Mumford Gentlemen of the Road pt. 1

A few weekends ago I drove down to Bristol TN/VA (the town straddles the state border!) for the Mumford and Sons Gentlemen of the Road tour.  It was hands down the best weekend I’ve had all summer.  We left Friday morning and made our way down to the southwestern corner of Virginia.  Thanks to the advent of technology we found a road side BBQ place for lunch, which reminded me why I love the south so much.  It was so so good.

Due South does lunch right.

 

About 5 hours after leaving DC we pulled up to the farm house we had rented for the weekend.  A slightly more expensive option than a hotel, it was also one of the better decisions we made all weekend.  The time spent on the front porch was well worth it.  After dropping our bags and chatting with Clara, the lovely woman managing the property we drove into Bristol to look for food and a liquor store.  Obtaining our supplies we returned to the house and spent the remainder of the day sitting on the front porch sipping drinks, enjoying good conversation, and marveling at the peace and quiet of the country side.  It was good for a bunch of city girls to slow down the pace!

our farm house for the weekend

waking up to cows mooing outside of your bedroom window, a new experience!

Sunset on the farm, photo credit to MP

evening walks in the country do city girls hearts good.

The following morning we got up and made the short drive back up to Chilhowie, VA.  Gwen is from Chilhowie and had invited us to her Grandmother’s house for breakfast that morning before the show.  Her Grandmother lives in this amazing farm house stocked full of antiques, the house I believe has been in her husband’s family for many generations.  We enjoyed breakfast and coffee on the front porch while Grandmother regailed us with an oral history of the area and her family.  Perhaps it’s because I no longer have any grandparents alive, but I was in heaven.  Grandmother is a treasure and I could have spent all day just listening to her talk about her home and family, which she clearly loves dearly.   After a couple of hours we reluctantly left to head to the concert… which was so amazing- I will write it up later this week!

The girls with Grandmother and her beautiful barn quilt

I learned that there’s such a thing as Chilhowie brick…

life goal: have a front porch on which to spend long hours in good conversation.

Beach Babes

Beaches up here all have boardwalks… not something I’m used to from the beaches of North/South Carolina.

While we are on the subject of great summer weekends, a few weeks ago I took a day trip to the beach with some girlfriends.  My dad always calls us (his daughters) his beach babies.  We grew up vacationing at the beach and it’s developed a deep and abiding love of the sand and ocean in all of us.

The great thing about DC is that it’s a major city that is essentially close enough to make going to the beach a day trip.  It’s a long day trip for sure, but doable.  We left the city at 7:30 am and were spreading out our towels in Rehoboth, DE by 10:45.  While the beaches in this part of the country have nothing on the beaches of North and South Carolina that I grew up visiting, they definitely work in a pinch.

We spent the morning reading/ sleeping in the sun and then walked down to Dogfish Head Brewery for lunch.  It was just far enough off the board walk that I was concerned that they wouldn’t let us in in our beach wear, but it turned out not to be a problem.  Taking a break in the sun with a 90 min IPA (or a 120 if you are Lezlie) was the perfect afternoon break.  It’s certainly the only time I’ve sat at a bar without pants on, but hey, anything goes at the beach!

We capped off the day spending 20 min. or so jumping off a deserted lifeguard stand into the sand.  It’s the little things that enable you to feel like a kid again.

lots of beautiful kites flying on the beach

There was a huge sandcastle building contest… there were some impressive entries!

The beach road warriors!

This is just one of many ridiculous photos we took while jumping off the lifeguard stand. (this is also the outfit I wore to lunch at Dogfish)

Nats!

This has been a weird summer.  One that hasn’t actually felt like summer at all.  How is it August?  I feel like life for the last six months has moved by in a haze and I’m moving a long with time, but not really experiencing life.  Weird, no?

There are some experiences that regardless of the haze can always makes it feel like summer. Baseball games fall into that category.  I have fond memories of growing up and going to see the Pirates play at Three Rivers Stadium.  During my childhood I didn’t know the joys of baseball games as an adult, when it’s less about the baseball and more about beer and hot dogs and spending time with good friends.

I’m lucky enough to occasionally have access to my company’s season tickets to the Nat’s,  and a few weeks back I took some of the roommates with me to enjoy a Sunday afternoon game.  The Nat’s are enjoying a season that includes more win’s than losses and it was great seeing them beat the Braves while enjoying a cold one.  Hopefully I’ve got a couple more games in my future before the end of the season.

Having good seats makes it much easier to pay attention to what’s going happening on the field.

playing with camera filters

Why doesn’t Teddie ever get to win?

Roommates

My Old Kentucky Home

The one thing that is associated with almost every trip I’ve ever taken to Kentucky (accidental or not) is speeding tickets.   I always think that the state is too backwards to ever find me, but they always do.   Never the less the last two weekends I’ve found myself celebrating the great state of Kentucky and the running of the Kentucky Derby.  A redemption of sorts for my opinions of Kentucky. 

Two weekends ago I attended the annual pre-derby party put on by the Kentucky State Society here in DC.  It was an unfortunately chilly day- but we braved the weather and enjoyed an afternoon at Collingwood Estate in Virginia sipping mint juleps and smoking cigars on the banks of the Potomac.  MS our gratious host was even the winner of the best hat competition!

Photo credit as usual goes to Alison of Red Shoes Photography, and other friends I pilfered from on FB.  I’d left my phone (and thus camera) in a cab the night before…

Roommates representing Paducah!

Colonel Sanders or Esteban?

Celebrating their friendship-aversary!

Happy Easter!

I had a lovely Easter weekend here in D.C.  Attended several really great church services, hosted an easter lupper for 26 close friends, and celebrated with my single urban family.

It was good for me to get back into the kitchen and cook for people.  It’s one of my favorite things to do that I have not done much of recently.  I took virtually no pictures, except this one of the angel food cake I made.  Is there anything better than angel food cake with fresh whip cream and strawberries?  I think not.

Drunk on October

Columbus day weekend is one of those glorious holidays that we get in DC because most of life is structured around the federal government, which, obviously observes all federal holidays.  The other roommates who had the day off decided we should celebrate Christopher Columbus and his great discovery of America by taking an urban family field trip to the suburbs.  We stopped and got pumpkin flavored coffee and hit the road.

First up we stopped at an orchard to do some of our own apple picking.  We parked the mini among a sea of mini-vans and off we went into the orchard with a bunch of mom’s and kids.  It was at this point we realized we were short on cash, so we picked what we thought was about 11 dollars worth of apples.

the mini among mini's

beautiful day in the orchard

what we thought was 11 dollars worth of apples- it was really only about 4.50

After we procured our apples we booked it out of family town to one of our favorite vineyards just down the road.  We had some good friends who worked out at Hillsboro for a few years a while back and since then we’ve made trips out there at least once a year to enjoy a bottle of wine and the beautiful scenery.  We spent the next few hours just enjoying good conversation, good wine, and fantastic views.

It was the perfect fall afternoon.  And now suddenly it’s November and it snowed in DC last weekend.  A good reminder to take advantage of these days while we have them!

The Farm

View from the front porch

A few weeks ago I drove up to Pennsylvania to spend the weekend with my college roommates/friends and their families.  We stayed at at the “farm” which is a beautiful property that belongs to the family of one of the girls husbands.  They have a fantastic home up there that has enough room to sleep all 13 of us, along with the husbands and kids.  Only 10 of us were able to make it this weekend, and we definitely missed having the whole group together.

The farm is this amazingly relaxing place where you can play hard all day.  There are horses for horse back riding, tennis, golf, swimming, hiking, it’s kind of like a private summer camp for adults.  On weekends with old friends it’s ideal for wasting away morning hours sitting on the back porch in the sunshine drinking coffee and catching up on life while kids run around under foot.

What’s great about old friends is that you can pick up right where you left off.  10 of the 13 of us lived in a house together for our junior and senior years that only had one bathroom.  I think it goes without saying that we were and are very close.  Over the years most of the girls have met amazing men, gotten married, and created some really awesome kids.  This weekend we had 10 kids at the Farm!

As much as I love these girls, it is sometimes really difficult to be with them.  I value their friendship so much, but it’s hard when the people who used to be your closest friends and knew you best are in very different places than you.  It’s like the shared understanding we used to have is gone and we have to work harder to connect b/c my life looks very different than a stay at home mom’s.  Some of it is certainly my own insecurity and jealousy, if I’m being honest.

This weekend, however, things were different.  Looking back on the weekend, I think what made the difference was the fact that I was able to let go of my insecurities about being a single woman on a weekend with a bunch of married couples; and was able to enter into the craziness of life with infants and toddlers.  Somewhere in the midst of holding infants, helping get kids dressed, making meals, putting on shoes, finding socks, and all the rest I forgot that I was single and in a different spot than most of the other girls and just got to love them for who they are and where they are in life.  My singleness was a gift that I could be an extra set of hands and just help out where needed.  Sometimes holding a newborn baby to give a mom a 30 min. break is the best way to love them.

It was really kind of cool.  Ultimately I just think the older we get the better we get at meeting each other where we are.  Most of them don’t understand my life or how it works, but they are willing to ask questions and understand when things are hard, even when they can’t relate.  And I’m trying to do my best to do the same.

Abigail on the big horse

With "hootie" the owl... heres to hoping he doesn't spend the next 7 years in Lauren's basement!

Max and Me rocking some serious smores