Music in the Vines

Saturday night a group of friends headed out to Arrington Vineyardsto enjoy their weekend event called "Music in the Vines". Now, I don't recall really hearing much music (it was a bad setup as far as acoustics/sound) but it was a definite good time with friends and good wine. Here are a couple pictures:

The group enjoying an evening at Arrington Vineyards

We had quite a spread at our picnic table and the Brie Cheese was delicious.

My sister Amy was in town to enjoy the festivities...

The view from our picnic table...I love the Tennessee countryside.
CHEERS

Soul Refreshing

Tonight I got see an old Colorado friend who was in town for a convention and looked me up to get together. Nicole was one of the first people I met when I moved to Colorado back in 98 and she graciously welcomed me into her Women's Bible Study group. She loved me unconditionally when I found it hard to love myself and was always such an encouraging presence in my life. While I was in Colorado those 4 years, Nicole got married and moved to the East Coast with her husband and I only saw her when she would return to CO to visit her family.
SO we figured it had been at least 7 years since we had seen each other and it was SO good to get to spend about 2 hours on Friday night catching up. We talked about anything and everything during that time and it was truly refreshing to my soul. I have been gone from Colorado almost 6 years now, but I still am able to enjoy some of the best friendships that God blessed me with while I lived there! So thankful!

Happy Hump Day!

I cannot believe that it's already Wednesday (time just doesn't stop) but it has been a great week thus far despite staying pretty busy. I had a good time in Indiana this weekend celebrating Father's Day but had expectations of returning on Sunday to having to travel with my boss on Monday. Thankfully, I found out on Monday morning that I would not have to travel this week :) Don't get me wrong, I love that my job requires some travel but I was also hoping that I would get some time at home this week and some productive work time with little interruptions or errands to run. I have actually been able to work out of my office downtown for full 8 hour days and have not had to cart my computer around everywhere. It's been very nice and feels good to catch up work stuff, appointments, etc.



The other great thing about being in town is being able to have my evenings free to workout and spend quality time with friends. And even though it can be somewhat exhausting when you have something planned every evening, I am just happy to spend time with others. (and perhaps I am trying to catch up on people time after my week of vacationing alone). My work schedule over the past 3 almost 4 months has been pretty busy so it's been hard to be able to spend time with some of my friends and it does make me sad SO I am trying to make a conscious effort to be as available as I can and take advantage of time to hang out. Monday night after working out at the Y, I met my friend Crazy Amy for dinner at one of our fave places, Chick-fil-a! Last night I met up with my friends Caron, Michael, Caron's brother Jon, Tam and two other couples at a Nashville Sounds baseball game...it was a BLAST! I hope to get some pictures from Michael and I will post them but it really was the best time. The weather was perfect (calm mid-70's with a slight breeze) and the friendship was sweet! We also played the "hat game" (which I will explain at a later time) and I walked away a winner. And the highlight of the evening was the amounts of laughter...I can't even recall what was funny at the time but on several occasions I was laughing so hard that tears were cried and I thought I was going to vomit! Laughter really is good medicine.



Tonight I plan on spending some time with Jen and we are going to a Pilates class and then a Cardio-Sculpt class (you do realize that I probably won't be able to move tomorrow). You know things are busy in life when you don't even see the person you live with. I miss not getting to talk to her so I am excited that we have tonight planned out to do just that. The rest of my week is planned with things and more people to see even into the weekend but I am looking forward to it all and even squeezing in some "alone" time at the pool on Saturday!

Sisters

I got these pictures from Amy (can you believe that I didnt take one picture the whole time I was home this weekend?) and thought I would post them. I think Amy might be a little more camera-crazy that I am?!?

Father's Day Weekend

After a week of getting back into the work routine, I headed back to Indiana to spend the Father's Day weekend with my family. Highlights of my weekend was of course spending time with the family (eating, shopping, etc.), running with my dad on Saturday morning, going to Holly's house warming party on Saturday (I am so happy for her and Elaysha), and going to my grandparents house on Sunday for lunch.

When I went to my parents church on Sunday morning, my dad sang the morning special from the hymnal that talked about precious memories. I think I surprised myself that I was a bit moved by this song but I just feel incredibly blessed to have a father, a good father who has been in my life from the moment I entered into this world. Through my 33 years of life, I know that he loves me no matter what. And because I am still a "single" girl, it just means the world to me!

Happy Father's Day!

Home Sweet Home

Well after two weeks away from home (one week at my bosses home and a week spent on "vacation" in Charleston) it feels so good to be back home...in my own bed! I love to travel and I thoroughly enjoyed my time in South Carolina. What a gorgeous state and I absolutely loved being so close to the water. I would love to visit again some day.

I've been working through laundry and spending time with my friends again. If it's one thing that traveling alone made me appreciate, it was having quality time with my friends and I am so blessed by all the friends that GOD has brought into my life.

Today was filled with working out, pool time, lunch and shopping with a friend, laundry and then bowling with more friends. A great way to spend a Saturday. Tomorrow will be church and then hopefully more pool time :) and then a much needed run to the grocery store...I mean after not being home for two weeks there is nothing to eat in the house.

It's great to be back home!

Last Day in Charleston

So for my last day in Charleston, I actually used the alarm clock to get up early and I headed to downtown Charleston to do a 2 1/2 hour walking tour through the historic city of Charleston. Being the history buff that I am, I thoroughly enjoyed the tour and the exercise. Here are some pictures from the tour:

Our tour started at the historic Mills House Hotel

One of our first stops along the tour: you'll notice the earthquake bolts built in the homes.

The beautiful homes along "The Battery" with the views of the waterfront.
The Battery

The homes known as "rainbow row" One of the slave marts in town
The architecture of these buildings was so grand.
A historic church in downtown Charleston

I grabbed some lunch on my way back to Isle of Palm and then enjoyed a relaxing afternoon by the pool. I then decided for dinner that I would drive down the road to Sullivan's Island. I found a great restaurant to have dinner at, Poe's Tavern. I was able to sit outside on the porch and enjoyed a delicious burger. From there I drove about 5 minutes down the road to Ft. Moultrie and walked on the beach for a little while and took some more pictures.

Fort Moultrie

You can see Ft. Sumter from the beaches of Sullivan's Island

See, I really did go to South Carolina :)

After spending some time on Sullivan's Island, I headed back to Isle of Palm and did some shopping and caught the late show of "Made of Honor". It was your typical, cutesy romantic comedy. I got back to the beach house and went straight to bed as I flew out the next day.

Ft. Sumter & Charleston

So after a very restless nights sleep, I decided to change my sightseeing plans for today thus allowing me to not have to get up at 7am. After another 2 hours of sleep, I grabbed my breakfast and headed out back to the pool. I made some phone calls and read some more of my book while soaking up some sunshine. I then got ready and headed into Charleston to Liberty Square in the Charleston Harbor so I could catch the 2:30 pm ferry to Ft. Sumter National Monument. Here are some pictures from the ferry ride as we passed by downtown Charleston. I had no idea that this city of rich, southern history sat right on the waterfront...it only adds to it's beauty.

The ferry ride to Ft. Sumter was only about 30 minutes and you can see from the pictures that it was the perfect day for a boat ride....blue skies for miles. Here is a shot of the remains of Ft. Sumter as our boat approached.
Ft. Sumter was where the Civil War began. South Carolina had seceded from the Union, yet Union forces still occupied strategic Ft. Sumter at the entrance of the Charleston Harbor. The South demanded that Ft. Sumter be vacated and when the North refused, on April 12, 1861, troops of the Confederacy fired on the Fort thus starting a 34 hour bombardment that eventually resulted in the surrendering of Ft. Sumter by Union troops.
This shot was taken out of a cannon window and if you look closely, you can see Charleston. I thought this was a cool picture of one of the old cannons from within the fort. The South held the Fort until it was finally evacuated on Feb. 17, 1865. During that time, the Fort experienced one of the longest sieges in modern warfare - for almost two years 46,000 shells, estimated at over 7 million pounds of metal, were fired at the Fort.
A view from the backside a top of the Fort and the flags that they fly today.

I forgot how much I love to learn about the history that took place right here in the United States. After a relaxing ferry ridge back I made my way through Downtown Charleston and ended up back near King St. and Queen St. to make my dinner reservation at 6 pm. Thanks to the suggestion of a sweet lady that I flew into Charleston with, I enjoyed a "Southern Supper" at a restaurant called Poogan's Porch. Poogan's Porch was built as a spacious, commodious home in 1888 and in 1976 was opened up as a restaurant serving Low country/Southern Cuisine.
The house was quaint and well restored. I was seated on the first floor in a room in the back which I imagine to have once been a sort of sitting/family room. I had a table nestled in the back corner next to the fireplace and the ambiance was very charming. I enjoyed a lovely glass of Sauvignon Blanc from Chile before my meal and they brought a small basket of homemade biscuits with a house specialty honey butter. It was delicious and the biscuits literally melted in your mouth. For my dinner I selected a dish called "Plantation Chicken". This was a lightly breaded, fried chicken that was stuffed with a creamy white cheddar pesto sauce, red peppers and country ham and was also plated with whipped potatoes and green beans. The entire dish was seasoned to perfection and I assure you that nothing was left on my plate. I think the last time I had an entree that looked and tasted that good was when I visited a French restaurant in San Francisco. And somehow I manged to let my food settle and had room for dessert, a piece of their Peanut Butter Pie. It was not as rich as I expected it to be so I was able to finish the entire piece. Needless to say a slight food coma was evident so on my way back to Isle of Palm, I stopped at an outdoor shopping area in Mt. Pleasant to walk off some of my dinner. Seemed like a perfect ending for another great day!

Sunshine & Sightseeing

Well after a much needed good night's sleep I woke up to plenty of sunshine outside. The beach house we are staying in has a pool, so I fixed a bowl of cereal, grabbed my swimsuit and a book and spent about 2 hours soaking up some much needed sunshine. It was a great way to start the day off but I didn't want to spend the whole day lounging about as I wanted to get out and see the sights. So I came in around noon, got cleaned up and headed out to visit Boone Hall Plantation and Gardens. The road that you travel up to the main house is called the Avenue of Oaks and it's absolutely breathtaking. These oak trees were planted in 1743 by Thomas Boone, son of John Boone, the original owner of this plantation. I took this picture of the avenue at the gates of the main house on the plantation.

I loved the gates at the brick wall that led you to the main house. The current plantation house, built in 1936 by Canadian Ambassador Thomas A. Stone sits on the site of the original home.
You might also recognize these gates from a recent movie called "The Notebook". Two scenes from this movie was filmed here. They used the gates to the main house as the gates that were at Allie's parents home. There is a shot from the movie when her mother goes out the gate to the mailbox to take letters Noah had written to Allie. (same gates from the plantation)
The other thing the movie filmed from Boone Hall was Boone Hall Creek. This creek is shown in the movie when Noah took Allie out on the water, through all those trees where they came upon all of those beautiful white swans.
I also learned that Boone Hall Creek is a natural saltwater creek so there is an abundance of seafood thanks to the tide and all. I saw plenty of crabs on the rocks of the docks behind the dock house. This picture of Boone Hall Creek was taken from grounds behind the main house.
Here is a picture of the dock house. The grounds of the plantation were beautiful to walk around.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the nine original slave cabins at Boone Hall were home to the skilled slaves that provided the services that supported the Plantation. And when they use the term "skilled slaves" they said that those were the slaves that needed to be closest to the main house like the blacksmith, tailor, etc. And at one time there was said to be between 300-400 slaves that lived and worked on the plantation. It was very interesting to see.
I spent my entire afternoon at Boone Hall and it was a great way to soak up some of the culture "what once was" from the South. Since it was close to 4:30 and I was quite hungry from not having any lunch (the kitchen i had planned to eat at on the plantation was not open today), I headed back to Isle of Palm to eat at a fun beachside eatery called Coconut Joe's. I had a fruity, coconut drink and a delicious flounder sandwich. It was a great way to end the day only bad thing is I gave myself a headache from not eating sooner. Back to the beach house to relax for the evening as I have a full day in Charleston planned tomorrow.

Day of Travel

Well I am finally off on a much deserved "working" vacation to Charleston, SC. When I was trying to recall the last time that I flew, I realized that it had been almost 2 years since I had traveled via airplane. I flew from Nashville to Atlanta and had about an hour and half lay over and then on to Charleston. I brought along a new book so the travel time seemed to go by rather fast but I must say that since I had a window seat I was able to enjoy the views of flying. I forgot how beautiful it was to fly through the clouds and to arrive in a sea of endless bright blue sky.

Instead of driving straight to Isle of Palm where our beach house is, I headed for downtown Charleston to check out the sights and grab dinner at a place called "Sticky Fingers" (thanks for the recommendation, Uncle Jeff & Aunt Tammy). I then walked around the shops on King St. and the Charleston Place Hotel. I took this picture below because the last place I worked was called TMP. I just thought it was quite funny.
I finally arrived without any difficulties (thanks to my own personal On-Star abilities) to Isle of Palm. While driving on the connector from US 17 to IOP, you cross the Atlantic InterCoastal Waterway and it reminded me of what I imagine parts of North Carolina to look like. I say "imagine" because I have never been to the Outer Banks of NC but would love to some day. Anyways, I got settled into my room and then took my camera and journal out to the beach.
I really loved this picture as I barely captured the setting sun over one of the sand dunes.

After my little stay on the beach, I ran to Target to grab a couple things and some food for this week and then pretty much relaxed in my room and did some more reading. Traveling always makes me tired so it was early to bed for a good nights sleep.