Whirlwind trip

We had a great weekend in North Carolina with Shannon! It was so sunny and warm and beautiful. We left very early Friday morning and drove straight thru to Asheville only stopping for fast food and bathroom breaks for us and the dogs. Here we are in my car before we left Ann Arbor. We tried to get a picture of all four of us in the car, but it turned out to be more of a portrait of Jada.

We got into town at about 6:30 and got settled in at Shannon's, then decided we all needed some exercise after sitting in the car for 10 hours. The dogs especially. So we went for a walk around Asheville to show Leah the huge gorgeous houses in the neighborhood. Then we headed out to Charlotte Street Pub for dinner at 10pm.

On Saturday we started out at Biltmore Village and went to the cute shops there (including Yarn Paradise!), then headed downtown to walk around a bit. We stopped for a rest and a smoke at this fountain. Saturday night we were at home, and it was so stuffy in Shannon's apartment, but so nice out on the porch, so we stayed out there. We wanted to watch Jeopardy though... So we rolled the tv stand to the doorway and turned it out toward the porch. The best of both worlds!!!

Later Saturday night we made Daquiris and sat on the porch for a good 6 hours. We played CatchPhrase for a long time, then just sat and chatted into the wee hours of the morning.

Sunday was Shannon's birthday. Remember that Knitting Olympics skirt that was to be Shannon's birthday present? Yeah, not done yet. We ended up spending most of the day sitting on her porch in the sun... well, they were in the sun, I followed the shade around. (I can not get a tan, it's impossible. I just go straight from pale to burnt.) At about 3 we were finally all ready to get out and do something. So we headed to the edge of town to a yarn store that we hadn't been to yet. When my mom was down there last week she and Shannon tried to go and it was closed. The hours were not posted on the door, it just said, "Tuesday and Saturday" Above the Closed sign. Who knows what that means, because they were there on a Tuesday and it was closed, and we were there on a Sunday and it was closed. So that was a bummer. Next we took the dogs to a park that had plenty of room for them to run around off leash for a while. We found a big stick and threw it for Billie. She even helped us get it off the tree. After we thoroughly exhausted the pups and worked up a good appetite, we took the dogs home and headed to a great restaurant called Provence 620. It was SO good. Seafood is totally different in North Carolina. Shrimp is a completely different flavor there than it is in Michigan. Probably because it hasn't been dead and frozen for so long before you eat it like it is in Michigan.

So we stuffed ourselves there and headed home to watch RENT! All three of us sat on the futon and knitted while we watched RENT. We had inteded to get to bed somewhat early, so we could get up early again on Monday to get on the road. Well, Midnight turned into 3am... and we weren't in bed yet. We got about 3 hours of sleep before waking up at 7:30. We were on the road at 8:20. Shed a few tears on the way out of the driveway and headed north.

And now I'm at work. That is all I'm going to say about that.