"wave to mommy in the window!"

~michael

what a weekend! friday night at the durham bulls and saturday night in charlottesville--yay, FUN!

friday we sat behind right field. the opposing team's RF was named Crowe. We cheered for him the whole time--even made up a cheer--and at one point he actually gave us a thumbs up behind his back. I think if we'd been able to invite him to come drinking with us he SO would've joined in. and there were fireworks! and blue moon beer. :) oh, and jenny and matt cooled off my legs for my with their big ol' beer cans! Afterwards we went to Mellow Mushroom for some beerage and Jenny and I were SUPER sad that they'd closed the kitchen five minutes before we went to order. p.o.u.t.

saturday we got up and got it together to get on the road. I had a headache (it started friday around 9pm) and slept a bit of the way. we got to mary alise and michael's around 330 pm, changed real quick and began our adventure! first we went to oakencroft for some yummy wine. the tasting was fun, our lady was hilarious and we enjoyed it a lot! and the we looked on the winery map to find a place that was open until 6 (it was 5 then) and then went to kluge.

we liked oakencroft A LOT better than kluge. kluge definitely had the atmosphere (in spades!)--outdoor tables, pretty bushes and trees, cool presentation but their wines were pricey and they just plain didn't taste as good as at oakencroft. AND for a winery with expensive wines and expensive tastings ($3 a piece v. sharing two flights with cheese for $45ish) I thought it was pretty ridiculous that when I went to ask if we could have more of their stale hard bread (aka crustinis) they were all "that'll be three dollars." WHAT? you have all this high falootin' atmosphere and you charge for that? it's like mexican restaurants that charge for more chips. but anyway, we had fun nonetheless. AND michael found a cheese he really liked!

next after a quick run by the house it was time for dinner. we went to zydeco. mmmm yum! I liked it that their whole upstairs was a bathroom for the ladies--5 stalls and lots of couches and hangout areas for while you wait. and each stall was like a little separate room. anyway. the food was really good (I had gumbo and mac and cheese) and we enjoyed some fried green tomatoes and crawfish tails.

our waiter was HILARIOUS. he picked on matt and michael for having pbr and he made us laugh a lot. it was great. this was when the subject of my sun allergy came up--how it's kind of annoying and means that, for instance, a week long trip to the beach isn't ideal, how I have to stay indoors, etc. we talked about how matt and I want our kids to have his complexion, and michael pointed out how matt will have to always be out there with them. and then he said, describing our future family vacays "kids, wave to mommy in the window!"

I almost cried I laughed so hard.

we walked the downtown mall, heard a lovely rendition of moon river and decided to find a bar elsewhere.

we ended up at the horse and hound. matt and I ordered the twelve beer sampler and the waiter kind of looked at us funny--but since it was only 3 beers total he agreed. I liked almost all of them. After they had their beer MA & M got a sampler with 9. I ordered a beer and then matt ordered ANOTHER sampler, all to himself.

we talked about kids, about matt and me getting married some day, about photography and people and life and travel and their wedding and politics and wine and all sorts of good stuff. AND our server (who was very nice and from ireland by way of boston) told me he really liked my jean jacket. you can take the girl out of oklahoma, but...well, you can't take the oklahoma out of the girl. I like how they're cool to wear still, but know mine is older than most. :)

we went back to their house, looked at pictures from their wedding and our roadtrip and watched will and grace. the boys fell asleep in their chairs and at 2 am we decided it was bedtime. and in the morning? mary alise made us a deeelish breakfast. we were sad to leave BUT I'm glad that we'll be home for almost two weeks before going out of town again, this travel is making me TIRED! oh and on the way home we bought fresh peaches. yum!

and then last night...I finished painting my chest of drawers and then went to VBS. (I am not doing crafts this year, thank goodness, but I'm taking photos and being a "floater." when I was done, after feeding lara's kitties and a quick trip to the grocery store we watched this movie. it was CUTE. and FUNNY. and I liked it. it made me think of center stage but way cooler. and I really like sarah jessica parker, so that was fun too. you should check it out. :)