Thanksgiving Road Trip

                                                                                    Source: flickr.com via Emily on Pinterest

Today my beloved and I are jumping in the car for a little 12-hour road trip through the southern states of the U.S. to make it home to Texas in time for Thanksgiving dinner. Once again, my dad's football team is in the high school playoffs, so we will be traveling a little extra over the weekend to see his team (hopefully) win. It's a lot of driving while we're on the road but so worth it once we pull up in my family's driveway. We'll also be celebrating the baby guy this weekend with a shower thrown by my sister. I am also looking forward to hot corn, mashed potatoes, and chocolate pie made by the Pie Ladies from the church I grew up attending.

Whether you're traveling far away or staying close to home, I hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving and enjoy the warmth of family and friendship. If you live in Florida, this will probably be made easier by the fact that it is still in the mid-80s... so here's to hoping for some chilly late fall weather, too!

Here's my thankfulness list:

• This guy. And this one.
• These two.
• My family.
• Great friends across the United States.
• A warm home and a safe refuge.
• A job and co-workers I adore.
• My university and all of the memories I have from it.
• Little things. The blanket I got in the mail yesterday that makes me want to curl up beside a fire and drink cocoa. Great sunlight. Cold nights. Getting a fun letter in the mail. A delicious cup of coffee. The ability to travel to see our family. Having enough money at the beginning of the month to save and at the end of the month to splurge. 

...and so much more. Happy thanksgiving, everyone! And you can bet we will be listening to Christmas music on our way home from Texas this weekend. 'Tis the season!

Memorial Day Trip to Miramar Beach

One of my favorite quotes is from Karen Blixen, Danish author known by her pen name, Isak Dinesen.

 "The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea."

Atlanta Getaway

So, ladies and gents(?), guess what? Primary filming for thesis is over. Aaron and I can breathe a sigh of relief, eat dinner together, and have a conversation that's not "What time will you be home?" "Probably really late" via text messaging. I love it.

This week is Aaron's week off. No school, no meetings, no sets, no nothing. Boy, does he deserve it. And since we weren't able to go to Hilton Head Island and visit his mom and dad last week, we decided to take a weekend trip to Atlanta (which I debated in this post). I'm not going to sugar-coat this—it was a fun weekend, but it wasn't a relaxing one. We left for Atlanta on Saturday morning and made very good time. We went to lunch at Taqueria del Sol, where I had a fish taco + shrimp and corn choweder and Mr. Nix had chicken tacos and queso. We wandered around the Westside Provisions District, . which is just so fantastic. We mostly window shopped—I could have bought just about everything I saw at Star Provisions and Seed Factory (and I don't even have kids)! And Bungalow Classic was full of ideas for wonderful living spaces. So much fun. Afterward we checked in to our hotel and tried to come up with a tentative plan for the rest of the evening.

Aaron was disappointed that he didn't get to see Hanna while it was showing in town, so I conceded and we went to Phipps Plaza to see a movie. The bummer about this? We weren't able to enjoy a nice dinner together. My co-workers gave me a dozen recommendations of the best places to dine, and I was disappointed that the only night we were in ATL we weren't able to try any of them out because we had to go to this movie. I oscillated between being mopey (and yes, a brat) and trying to see Aaron's point of view, but honestly, I am was really looking forward to a fancy, delicious, romantic dinner. A bucket of popcorn and a Coke does not fall in to that category. But that's what I got, and the movie was actually really enjoyable. I know there were probably a billion ways to avoid the fiasco that was supposed to be our big night out, but I failed at every single one of them, and that's real life.

Sunday morning we woke up. (Best sentence ever?)

The Flying Biscuit came highly recommended, so we drove to Piedmont Ave. and waited for a table. We walked up and down several blocks while waiting for our table. I had to stop and smell all of the peonies and magnolias blooming, of course. And the dogs! Everyone had dogs. Little dogs, big dogs, mutts, pretty purebreeds. I love that sense of liveability in a city.

Afterward we drove to Turner Field and bought student tickets. I have been to only one MLB game before, also with Aaron, and I was semi-excited to go. Aaron grew up as a Braves fan, and he wants me to be one, too, so he bought me a kids T-shirt to wear for the game. It ended up being pretty fun; the best part was the usher in our section. He had the raddest moves—instead of doing a single "chop," this guy used his whole body and both arms and was practically throwing himself around the stairs. We called his dance the "double chop." He would also do this crazy run-in-place dance, which I really thought might give him a heart attack. He was awesome and my favorite part of the game. The Braves beat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-5. Winning!

On our way home we stopped to pick up a quick dinner at Wendy's. I love their baked potatoes. As we paid the cashier, he said "see you tomorrow!" really enthusiastically.  Aaron just sat there, thinking of the correct response, saying nothing. We ended up speeding away. 

And that was our getaway. 

Girls' weekend in Chattanooga

Two weekends ago I joined my sisters- and mother-in-law in Chattanooga for a girls' weekend. My lovely sis-in-law Shannon recently moved there, and she invited us to see her new home. It was a cold, rainy weekend, but we had such a great time.

The drive through Georgia to Chattanooga was awful, and took about two hours longer than anticipated because of rain and traffic. Thankfully, I got a great lunch recommendation: Taqueria del Sol in Atlanta. It was absolutely divine, and the perfect way to refocus after an awful five hours of white-knuckle driving in a downpour.

The first evening in Chattanooga we went to Sophie's Shoppe, which had adorable home goods and cupcakes. I could have purchased so much there, but I was good and didn't even have a cupcake. That night we had dinner at Alleia. This is such a beautiful restaurant! The design is a feast in itself, and the food is excellent as well.

The next morning Tiffany, baby Imy, Shannon, Karen and I had brunch at The Blue Plate right on the Tennessee River.  (Imogen's not pictured because she was taking a nap!)

That day we went all around Chattanooga, exploring fun shops and Signal and Lookout mountains. Sidenote: at one point we were driving through the Red Bank area of Chattanooga and we were commenting on the local shops and haunts when we happened to pass a Wal-Mart, at which point Karen said "Wherever I go, Wal-Mart never lets me down." Quote of the trip.

Saturday night we enjoyed dinner and walked around the grounds of the Hunter Museum. The views were spectacular, but it was cold. We also got to meet my sister-in-law Tiffany's friend Danielle, who lives in Nashville and met us for dinner.

The trip was short but sweet. I loved getting to see the town, and it was great to see my husband's mom and sisters. I'm lucky I can have such a great time with them! :) A special thanks to my fantastic sis-in-law Shannon for hosting us in her beautiful home. I'm still in love with her rooftop deck with third floor views of the city and the mountain!

The moral of the story is: Chattanooga is a really fun, clean, neat little city. Not terribly busy, but it seemed very active with lots of things to do outdoors. I was really impressed with the way the city seems to take pride in itself, and there seemed to be a lot of local establishments doing well. I also loved the mix of architectural periods and how well they mixed throughout the city. It was a lovely mix of old and new. I want to go back to visit with Aaron sometime this spring; I know he'd love the city as much as I did!