Catching Up: Trip to the Homeland, North Carolina

In October (I know, I'm painfully behind), we took a trip to North Carolina to visit our good friends Tim and Heather, who live near Raleigh.  We met Tim in Tokyo and he provided evening after evening of good company, good food, and excellent entertainment.  He and Jonathan quickly became soul mates (Jonathan doesn't have many of these types of friends) and so our friendship was cemented for life.  The next year Tim married Heather! Hooray, couples friends...even harder to come by.  I love Heather.  She's thoughtful, warm, and makes me feel like it's ok to be me.

I regret that I was in a foul mood for most of our visit.  I was still adjusting to Jonathan being back in school.  Sawyer was still adjusting to a sleep schedule.  And I felt CRANKY.  When I feel overtired and overworked nothing irritates me more than seeing Jonathan fresh and happy.  I'm so bad.  Jon was so happy to see his friend, so eager to spend time with him that I thought I was going to explode with evil feelings.  Luckily, I didn't have any true melt-downs, but we did end up bickering A LOT, and in front of our friends.  Oops.  I regret it now, although at the time I wasn't in the mental/emotional position to make good decisions, and Jonathan isn't one to avoid a fight, especially with me.  In other words, I don't think that we were the most enjoyable guests.  However, our hosts were more than generous.  They showed us an outstanding time.  Took us to eat amazing food.  Let us relax in their luxurious new home.  And overall were excellent friends.  Jonathan and I plan to make it up to them, eventually.

So what did we do?:

1.  We went to the NC State Fair and ate and ate and ate.  My favorite fair food, besides funnel cakes, are giant, smoked turkey legs.  We also traveled, screaming baby in-tow, to the BBQ festival a couple of hours away.  Tasty.  Tasty.  Notice that Sawyer isn't in the pictures.  He was at home with a babysitter.  Heather and Tim helped us open our mind to life beyond Sawyer.  It was nice.  Since then, we leave him with babysitters often.

2.  We saw my old house!   My dad literally picked up this house, put it on two tractor trailers and transplanted it onto its current location.  I loved this house.  I knocked on the door to ask for a tour, but sadly, no one was home.  My room was upstairs where those two window are.  I don't think my parents ever knew this, but I often climbed out of the windows and sat on the roof.  I was cool.

3.  We went out to dinner at a Dos Taquitos (delicious Mexican food) and Elizabeth, my best friend from elementary school, dropped by to say hello.

Happy Couple!

ELIZABETH!!! So pretty.

4.  Thanks to Tim and Heather, we were able to eat lunch with my Grandma, her boyfriend, my Uncle Pete, and his girl friend Genie.  They all fawned over Sawyer.  The food was outstanding.  We were afraid at first since the restaurant looked like a run-down house.  And even though the inside appeared to be decorated for an 80's wedding reception, the southern home-cookin' was exceptional.  I was a little nervous for Jonathan, but he was charmed instantly by my Grandma's southern accent and her kiss on the cheek.  Tim rolled out the "yes, ma'am" when he chatted with my grandma.  He knows how to work the southern ladies (as evidenced my his face in the middle photo below).

5.  The culinary high note of our trip was Beasley's Chicken and Honey.   The menu is short and sweet: southern fried chicken made upscale and urban.  It was simple and delicious.  I still think about it.  The juicy, savory, crispy chicken.  The creamy buttermilk biscuits.  The tangy tomatoes.  Ahh...  I made fried chicken a few evenings ago in memory of the meal we ate there, but, of course, although it was tasty, it was a disappointment in comparison.

This is what I had: Chicken and Biscuit. 

Sawyer lost it.  

All in all it was a lovely trip.  We were happy to see our friends.  We hope to see them again soon!