April Showers bring May Flowers….and Wine Weekends!

There is nothing quite as sweet as enjoying amazing wine with amazing friends! In April, after visiting Blacksburg for the memorials, I hit the road with two great friends to enjoy the North Carolina vines and hospitality, on our third annual girls wine weekend. Hitting the third is a big deal, and I feel like we are official now! In 2007, we embarked on our first trip to the Yadkin Valley in North Carolina, one of America’s fastest growing wine industries. It was a great way to get my mind off of James being in OCS, and me being in Blacksburg by myself. Then in 2008, we spent an awesome weekend in the heart of Virginia, living up Thomas Jefferson’s alcoholic dreams in the Charlottesville area. Without TJ, where would this country be? And because we had only been able to visit a handful of wineries in 2007, we decided to go back to the Yadkin valley in 2009. After all, it’s going to take us quite some time to visit all of the wineries in North Carolina. Map of NC Wineries I think we have about 76 more to go, but we’ve already visited 11 or 12! I like going to wineries, because each one is very unique and has its own story. We like to mainly visit the smaller, family run wineries, as their wines tend to be very interesting, the people tend to be friendly, and you learn so much. The larger wineries are fun because they are always really nice, but in terms of what you get for what you pay, you are paying for the expensive environment, not the wine or the friendliness of the staff. And I feel like I never learn anything at the big expensive wineries. I’m going to start with my absolute favorite winery of the trip…Hutton Winery. It was actually the second winery we visited, but we had to take a break afterwards, since Heidi, the owner, was a VERY generous pourer! It is a brand new winery, and she was so excited that we were there. If you are anywhere near this little place, please go and visit it! They are so sweet, and we really want them to stay open! Usually at a tasting, you get a small sip of wine, but with Heidi, we had half a glass of wine for each tasting. You can imagine what that did to us, and resulted in us playing on a tractor for a while until we were ready to get some lunch. Stony Knoll was also a cute family winery, but we didn’t spend much time there, as they were planning for a 50th anniversary party later that night. Flint Hill was adorable, and I wish we had been able to spend more time there. It was in a beautifully restored Farm House, and had a restaurant that looked fabulous. Unfortunately, we had just eaten lunch when we got there, but the food looked amazing. It was also family run, and we spent some time enjoying the rocking chairs on the front porch. And RagApple Lassie… where do I even begin? We visited Rag Apple Lassie on our first wine trip, and we loved it enough that we had to make a second trip to it. They have the most uniquely shaped wine bottles, and great wines. Their theme is cows, so everything has a cow printed on it, and we are always reminded that southern girls wear pearls. We tried to make a fifth winery that Saturday, but we got there right as it was closing. Wineries tend to close pretty early, somewhere between 5 to 6. But we weren’t too discouraged, as we found an awesome BBQ place, which I had been craving since moving to the west coast! I love pulled pork BBQ, especially Carolina BBQ. I still say that the best BBQ I’ve ever had was in Chapel Hill my junior year. Those were the best sweet potato fries I had ever had! After an awesome pulled pork dinner, we went back to the hotel an enjoyed some homemade wine from Stanburn Vineyards. It never fails that no matter how much awesome wine we’ve tasted that day, the wine made by Tab’s husband and father-in-law always surpasses the best that we tried. And Tab should be getting paid for the awesome mixes she makes with the wine! Fabulous! The next day, we toured Mt. Airy, NC, the birthplace of Tabatha, and the home of Andy Griffith. It’s a beautiful little community, with an old fashioned downtown, complete with the Old North State Winery and Opie’s Candy Shop. Opie is James’ Tuba nickname, so it was a must stop for us! And the Old North State Winery was actually one of my favorite stops, as it was in a restored main street building, which the pourer told us is haunted. I always love hearing people’s first hand accounts of a building being haunted. North Carolina grows a great deal of Muscadine grapes, the grapes used by Welch’s for their white grape juice. It’s very sweet, and the Old North State Winery had a very good Muscadine wine that would be perfect for a warm summer day picnic. If I hadn’t been flying, I would have bought a whole case of it. Darn those checked baggage fees! Our wine racks at home were getting pretty low, too, and I usually use these wine trips to restock. It was getting late, and I had to catch a flight, but we were still able to fit one more winery in on the way to the airport. Childress was our glamorous winery of the trip. They are always fun to visit, and great for first time winery visitors. The vineyards were beautiful, and the winery lavish, but we didn’t get to try very many wines, but had to pay a lot to taste the wines we were offered. If I had known that I was going to miss my connection in Chicago, I would have stayed longer in North Carolina, but off to the airport we went. My flight was delayed leaving, causing me to miss my flight by about five minutes in Chicago. I ran all the way there, only to find out that it was the last flight to San Diego, and they couldn’t get me out until the next day. It was my first experience sleeping in an airport, but thankfully Chicago had a huge USO, and I was given a cot to sleep on. I still didn’t get much sleep, since I was in front of a large screen tv, and I felt like everyone was watching me, even if they weren’t. I am definitely looking forward to our fourth annual wine trip, place to be determined, year 2010!

April 16th, 2009 - we still remember

It’s been almost two and a half years since the shootings, yet it still feels like yesterday that our lives were changed forever. Being so far away from anyone who understood about everything we’d gone through, I needed to be back in Blacksburg for the anniversary this year. It was such a refreshing trip, and exactly what I needed since James had just left, and I was about to be alone for a very long time. It’s hard being so far away from a place that is so important to you, especially a place as special as Blacksburg. Though we may not be there often, Blacksburg is definitely where our hearts are! I was so very thankful that Tab and David picked me up at midnight in North Carolina, and drove the two hours back to Blacksburg! We stayed at their friends football condo, and after four hours of sleep, woke up to run 3.2 miles for our beloved 32, especially for Stack. It’s funny how every time I’m in Blacksburg, I feel like I never left. Sure, there are always some new buildings, and I have an apartment 3,000 miles away, but I always run into people I know, and I just feel an overwhelming sense of well being. I ran into so many people that morning, and did the run with my co-workers. We were in the very back of the race, due to our lack of sleep, and we ended up walking most of the way. We started lined up by Squires, then went under Torg bridge, past the chapel, past Burruss and the memorial, and half way around the drill field. Then we looped up in front of hillcrest and by the duck pond, then back to the drill field, which we looped three times. I definitely miss running in Blacksburg, especially on the Huckleberry. My mind was so clear after a few hours out on the trail, and it was clear again after just a few hours in the Burg. I spent the day visiting friends who are still at Tech, visited professors, and wandered around campus taking pictures and enjoying the peace. I didn’t really plan for my trip to Blacksburg. I just kind of bought a plane ticket and flew there. I didn’t even have a place to stay or anything, but I wasn’t worried. Things in Blacksburg just seem to work out, and I ended up staying with Jen for the night. Before I crashed at Jens, I reunited with two of my favorite people, Laura and Stacey, and had dinner at Sharkey’s, a place we visited often in undergrad. It was just a great reminder of our time in college, sharing stories and memories of trips, football games, and of course, Sharkey’s. I think my favorite story is always the one when we missed the West Virginia game because we had to go on a band tour in Northern Virginia. Amazing memories and amazing friends! After dinner, Jen and I went to the vigil. It was weird this year, and as we sat there, it just felt really different than it did last year. This year, half of the students weren’t even here when everything happened, and you could just tell that as time moves on, so does how we feel about it. It was great having Jen there with me to help with the range of emotions I felt. I can’t quite describe what Blacksburg does to me, but it moves me on the inside. It did before the shootings, and now, even more so. We still remember...and we still believe. The countdown to Blacksburg has begun…only 27 more days!

The Bottom of the World

And finally on his way back home to me! :)

March - the first month!

Only one more month until James is home! I can’t believe that we have gotten through the last five months….and are less than 30 days away from seeing each other. For those of you who are on Facebook, you know that James has had some incredible experiences in south America so far, including white water rafting in Brazil, food poisoning in Brazil, and watching an Orca eat a seal. I can’t imagine how cool that must have been! And he has promised to bring me home lots of wine from Chile, so I am definitely looking forward to that. I think the months have gone by so quickly because I had the opportunity to visit James four times. I figured I might as well take advantage of him being on American soil! In March, I flew down to see James while he was still living in his two bedroom apartment that was twice as big as our apartment here! That first trip to Mississippi really made me realize that I’m a southern girl. While I absolutely love southern California, it is not the south, and I want to be a southern belle, not a bikini blonde in SoCal. (Where I come from….it’s corn bread and chicken!) But, I’m definitely enjoying Cali! I mean, what’s not to love about a beautiful place, perfect weather, and more things to do than I have time for! Now If only I had a husband to enjoy it with! James’ apartment in Mississippi was really adorable. When I got there, he was staying in a hotel still, and I was there for less than 5 minutes when we packed to check out. I’m positive that it was full of mold, since I couldn’t breathe the moment we walked in! And it’s my second time making James check out of a hotel I wouldn’t stay in, so I think he’s getting used to it. I realized I’m actually pretty picky about where I sleep…if I can’t breathe, I can’t stay! And the apartment was so much better, although hard for James because he didn’t have a car. Thankfully, there were lots of guys from the ship who lived there, and he could catch rides to work until he moved onto the ship. At first I was devastated about the apartment, because it made it seem like we were really living away from each other. And either way we were, but while he was living in the hotel it seemed less permanent. But an apartment? That was pretty permanent. But when I showed up and saw where he had been staying for a week, I knew the apartment was a must! Even though James had only been gone for a week at this point, it seemed like forever since we had seen each other, and it was such a refreshing weekend. I am seriously not good at this whole being alone Navy wife type of life. James and I do love to experience places and travel, and we have enjoyed so many places we otherwise might not have ever visited, like Rhode Island and Mississippi, so I am thankful for that. And who knew that Mississippi has beautiful beaches? It was quite eye opening to me, and made me realize how judgmental I can be. I guess I just didn’t associate southern Mississippi with resort casinos and miles of beautiful gulf coast beaches. It is sad to see the amount of devastation that Hurricane Katrina caused almost four years ago. Four years have passed, and there are still buildings shattered, hundreds of empty foundations, closed restaurants and businesses, and empty fishing boats washed up on the shore. It’s eerie and makes me sad that so many people’s lives changed so abruptly. It reminded me about the importance of giving to those who have lost all that they have, for the Lord has blessed us so that we may give to others. I am desperately wanting to find an opportunity for another relief trip, as an entire year has gone by since I have done anything. Working makes it so difficult, but it is not an excuse to not volunteer and help others. I just need to find an opportunity out here. Despite all of the devastation though, life is coming back to the Gulf Coast. A few Casino’s have come back, and thanks to the help of the Smithsonian, the Jefferson Davis Presidential Home, Beauvoir, has been restored. It was severely damaged by the storm, as it sits right on the gulf coast, but they have been able to secure funding to preserve American history. In fact, they had just received restored paintings that same week we were there. I think my favorite part was sitting on the balcony rocking in awesome rocking chairs overlooking the gulf. They had amazing plaques on them reading: “For your rocking pleasure.” I definitely think that James and I are going to be old one day sitting in rocking chairs overlooking the water (or mountains) just enjoying every day. If it weren’t for real life like bills and work, we could be enjoying that right now! The funny thing about the Beauvoir is that we didn’t even know it was there. James and I have become non-planners, which is so unlike us. But since we’ve gotten married, we’ve just kind of enjoyed ourselves and stumbled upon places and opportunities. We were just driving and taking in the scenery when we saw the sign for the Jefferson Davis home, and we thought…why not? We also watched a speed boat race on the beach, drove for miles to find amazing seafood, and made late night Wal*Mart runs for Blue Bell ice cream. All it took was one trip to the gulf, and I was hooked. There was no way I wasn’t coming back to visit! And I did…in June and July!

My adorable little AJ

I haven't posted many pictures of AJ recently, so here are some new ones! :) Right after his haircut that made me think he isn't a full poodle... We're having him DNA tested when James gets back! I can't believe we've had him for almost three years now! Three years and three states...he's been around the block a few times! :)

Scruffy and Salty

Oh the life of a sailor. After a few weeks at sea, and paying for a no shave chit, James and some of his guys paid to not shave for a few weeks. Unfortunately, their no shave chits are up, and it’s back to the blade. I believe they have to shave before they pull into port, at an undisclosed date in the near future. So, here are some pics of James and his guys, scruffy and salty. James is probably the saltiest junior officer thanks to the Tarawa.