A Carolina Weekend

Last weekend I hit the road for Columbia, SC to see one of my best friends and watch the Gamecocks play. And it was awesome! I miss living so close to Columbia and being able to see my friends whenever I want. I've definitely been homesick lately. I got to Columbia after supper time and we all decided to visit Rockaway's for burgers and some delicious pimento cheese fries. If you're in the area, these are not to be missed!

Saturday we did the requisite tailgate shopping with a quick stop by Target so I could get some jeans. I hope it's not a sign that I'm getting used to the Florida weather, but I packed nothing but shorts and skirts for the weekend and it was a little chilly in SC, which was fabulous. It felt like football weather all weekend long! I enjoyed a fabulous little tailgate with Twyla, Amanda, her husband Lenny, and my new friend Lt. Jill.

I had a great time at the game, even though there were some ridiculously over enthusiastic fans in front of us. I'm all for cheering, but I don't think it's necessary to stand up the entire game, holler until you can barely talk, and wave your spirit rag so hard that you could take someone's eye out. That's just me, but then again I didn't drink a 5th of Kentucky Gentleman and start chugging straight Canadian mist by the 4th quarter like the fellows in front of us. Thankfully, the weather was cool with no rain and the Gamecocks pulled out a win!

My favorite part of the game is always when Cocky comes out of the box to 2001.

(Please excuse the crazy 'spirit rag' in front of us for 1/2 of the video!)

The next morning we had brunch at the Liberty Tap Room (pretty tasty!) and got on the road for Florida. This was the most 'normal' weekend I've had in a while, hanging out with friends and not worrying about jobs or mother in laws. I must start having more fun in my life, soon! Thankfully there is plenty going on this fall, so I'll just have to make the best of it!

Family Tradition

My grandparents live in Manchester and LaGrange, Georgia, so I have spent a lot of time in West Georgia. It's very pretty country in those parts! Lots of cute little towns, great places to go antiquing and delicious food. Our family has been visiting Riverbend Restaurant in Thomaston, GA for as long as I can remember.

It's about 25 minutes from my Grandmomma's house in Manchester and it's located down a dirt road on a bend in the Flint River. It's one of those great places where you can take the entire family and enjoyed a laidback meal of really good food, and their sweet tea is just right! I think most of their business comes from repeat customers and word of mouth since they don't have a website and just one sign at the end of the road that you drive down. You'd miss it if you weren't looking.

Hubs and I enjoying the view overlooking the Flint River. We had a great time catching up with all the grandparents and eating yummy fried foods.

The interior is really casual and has that 'down home' feeling

I had fried shrimp, fries and hushpuppies...I was in heaven!

The hubs had delicious fried catfish with fries and hushpuppies...yum!

Cedar Key, FL

After our first few weeks in Gainesville, we decided to head out of town for a bit and get some rest and relaxation. One of our favorite places nearby is Cedar Key. It's a small fishing town on the Gulf Coast. It's a perfect place to chill out and get away from everything.

We spent most of the day walking around, taking photos and checking out the little shops. The weather was perfect, and it was so nice to get out and enjoy some sunshine and fresh air.

We weren't really in the mood to go out for supper so we stopped by Cedar Key Pizza to pick up a pie and head back to the patio of our hotel to enjoy it. We weren't disappointed! One thing I really like about Cedar Key is that there are no fast food or chains in town.

While we waited on our pizza we walked around the edge of town and enjoyed the sunset.

The rest of the evening we enjoyed wine on the patio under the stars. Downtown is so small that we were able to take a few 'laps' walking around the main street to people watch and listen to some of musicians playing that night. Before we left town the next morning to come back to reality we walked around downtown a little while longer.

I'm always just a little bit sad the leave the coast, but we'll be back soon, I'm sure.

Indianapolis Part 2

Our second day in Indianapolis was great! Carrie and I had the morning to ourselves to check out downtown and see what we could find. First was a delicious breakfast at Einstein Bagels. We actually have an Einstein down the street from my house, but I never tried it before and was pleasantly surprised.

The egg sandwich on challah bread was so delicious!Next we headed out to check out the visitor center at White River State Park (we always check them out wherever we go, since we're in tourism and like to see how other folks do it). The visitor center was really helpful and told us that the NCAA Hall of Champions was just on the other side of the park. This was terrific news, since we are both huge sports fans, especially football. The downstairs was basically a hall of trophies and other memorabilia, but the upstairs was more interactive. You got to play a portion of each NCAA sport, and try your hand at being a referee for different sports. The whole place was really cool!

Our hotel was right across the street from the capitol, which was really pretty.

The weather was gorgeous the entire time we were visiting!

The rest of the afternoon we had several classes and lots of learning. Afterwards, we went to supper at the Weber Grill. We weren't sure what it was all about at first, but we learned that most of the dishes are made on Weber charcoal grills (like the one you have in your very own backyard!).

I'm not sure how this restaurant would go over in the south, since everyone has their own grill but the food was phenomenal. We tried the Weber sampler, which was basically 'plate of meat' and it did not disappoint.

The mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes and roast corn on the cob we tried for sides was pretty good too! By the end of the night we were stuffed and completely satisfied and our walk back to the hotel kept us from completely passing out from full bellies and happiness!

Indianapolis Part 1

I just got back from a fantastic trip to Indianapolis last week. I was up there for work and learned a ton of new stuff about tourism. Yay for learning!
Our first night we arrived in the Indianapolis airport, which is beautiful, to find the coolest vending machine I've ever seen. No worries about makeup emergencies, Sephora's got you covered!We took the shuttle into downtown to check into our hotel and it was awesome. You can't beat $7 a pop for nearly direct service from the airport. I think it only took us about 20 minutes to get there and it was a lot cleaner and roomier than a cab. Plus we got to check out some sites on the way.
After we checked in we were starving, so we headed down the street to the Rock Bottom Brewery. The beer was great and the pizza was delicious! It was a quite a long day with all the traveling, bad weather and airport delays in Atlanta so we were all ready for a good night's rest. All in all it was a great start to our trip and Indianapolis did not disappoint on our first night!

Back from Indy

I arrived back in Augusta from Indianapolis last night around 9:30, and I was exhausted! I think it was a combination of walking around exploring the city, learning a ton for about 3 days, having a great time, and the exhaustion of traveling. I've got a lot of catching up to do this weekend, laundry, a little bit of housekeeping and errands, and a bunch of exercise on my to do list, since we enjoyed such great food the entire time we were in Indiana. Then it's right back to work on Monday and preparing for Fakesgiving 2009!
I'll have a full post with photos and an Indianapolis wrap-up soon. We had a really great time in the Midwest.