheese wedges.

 All these pictures are from my phone, but you get the gist. Deliciousness.
That creme brulee made me miss home!

We sat and enjoyed our leisurely dinner, topped off with lip-smacking desserts and coffee. Afterwards, we walked around downtown Charlotte to get a feel for the city life.

Things took a turn for the even-better when we were able to sleep in a gorgeous guest room that night, complete with a jacuzzi tub, sun-roofed shower, and of course, the large and comfy bed that we collapsed into after our long night out and about Charlotte.

The next morning, we were able to sleep in and head into town for a late-morning Saturday breakfast.

We pretty much demanded that Jon and Emilie just take us wherever they wanted to take us.
For breakfast, they recommended the Dutch Baby at the Original Pancake House.

I followed their advice, and smothered the thick pancake in butter, strawberries, powdered sugar, and strawberry syrup.

It was so good!

Dusty got a Chorizo Omelette, which is what the waiter suggested. It was also really good!

(One last nail in the coffin for east coast "salsa" -- the omelette was served with chunky pasta sauce, instead of real salsa.)

But, it was still delicious, and we were very full and happy by the end!

 The rest of our day was really, really fun.
We went to the "Discovery Place", and were able to be kids again for a few hours.
Especially the boys.

The whole plan was to go to their incredible dome theater, to see one of their nature movies. 

Since we had some time to kill before the show started, we decided to play :)

This is the baby/kid area...but the boys were easily entertained.

There were so many stations to choose from.

This next one was just a place where you could make creations out of foil, tape, and other oddities.

Someone's foil creation.

 There was also a large collection of display shelves for random shoe creations.

We spent a lot of time at the "stop-motion" area, because we were able to make our own videos!

Both Dusty and I spent a lot of time on ours, because we both had very specific messages to convey.

This is Dusty's masterpiece:

This was mine:

I hope these videos touch and inspire you the way they did us.

Sometimes, you've gotta fight for what you want. And sometimes, life will go down a path you never thought it would...and God may choose to rescue you in a way you never thought possible.

Wisdom.

Moving on throughout Discovery Place, we found a lot of other fun places to explore. We watched a Science-man do crazy tricks for a while, and Dusty and I played a wicked game of "Jenga"-like madness with a bunch of wooden blocks.

Dusty ended up just fiercely destroying it, when he realized that I was winning.

They also had a lot of animals to look at!

We found these bright and fun frogs hopping around a rain forest display, along with a turtle and lots of birds.

We spent a lot of time looking at the fish section. The sea horses and jelly fish are our favorites. So intricate and peculiar.

Once the time came, we made our way to the dome theatre.

SO INCREDIBLE.

We were there to see "To The Arctic", which is narrated by Meryl Streep! I LOVE HER!

Dusty and I were totally floored when we walked into the theater. We even got a bit dizzy walking up to our seats! The screen was all around us. We took a video, because it was awesome.

The best part of this movie was realizing that Paul McCartney was the source of all of the music.
Hearing "Because" by the Beatles echo across the arctic was chilling.
Hearing Walruses growl to "Mr. Bellamy" and little baby polar bears play to "Calico Skies" was the highlight of my day.

We spent some time at the mall nearby, frolicking around the super-fancy stores that Emilie and I imagine spending a lot more time in, once the hubbys are rich and rolling in the dough. Right? Won't that happen?

We then headed over to Maggiano's, which neither Dusty or I had ever been to before.
This "Little Italy" is a family style Italian restaurant, where you are able to order an appetizer, entree, and dessert, and they're BOTTOMLESS.
Suddenly, life would never be the same.
Before we knew it, we were cheating on any and all the other restaurants we've ever loved.
Promising to never forsake this intimacy, we greedily took more and more stuffed mushrooms, ravioli, and peach pomegranate tea.
Or maybe that was just me.

Then, when we thought we were full, the waiter brought out our first plate of lemon cookies.
I say first, because I think we went through three of these bad boys.
The truth is, the moment I took a bite, I was ruined for all other cookies.
I immediately became nicknamed "the cookie monster" because I inhaled the first plate, and then hastily grabbed at the next one. Dusty had to arm wrestle me to allow our friends to have some.
I have no regrets.

Come back to me, oh buttery lemon mistress.

I'm gonna move on quickly, because I'm genuinely sad that I can't have these every day.

We had a chill evening, and ended up in the living room later that night watching a movie. While I fell asleep in the first 15 minutes, it seemed like a thriller, and I think Bruce Willis kissed another guy. Several people also got shot. It was called The Jackal. You can probably skip it.

Sunday dawned nice and sunny.
If I haven't mentioned it already, the weather was drop dead gorgeous for our entire trip. It was cool and breezy, with just enough sunshine to keep us happy.

We went to Emilie's church, and decided to go out to a Mexican food restaurant for lunch.
While this is always a tricky decision for us snobbish west-coasters, we had a lovely time, and the food was great. We sat on their outside balcony, with the view of a lake beside us.

Zapata's. See the second-floor umbrellas on the balcony to the right? That's where we sat. :)

This next piece of business definitely wins the "weirdest" award for the weekend.

While we were eating lunch, we noticed some interesting costumes walking by. We quickly deduced that there was some kind of conference nearby...a Star-Trek/Lord of the Rings/Harry Potter/Weirdo's festival. 

So we decided to go and try to find it!

Why not?

This was parked outside the front doors:

The Ghostbusters car!
Pretty awesome, if you ask me. But I'm about 5/8 Nerd.

Inside, we found many booths. Some of them were definitely selling things, while others seemed eager to buy...our souls? Still unsure on that.

It felt like my childhood Renaissance Festival, except it was much darker, with a lot more heavy breathing and narrowed eyes.
We should have disguised ourselves. They definitely knew we were outsiders. We didn't even have wristbands. And we immediately pointed out that the sign that said there were leeches in the lake was totally false.


Back at the house, we packed up our things and prepared to say goodbye to Charlotte.
Not gonna lie, we were both pretty sad to leave! It's so nice knowing that there are so many amazing and unique places within a few hours of us. We hope to go back soon.
I can't help but show off a few pictures of Emilie's parent's property, because the trees alone are breathtaking!
This is also where Emilie and Jon got married, and we can definitely see why.

Main driveway. The house is to the left.

Emilie's family was so hospitable and sweet to us. Their house is gorgeous!
It's fun being able to see where our friends have grown up, and to be able to share a little bit in their favorite places. Walking around the property, they were able to point out where certain details from their wedding took place. I loved it!
The darling couple:

On our way home, we stopped in Greensboro, North Carolina.
We pulled in to O. Henry Hotel, which is actually where Jon and Emilie got engaged!
We were basically traveling around their love story.

We arrived just in time for their afternoon tea.
Are you kidding me? I love being a grownup.

We chose a seat that looked out on the back garden patio.
We were immediately approached by a lovely young girl, who we found out later was only a senior in High School. We had thought she meant senior in college! It's always refreshing to see a professional, well-dressed, polite young lady.
Am I 87?

We ordered our tea, and were pretty much in heaven.

We got delicious scones and sandwiches and desserts, and a whole pot of tea to ourselves.

I got the Dragon Pearl Jasmine, which I'm convinced is the absolute best tea on the planet.

It's like being reunited with an old friend. It's like sitting on top of a mountain in Beijing, with a flock of butterflies singing you a song. Better yet, it's like a dragon stringing a necklace of pearls, just for you.

After we finished our afternoon tea, we went out on the patio where Jon proposed to Emilie.

So pretty.

All in all, it was a beautiful, relaxing, delightful weekend. We hope to go back soon!
And we're so excited to have another couple that we get along so well with. We think they like us too, so we're crossing our fingers that they'll wanna keep hanging out!

Time is flying by at an alarming rate, and I can't believe it's already June. It's Arizona month!
Our desire to get back to the heat is stronger than ever before. We can't wait to board that plane!
When we get to Phoenix, it will have been 23 weeks and 3 days since we've been on Arizona soil.
That's so hard to believe.
Dusty and I often talk about how it seems like time is going quickly here, but it doesn't seem like time is turning at all everywhere else. We feel like we've been transported to another dimension. Everything outside of this little place seems so far away and unreal.
When we see new pictures of our niece, and she's walking or growing things like hair and teeth, we are seriously shocked. It just doesn't seem fair that life should go on without us!
All that being said, we can't wait to come home to make sure that everything is still right with the world.
It'll be good to be back :)


In love,
Cait