Goodbye, Asheville

Well, Friday morning we packed up the Uhaul so that we could have one last blowout party at our apartment that night before moving to Auburn on Saturday. We called our event "The No Furniture Party," and it was incredibly fun! The only things we kept in the apartment were our 'game' table and a few fold up chairs. I'd say we had about 30 guests and we partied the night away. Having such a large last get-together with our closest friends in Asheville made for a very special send-off for us.

Goodnight:

Remnant of 'party poppers' in the fan the next morning:

About to walk out the front door for the last time: 

On Saturday, Harrison and I watched Asheville disappear in our rear view mirrors and I shed more than a few tears on the way 'home.' During our time in Asheville, we gained our personal independence after college (being without the financial support of our parents), began our professional careers, started our married life, obtained our master's degrees, and made friendships that will last a lifetime. We now have the future to look forward to: being closer to our families, perhaps starting our own family, buying/building a home, furthering our careers, starting new friendships, and enjoying each other's company...even if we are back in the deadly Alabama heat!

Third wedding anniversary

On July 19th, Harrison and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary. To our knowledge, this would be the last one that we'd celebrate while living in Asheville (where we were married). To begin the day, we exchanged gifts. Harrison likes to follow tradition, and this year was leather. We plan to get a leather living room set as our main gift after moving to Auburn, so we did small leather gifts for the meantime. I got him a leather beer mug cover from Wedge Brewery and he got me a leather dog collar with the name 'Bernadette' inscribed! We plan on getting a Pug around Christmas!

We packed a great picnic lunch and drove out to Max Patch. Max Patch is the beautiful place (on the Appalachian Trail) where Harrison popped the question almost four years ago. It was a hazy day, but the mountains were still lovely.

Our lunch consisted of BBQ and mac and cheese (from 12 Bones...Obama's favorite Asheville restaurant), Peach Tazo Tea (our favorite), and apple pie (from Greenlife). It was so good, as was our view:

We sat for awhile at our 'proposal rock' and sipped on a glass of Sangiovese. Eventually we had to say goodbye to Max Patch, as we wondered how long it would be before we'd be back to visit.

For dinner we went to the restaurant at the Inn at the Biltmore Estate. We had our first anniversary dinner there and it was some of the best food that I've ever eaten in Asheville (we had the steak and the duck that time). The staff was so kind to accomodate our request for a seat overlooking the mountains to see the sunset. They also thew in some very welcomed freebies: an extra glass of wine each, two glasses of Champagne to celebrate, and an assortment of chocolates. They were so good to us! The food was very tasty, but Harrison's 'Award winning Pork Tenderloin' was tiny. It was a good thing that he ate all of the bread before the main course. I had the chicken, which was good, but not as mind-blowing as our last experience. We had a great anniversary, and I wonder how we'll be celebrating next year.

20 toes in the sand...

Outer Banks, NC (7/10-7/14)
Harrison and I got away for a beach trip after my last day of work at Biltmore Family Medicine. We've always wanted to go to the Outer Banks after hearing such great things about it. Once we move to AL we'll be 14 hours away from OBX rather than 7, so this was our chance.

We stayed at an adorable little cottage in Nags Head.

Nags Head was a little too crowded for our taste in beaches, so we checked out some of the quieter, more private areas such as Duck, Corolla, Manteo, and our favorite, Cape Hatteras.

We checked out the Wright Brother's Memorial on the first day. It was neat to see where the first documented flight took place. It's now a grassy hill, but it used to be a huge sand dune:

I love this picture of Harrison goofing around:

On one of the days, we drove out to The Whalehead Club in Corolla, which is a magnificent 1920's estate that was built by a wealthy couple as a hunting retreat. The scenery was beautiful all around.

 We did a self-guided audio tour through the 2,000 + sq. foot home. It was pretty cool.

On our final beach day, we spent the entire time at Cape Hatteras beach. The lighthouse was just behind us, the high was 86 degrees, and the water was a perfect 75 degrees. I finished one book: Tina Fey's Bossypants (hilarious) and got started on The Secret Life of Bees.

4th of July weekend

What a great long holiday weekend we had! Thursday was my day off, so Harrison, Christen, Adam Bowers, and I took advantage of the beautiful day and went canoeing down The French Broad River.

We went on a section of the river that we had never tried before (from Redmon to Barnard) and it was awesome! Some parts were a bit technical (class II), but most of it was pretty laid back.

We stopped here for awhile to swim and hang out since the water was so nice:

On Friday, Harrison and Andy took off to Virginia for a weekend backpacking trip. I would have gone, but I was pretty sure I'd hold them back...they're fast! He took my camera for the weekend, so I decided to post a few great shots of their trip in the Grayson Highlands (known for their roaming ponies). This was one of Harrison's favorite sections of the Appalachian Trail when he was thru-hiking in 2004.

 This pony tried to eat Andy's pop tart!

It's no wonder the Appalachian Trail's nickname is "The Green Tunnel."

On Saturday, while the boys were off doing their thing, I met up with Andy's wife, Lesley and her friend from college. We went to Shindig on the Green which is a great outdoor, free concert in downtown Asheville that happens every Saturday evening from July through early September. The concert series features local bluegrass and old-time string bands as well as cloggers both young and old. We brought a picnic and stayed late just listening to the great music, enjoying the weather and ambiance (free of mosquitoes). 

After Mass on Sunday, I met up with all of our friends at Carrier Park so we could celebrate the 4th of July (a day early) as well as Adam Brewer's birthday (also a day early) by floating down the French Broad River in our 'party barge.' You're probably wondering what a 'party barge' is. Well, last year about 20 of us took inner tubes down the river, but we decided to top that this year with Adam's Caribbean Island float. This thing is MASSIVE! There's room for three to lay out on the 'deck,' and room for another five on the actual seats that surround the swimming hole. There are even two gigantic coolers and a cabana. We fit about ten people on it and the rest of the crew attached their tubes and floats onto the sides of it. Unfortunately because Harrison had my camera, I missed out on getting pictures of us on the river. I did however, find an image of The Caribbean Island online and will share it with you below. The pictures following the float are from last year's 'Float the French Broad.'  

Last year:

 7/4/10:

We got out at The Bywater, where we feasted on seven pizzas! The plan was to go home, shower, and meet downtown for fireworks. I got home, crawled into bed for a nap, and woke up at 8am on Monday! Oops!

On Monday, the true 4th of July, Harrison and I went to Chimney Rock Park, about 30-40 minutes outside of Asheville. It's known to have great panoramic views and is also the filming site of Last of the Mohican's, Harrison's all-time favorite movie! I was happy because I knew that there was an elevator that takes visitors all the way to the top! Knowing I wouldn't have to do any strenuous activity, I wore my cute sundress and flip flops, just to find out when we arrived that the elevator was out of service. We definitely had to do a little hiking, which I didn't mind too much until we heard thunder. We got to check out a few views that included a beautiful waterfall, just before the water fell. The rain pretty much dampened our spirits and we went back to Asheville to have a nice BBQ dinner downtown. The rest of the evening we just relaxed watching a movie and seeing some lovely fireworks from our couch :)

This week is a little bittersweet, as Friday is my last day of work at Biltmore Family Medicine. On a happier note, we leave for The Outer Banks on Sunday!