I've Never Been to Greenville

This Memorial Day, I wanted to take a little day trip somewhere. Friends Dave and Gina Halme recommended Greenville, SC as a nice town to spend a day in looking at shops and grabbing something to eat. Sounded good to me so off we went!

The first place we stopped was Reedy River Falls Park. What an awesome park! It is has some nice walking paths, beautiful landscaping, and the focal point of course the waterfall. We had a good time walking around, climbing on the rocks (strictly forbidden), and splashing a bit in the water.

As we left the park and continued into the downtown area we noticed some barricades up around the streets. Turns out the USA Pro Cycling Road Race Championships were being held. The first event we saw was the Rehabilitation Hospital Handcycling Championship. Those guys were working hard!

We had only been in Greenville about an hour at this point, but it was so hot, in the 90s, that we decided to find a place that we could at least get some water and get out of the heat. We found a little yogurt place called Blueberry Frog. It was pretty healthy, no sugar added, and the toppings were wonderful fresh berries, nuts, and other great items. So we sat, chatted, and ate some great yogurt while we cooled off.

Next we walked around downtown just looking at the different shops and seeing what there was to see. A lot of the places were closed because of the holiday and it was sort of difficult to navigate around with all of the streets blocked off.

We were looking for a place for lunch, and we looked, and looked, and looked, and looked some more, and ended up at a place that was only serving appetizers and salads, so we looked some more, and finally settled on a place called Nose Dive. And am I glad we did! They had some great food. Their menu items had a quirky spin to them with special touches which is the kind of place I love. For example Gina got a burger made from pastrami - delicious! For dessert Mike and I had to try their bacon brownie with Bourbon ice cream. It was pretty darn good!

At that point we were stuffed at it was getting close to 4pm so we decided to hit the road. On our walk back we got to witness the end of the Championship race which was kind of exciting.

Walking back to the car we went back towards the park. Instead of going through the park we went over the park on a beautiful bridge. What a great view! The people living in Greenville have themselves a cool town. I really enjoyed my time in Greenville and am looking forward to returning soon.

I've Never Been to Speed Street

Every year when the Coca Cola 600 comes to Charlotte, the city puts on an event called Speed Street. For all my Northern friends - this involves NASCAR, the grocery store Food Lion, and country music. For all my Southern friends - you call this fun. I have heard many people at work talk about how great Speed Street is so I decided to give it a shot.

Let me preface this with the statement, I hate NASCAR. I don't get it. At all. Period. If you want to stand out in the hot sun with thousands of other people, ruining your ear drums, watching cars go round and round that end up in the same spot where they started - go for it. It's just not my thing. But I don't want to knock something too much until I've tried it, but "ya'll" might be waiting a long time to read that blog post!

Speed Street seemed like a safe way to dip my toes in the water of NASCAR. It's just basically a street festival with a racing theme. So after the Blevins crew (that's Mark, Anna, Madeline, and Audrey) picked up our glass fusing crafts and ate some dinner we were off! Our friends Sarah and Jesse let us park at their townhouse, which was within walking distance of the festival.

The first stop was the Kid Zone. There was a jumpy house and a few little games sponsored by Chex Mix and Hamburger Helper, but really nothing too exciting. It was just about sunset and a lot of the stands were shutting down. So we continued on to the main part of the festival, but again the majority of the booths were shutting down. Madeline did manage to con her parents into buying some flashy red ears which were quite awesome.

We went past the food stands and really didn't see much of anything else. The big stage was all lit up with some country music act, but it was still to early for a major party to be going on. All in all I think we were there maybe an hour. I don't think I will be heading back any time soon. I would rather have a county fair or a Woollybear Festival any day (for all my Ohio friends)!

The best part of the night was the walk back to Sara and Jesse's to pick up our car. The night was cooling down and we had the best time. Madeline was up on Mark's shoulders and she and Mike were having a tickle war. The sounds of her and the guys running around and having a great time just made me smile. It just goes to show no matter how many new things I try, all I need are good friends to have the time of my life.

I've Never Fused Glass

In my quest to do new things, the website Groupon has been a good place to find inspiration. For anyone who doesn't know what it is, they offer discounts on various products and services in different metropolitan areas. I ran across one a while back for a glass fusing class and thought it sounded cool and it was also an affordable 12 bucks, so I bought one for myself and my friend Anna.

On May 10th we decided to head on out to the class. You had the option of a wind chime, a wine stopper, 3 pendants, or earrings and a pendant. Anna chose the first option and I the last. The instructor went through the basics of glass fusing first. Basically when the glass is heated it all wants to mold into a flat plane with 3 layers being the thickest areas and one layer the thinnest. She set us up with our various size base pieces depending on our project and then it was up to us to add the details with the top two layers.

I immediately had an idea for a turquoise watery type look, but when I started to put it together the instructor said that it may not turn out how I was expecting. That was definitely the hardest part of the class - not knowing what you were going to get until you came to pick it up 10 days later. By this time my patience was long gone, so I just put random colorful dots on a clear piece and hoped for the best.

Anna had a beautiful idea for her wind chime with the top part being very geometric with blocks of different colors, and the chimes a clear background with different colored flowers. The other ladies were very impressed with Anna's creativity (as I always have been as well). There was a mother and her three grown daughters who were hilarious. The one daughter "bless her heart" had no creativity what so ever and was still trying to decide on what to do by the time Anna and I left. It didn't help that her mom and sisters were hating on the different ideas she had.

The idea of the class was sort of relaxing. In fact, Anna and I didn't realize until after we ate dinner next door at BT Burgers that we didn't take a single picture of the experience. So we took some random photos of the place, but not of us actually creating.

Overall, I don't love my designs. I just didn't have the patience for messing with rice size pieces of glass for my earrings. I may not wear them, but it was fun, and I got to spend some quality time with a good friend. And that is worth 12 bucks any day!

I've Never Been Camping in the Rain

On our Blue Ridge Parkway adventure our group decided that we would camp for our lodging. The last time I checked the weather on Saturday the weather looked gorgeous - highs in the low 80s and clear skies for most of the trip. The only sign of rain would be our last night camping and on the ride home, but only a 50% chance.

Well apparently lots changed between Saturday and Monday night. Our second night of camping as we had just finished cooking dinner we could hear thunder in the distance. I checked my phone weather ap and sure enough rain was headed our way. The skies opened up and we scrambled to throw things in the car and tents and get things covered up. We all piled in Mark and Anna's tent which is fairly large. The girls, Madeline and Audrey, were scared at first because the thunder was quite loud and the lightening quite close. But they were distracted with games and tickling and soon all was fine.

The rain stopped and we sat around the remnants of the fire to talk about our plan of action. The driving of the Parkway was more tedious than we had thought and with 80% chance of rain the next night we decided to cut our trip short by one night. I guess even the most seasoned campers don't like to camp in the rain.

The view from our campsite in the morning.

Our dreary campsite in the morning.

Enjoying leftover pizza in the morning.

As sad as I was to not be up for the challenge of camping in the rain for a second night, I was relieved to be able to go home. I was having a great time, but I had a feeling if that we continued on for another day the fun factor would have dropped dramatically. Also, those storms that we avoided turned out to produce flash flood warnings and then a day later several counties had tornado watches. So I have learned that I am definitely a fair weather camper. The rain just made me miserable. So another experience down, but not one that I want to repeat!