A First Taste of Fall ...

I know that autumn doesn't officially start until this Friday (Sept. 23), but I caught a glimpse of it this weekend when Peter and I went canoeing in Seneca Creek State Park.

I was so excited to see that little bit of red foliage! Fall's a'comin' :)

 Except for the persistent cloud cover, this weekend's weather was great - temps in the 60s every day! I wore my first long-sleeved shirt and fleece jacket of the season :)

I haven't been canoeing since our St. Mary's 7th grade (or was it 6th grade?) class trip to Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky (where my friends and I were stuck on the lake for hours since none of us could figure out how to paddle back to shore!) so we thought it best if Peter handled the steering (very capably too - I might add).

I became quite the nature photographer on this trip. I expect National Geographic to be calling me with job offers any minute now :)

This crane (or heron? I never know the difference between the two) let us get really close to him and never flew away. It must be because of my awesome photography skills and Peter's awesome steering :)

 If you look really closely, you can see two really cute, little wood ducks standing on that log in the water. And yes - the water around the log is fairly disgusting - partly from algae and partly from garbage that people have chosen to decorate the lake with (Seriously, people! Find a trash can!)

We call these "the ducks that kind of have heads and necks like snakes," but I'm pretty sure that's not their real name :) These guys were very nervous as we approached but tried their hardest to pretend to be cool with it!

I'm looking forward to other fall activities - long hikes in the woods, apple picking, a trip to the pumpkin patch, etc. And, of course, sipping my first Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks of the season :) What are you looking forward to this fall? 

The Beach!

Wow! It's been awhile since I've last posted, and there's good reason for that, I promise :) Peter and I were on vacation last week and didn't have internet access at the place where we stayed. And I haven't had internet access for most of this week because some fiberoptic cable decided to break somewhere and severed our connection. Cue severe internet withdrawl symptoms for me :) Just kidding - it hasn't been that bad, but I am excited to blog about our vacation to Panama City Beach and share some pictures finally!

Peter and I flew down to Panama City Beach, FL, last week to meet my parents (who drove from Memphis) for a week at the beach. We rented a condo here - the Majestic Beach Towers - on the 14th floor. All of the condos here are directly on the beach and have fantastic views :)

Growing up, my family always vacationed on the Gulf Coast, usually in Destin, FL (a.k.a. "Little Memphis" - the entire city vacations here in the summer :) ), and this was the first time that I had been back since high-school. I had kind of forgotten how beautiful it is!

We chose to stay in Panama City Beach since the major airport for the area is there and since I have a cousin who just moved there, and while PCB used to be called the "redneck riviera," let me tell you that PCB ain't what it used to be :) There are still quite a few airbrush T-shirt shops and 24-hour tattoo places, but the newer condo buildings and houses are really nice. There are also some great new shopping places, like Pier Park, which have more upscale stores and restaurants.

You certainly can't tell from this picture which was taken later in the trip, but when we first arrived, Tropical Storm Lee was brewing off the coast and on our first full day in FL she hit, bringing rain and plenty of wind. Certainly not evacuation conditions, but certainly not nice beach conditions! We did get to see some pretty awesome waves, though :) After that one day, we had wonderful weather; I think September is one of the best times to be at the beach (if you can manage to avoid hurricanes/tropical storms!) - warm but not super hot, very low humidity, and clear waters.

As Peter is demonstrating in the above picture, there were sandbars out in the ocean that you could swim to and stand on. He's fairly far out but in waist-deep water.

Our condo was very "beachy" and cute with lots of pink and green which I loved! How fun would it be to decorate a beach place :)

We celebrated my birthday while we were there, and I woke up to a sweet sign that Peter had "inscribed" in the sand for me :)

We went to dinner at an old-time fave, Captain Anderson's. Capt. Anderson's is one of those old-fashioned seafood restaurants where all of the waitresses have worked there for at least 20 years, there's a lot of wood and nautical decor, and the bartender knows how to make the best cocktails. They also broadcast the nautical forecast in the restrooms :)

We had Publix cupcakes for dessert (the best!) and ice cream.

We also took a side trip to Seaside, FL, (the planned community where The Truman Show was filmed) which I had wanted to see for awhile. It's just as cute as in pictures! I think this is where we will want to vacation the next time we go to FL :)

Is it time to go on vacation again? :)

Charlottesville Trip #3

On our last day in Charlottesville, we had yet another delicious breakfast at Albemarle Baking Company , picked up a picnic lunch at a super cute market/cafe called Feast!, and then we headed to Montpelier, James Madison's home.

I wouldn't mind coming home to a front porch like that :)

Montpelier had many different owners after President Madison died and then was sold to the duPont family (yes - those duPonts!) in the early twentieth century who "enhanced" it with many additions, renovations, etc. Now The Montpelier Foundation has restored the house to what it looked like when the Madisons lived there in the 1820s. There is still some work to be done - curators are trying to track down furniture which belonged to the Madisons and which was sold after the president's death - but the tour is really interesting and gives you a first-hand look at the restoration process. The gardens have also been restored and are worth a quick stroll.

Hangin' with the Madisons :)

I really liked those lions in the garden :)

It's a little hard to tell in this picture, but there is a steeplechase race course and a flat race track in the distance. One of the duPonts was quite a horse breeder and hosted races on the estate.

I love this part of the country and can't wait to return soon! And I have a good excuse to return too since we didn't get to visit Barboursville Vineyards as planned while we were there :) Next time ...

Charlottesville Trip #2

 On the morning of our anniversary, we started the day with breakfast at a local bakery. Chocolate croissants seemed appropriate, and Albemarle Baking Company makes some good ones :) Then we headed to a little place called the University of Virginia to take a tour and look at ...

The Rotunda

  (the sweetest UVA student took this picture for us - she saw us struggling to take a self-portrait and offered to take it for us!)

The Academic Village 

(I couldn't get a good picture of the entire "village" so this is one pavilion)

Walled Gardens 

(these were behind every pavilion in the Academic Village and anyone could enter and take a peek)

Students walking around the lawn wearing bathrobes (Lol!) :)

After our tour of UVA, we grabbed some lunch at The White Spot in the "Corner" area.

Mmmm ... I wish I had a "Gus" burger right now!

Then we traveled to Ashlawn-Highland which is the farmhouse that belonged to President James Monroe.

The Monroes lived in the white section of the house; the yellow was added by subsequent owners. It was a fairly small house; I was kind of surprised at the size!

The farm had a flock of sheep that were descendants of the original flock of sheep owned by the Monroes, chickens, and peacocks. 

Adorable lambs!

This guy was giving me the stink eye the whole time we were there. I'm pretty confident that he didn't like me much.

Peacocks definitely know that they're beautiful :)

For our anniversary dinner, Peter and I went to C&O Restaurant in downtown Charlottesville. 

I didn't take a picture of our food because we inhaled it way too quickly for that to happen :) It was soooo delish! What a great way to end our special day!!!

********************************************************************

I'd like to take a break from writing about the anniversary of my wedding day to wish these two crazy kids a very happy wedding day tomorrow :)

(image from Yahoo)

Thirteen and a half hours until the ceremony starts!!! Can't wait :)

Charlottesville Trip

After some major problems with my camera over the past two weeks, I have successfully managed to upload pictures of our second anniversary trip to Charlottesville, VA. So I thought I should do a blog post in honor of that achievement :)

Peter and I wanted to do a quick getaway for our second anniversary, and since he had never been to Charlottesville and it's about a 2-hour drive to DC, we decided to go there. On Sunday we had a nice drive down to the C-ville area and made our first stop at King Family Vineyards in Crozet, VA. It was hard to pick a vineyard to visit because there are SO many vineyards around Charlottesville, but I'm glad that we picked King Family. It was smaller and owned by one family (hence "King Family") so it had kind of a laid-back, welcoming vibe to it. I'm not glad that I totally forgot to take pictures while we were there! We were walking to our car to leave for the day when I remembered that I had not taken a single picture. Seriously not happy with myself! Good memories of the place will have to suffice :) We had a delicious picnic there and then took a very interesting tour of the winery and did a wine tasting. It was my first wine tasting, and I really enjoyed it. We took home a bottle of their dessert wine, Loreley, which was super yummy! I had never tasted dessert wine before, but I'm definitely a fan now!

(image from King Family Vineyards)

Then we headed to our hotel, The Boar's Head Inn, which happened to be pretty much just down the street from King Family Vineyards. I, of course, forgot to take pictures of our lovely room in the main inn, but I did take pictures of our stroll around the grounds. There are a few lakes around the property, and all of the spring flowers were in bloom so it was quite beautiful. I would highly recommend The Boar's Head if you are spending time in C-ville!

 Front of the Inn

 Back of the Inn with Lake (Love the bench swings!)

Peter at the Lake (He may or may not have been thinking about having a swim)

Not very successful attempt at a self-portrait under a gorgeous pink cherry tree :)

After our stroll, we went to dinner at a fabulous restaurant called Duner's in Ivy, VA. It's located in what looks to be a house-converted-to-be-a-restaurant so it's fairly small, but the food was uber tasty. I did think about taking pictures of restaurant and the deliciousness on my plate, but we were literally touching elbows with the people dining around us so I thought that maybe I shouldn't :) 

More to come on our trip tomorrow ...

How many states have you visited?

A few weeks ago, Annie posted a map of the United States that showed which states she had visited. I randomly started thinking about it today so I made my own map using this website.  Here it is :)

I only included states where I've spent some time - not states I've merely driven across on a road trip or only experienced during a flight layover :) My parents love the Western / Southwestern U.S. (especially my daddy!) so we took quite a few long camping trips there when I was growing up which accounts for that section of the country. I was born and raised in the South (and went to grad school there!), and I went to college in the Midwest which explains those regions. And I presently live in the Mid-Atlantic region :)

I want to visit all 50 states, but I am very eager to see New England! Those old houses, quaint towns, and rocky beaches are calling my name :) And I think I need to visit New Jersey. I find it kind of odd that I havn't been there before?! Maybe I can make a quick trip there on my way to New England ...

In Honor of St. Patrick's Day

(image from www.sciencecontrol.com)

I thought that some pics from my trip to Ireland would be appropriate for today's post since it's St. Patrick's Day :) I went with my then-boyfriend, now husband, Peter, and three other friends in May 2008. We kind of traveled a loop around the country - staying in Dublin, Killarney, and Galway and making day trips from those towns. We had such a fun time! Ireland really is as beautiful as the photos show, and the people are extremely friendly and welcoming. I would go back again in a heartbeat! Many thanks to my friend JW for the photos; his camera is much better than mine and he is a much better photographer :)

St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin

 Anne Street in Dublin (JFA and KJB with their backs turned to the camera)

Glendalough Abbey

Peter, KJB, and I at Muckross Gardens

Cliffs of Moher

Skellig Islands

Ross Castle

Galway

JW at Pub in Galway (Guinness!)

Peter and I at the top of Trim Castle

Peter "falling" from the top of Trim Castle :)

!!!Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!