our trip : march 2009

In attempts to stay fresh and anew, Brett and I took a mini vacation to North Carolina/Virginia. Our trip was full of cute animal encounters, WONDERFUL food, and truly genuine, friendly people. Every destination I take changes my life in some way, but this particular trip certainly has a piece of me and has changed my perspective on things quite a bit. We began our road trip to Asheville, NC with an overnight in Roanoke, VA:

A quick car wash before we begin our first day... Truly a vain attempt, as you will see later...

And... Here is Roanoke:

All the pictures of me from this trip look like this. I am happy, even though for some reason, I look somewhat in pain:

We lucked out and hit the city on a day that they were having a farmer's market. I love the colors and totally would have had a spree if I didn't have such a long destination ahead of me!

I am so happy Brett can withstand this... I can't help it!

Roanoke has a lot of history melded in with newer elements:

Thankfully, we enjoyed Spring 2 weeks earlier than back home...

The nicest woman guided us to Asheville...

The Blue Ridge Parkway is known for its beautiful views... but with fog setting in, we really didn't get to see THOSE views...

Here is Brett pretending to be Rip Van Winkle, who was charactered for the Catskill Mountains, but we had fun anyway:

Eventually, the fog gave way to rain...

We absolutely loved our stay at the Hill House in Asheville. Bill and Terry run a beautiful inn with great decor and wonderful food! The colors of the house are all very warm and lovely... I wonder if their yellow lab, Bailey, inspired the color palette!

And here's Bailey:

Every evening, without fail, there were fresh baked chocolate chip cookies and blondies for us to snack on...

Ahh... and this is my dream bedroom!

I love all the little antiques around the room..

Of course connected to my dream bedroom is my dream bathroom! What... You don't take pictures of the bathroom when you visit places!? Haha

Resting up before heading out...

Color is everywhere downtown!

Art IS love.

Since it was so rainy, I shot a lot of these photos out of the car window. I love how this one looks as if our car is becoming the mountain.

I see this in every city... Why is this happening to so many people's shoes?

So much fun! A southern barbecue with music and dancing...

This was the coolest coffee shop I have ever been to... It's an actual double decker bus that has been converted into a truly yummy coffee shop. Not only is the atmosphere aesthetically pleasing, I had one of my best coffees there as well. By suggestion, I ordered the mayan hot chocolate (infused with cayenne pepper) and added 2 shots of espresso. Loved it so much, I came back for a second cup the next day and shot these images.

Besides making us wonderful coffee, Kyle took time to tell us about all the restaurants in the area when we asked where a good place to go was. Sadly, this probably would never happen in New Jersey; no one would ever take the time. This is Kyle: