Big Trip to the Big Apple

November brought a first for me...my first trip to New York City! I consider myself a well-traveled individual, at least within the United States, but I had never been to NYC. My best friend and roommate from my senior year of college, Lauren, has lived in NYC since we graduated. She is getting married in January and I am her matron of honor (matron?!?). So I decided to head to New York and throw her a shower. It was a whirlwind weekend, but so much fun. I don't get to see Lauren often so while being in New York was a treat, it was even more wonderful to have some face-to-face time with her.

The shower was at Alice's Tea Cup, a well-known tea room in NYC. Much to my surprise, this is one of Lauren's favorite places. I Googled "Bridal Shower New York City" and found this place. I booked it, but didn't give Lauren any details until the night before the shower. She was sure that I had asked one of her friends where she would want to have a shower. I was thrilled that she was so excited and that I had chosen wisely!

As Lauren puts it...Alice's Tea Cup is the "girliest place in the world."

In addition to many varieties of delicious tea, we were presented with 5 of these 3-tiered stands full of scones, finger sandiwches, cakes, cookies, mousse, etc. There were 10 girls present so you can about imagine how much food we took home. It was amazingly good. We ate until we all felt ill. Lauren and I had to go back to her apartment to take Advil and a nap!

On Saturday night we went and saw the musical Spring Awakening.

(Lauren and I outside the theater)

It was a fun-filled weekend. We walked all over the city (SoHo, West Village, Central Park, 5th Avenue, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Bryant Park...whew!). I may not have been there long, but I was able to see so much. I can't wait to go back to see more of the sites.

Lake Lure, NC

In October we drove to Lake Lure, NC to spend a long weekend with Adam's family. We love being in the mountains and it was so fun to catch up with Adam's parents, Jeff, and Kelleigh. The picture above is of Kelleigh and Connie on top of Chimney Rock, overlooking Lake Lure. The girls decided to go for a hike and the boys stayed at home! Although Adam and Doug will tell you that they took their own hike on the, shall we say "road less travelled." They both came back with war wounds from that excursion. Another great fall weekend!

Fall 2008

Adam and I kicked the fall off by visiting Carter Mountain Orchard, just outside of Charlottesville. It was a beautiful day and the views overlooking Charlottesville were amazing. On just the other side of the mountain from the orchard is Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home.

Does Adam look exciting to pick apples or what?

Yum! These are the apples we came away with. They were delicious! I honestly couldn't believe how much better they tasted than store bought apples. The other highlight of the orchard for me were the cider doughnuts they sold. They reminded me of the doughnuts I used to get as a kid at the Auburn Fair. So good! It made me wish I could sit at Grandma Rufner's kitchen table and share one with her just one last time! Adam and I definitely want to make apple-picking at the Carter Mountain Orchard a fall tradition. It will be fun to take our kids there someday.

After hiking the mountainside to pick our apples, Adam and I decided to eat at Michie Tavern (pronounced Mickey). Located at the base of Carter Mountain and a short distance from the entrance to Monticello, Michie Tavern (ca. 1784) is a well-known historic site.

Adam displays the classic southern fare we dined on...cornbread, bisquits, mashed potatoes, fried chicken, pulled barbeque pork, green beans, black-eyed peas (which he tried for the first time and did not like...neither do I). We both stayed away from the stewed tomatoes...yuck! Because it is all-you-can-eat, Adam went back for seconds. By the time our waiter asked us if we wanted fresh peach cobbler, we were both so full we had to decline.

Later on in October Adam and I invited our small group from church over to carve pumpkins. I hadn't carved a pumpkin in years. It was fun and our pumpkin looked great!

(Adam took the picture above, sorry for the bluriness!)

Adam pulling the "guts" out of our pumpkin. I was happy to let him do that part.

Our pumpkin!

Can you tell we chose the easiest design? The pumpkin on the left is an owl and the one on the right is a spider and its web. Next year maybe we'll try something a little trickier!