A New City To Love

I'm sure I had a blast at all my kid-aged birthday parties, but as far as what I can remember as an adult--this birthday takes the cake. The birthday cake. I still need to upload pictures of all our fun, Miles surprised me with tickets to White Christmas on Thursday, threw a little surprise party/bonfire for me on Friday, and whisked me away to St. Louis for the weekend!

Can I confess that I fell in love with St. Louis during the 24 hours that we were there? I've already found dreamy old homes that we can buy (as in, actually afford) and searched for jobs in the area. I do recognize that I get like this after I visit certain places, ahem, Chicago...and I have a whole list of reasons why its different this time. Not that we're packing up any time soon, but I do love dreaming. 

image via

Gentlemen

For Boo's birthday, I bought us tickets to the Bristol Stopover for Gentlemen of the Road. The gift that keeps giving, amiright? So this was our Saturday (and I only got a little sunburnt):

better than expected hotel sleeps/the sign I had to stop Cody from snatching / state line / festivities / loves / lunch / stud / flags / homemade peach ice cream to die for / perfect weather / bucket list moment--Dawes & Marcus Mumford together / not even half the crowd / dreamy / Stars hide your fires / leaving / loving / Bristol

We fell in love with Bristol--it was the most picturesque little town I've ever been to. Miles was a little too entertained by straddling the state line all the way down the street. Everyone was so nice, the weather was amazing, I wish we had gotten to Bristol earlier, or stayed another day. As for the concert part, we honestly went for Dawes, but loved Mumford, too. I remembered that I was more of a show person than a concert/festival person, but I still had so much fun--apart from a little scuffle with a drunk guy. That was weird, and uncomfortable, and I'd love to forget about it. Alls ya need to know is that Miles was sticking up for a poor 15 year old girl who couldn't shake this dude. And he didn't really like it when Miles stepped in between them. No one was hurt, just some shoving, some (me) almost getting kicked in the face, drunk guy getting hauled off, and Miles holding me tight the rest of the night.   I mean, some people..!

But overall, Gentlemen of the Road was so much fun. And we got a little do-over in Nashville the next night when Dawes played at Cannery and we got on the guest list! Gah, I love Dawes. We love Dawes (which is a big deal--we never agree on music). If you ever get a chance to see them, you must go, they will not disappoint. And their some of the nicest guys we've ever randomly met. Which makes everything better, obviously. Niceness is just so nice. 

Mountainous Anniversary

For our anniversary, we decided to hole up in a cabin in the mountains, eat, drink, catch up on tv shows, read, and talk a whole lot. And thats exactly what we did. And for the most part, it was wonderful. But I learned that I am just not a mountain vacation kind of gal. At least not in the summer when there are thousands of bugs everywhere and its way too hot outside to sit on the deck and enjoy the view. I think it would be ah-mazing to be in the mountains in the Fall. Something about being in a cabin and being able to use the fireplace, and fire pit, and sit outside in the cool, crisp air...that sounds way more appealing that when we were there. I need to plan more season-appropriate vacations. Beaches for Summer, mountains for Fall. Check.

Also, I really enjoy the whole...being waited on at resorts/hotels and not having to clean up after yourself. How lazy am I? To me, it just feels like less of a vacation when you're washing dishes every night. I'm so posh, y'all. All that to say, Miles loved it, so I'm 100% content with our vacay since he really was able to relax and leave work behind.

We woke up late every morning, Miles made pancakes (since we're waffle people at home, we started out with a few burnt crispies, but by the end of the week, he was a pro. The MOST delicious pancakes I've ever eaten). Then we read. All day. I didn't even bring my makeup, and I wore the same thing everyday. We took naps if we wanted, read some more, started making dinner at sunset, ate together, then watched True Blood and drank all our wine. For four days. That part was wonderful.

Aaaand photo overload:

We're so thankful Miles' mom let us borrow her suv, there was no way we could've 1) fit our Ikea spoils into my car (and Boo's truck is the worst to travel in) 2) made it up the mountain in my car. Really.

And for our next anniversary celebration--it will not be near our anniversary. Getting married July 2nd was kind of the earliest date we could make work, but it makes for busy, expensive vacations right around the 4th when everyone is going...everywhere. Humph.

Hotlanta Before The Mountains

I finally got my new USB cord for my camera and uploaded 700 photos from the past month and a half. Here are some photos from our afternoon in Atlanta before we went to the mountains for our anniversary getaway. We mainly went there to go to Ikea, and boy did we go to Ikea... (? better joke in my head)

And we didn't even buy everything on our shopping list. We didn't have enough room in our car.

Part of me (most of me) longs for an Ikea in Nashville. But dang, that would be really dangerous for our bank account.

After spending way too much money at Ikea, we ate at The Vortex. I got so many good recommendations on where to eat, but when Boo sees "Atlanta's best burger" as an option, theres no turning back.

I couldn't get a good picture of the food since it was so dark in there, I had shaky, hungry hands, and Miles wouldn't allow me to turn my flash on and "draw everyone's attention". But it was deeelicious! My favorite part was the fried plantains as my side. It was like...dessert...as my side.

And then we went to Trader Joe's and filled our cart with an equal parts food for the week:wine, wine & wine. I still can't understand why Tennessee is so lame, with its wine-less grocery stores. 

Next up: the mountains! Oh...mountain vacation...oh, you...

Blue Ridge

image via wikipedia

And we're off to the Blue Ridge mountains for our anniversary trip. We plan to read, cook meals together, sleep in, watch all of Breaking Bad season 4, read, read and read. Five days of lounging around in our little cabin, leaving the rest of the world behind, is exactly what we need.

Aquarium Times

aka, the fish post. I was so surprised at how much I loved the aquarium. We took our sweet time walking through both the river and the ocean exhibit, oohing and aching at every little thing. My favorite parts had to be the penguins and the jellies. 

this little guy was so cheeky, Miles and I watched him and chuckled to ourselves for a good while. He never moved. Even when a goofball of a penguin tried to bump him into the water. He's the Mr. Carson of penguins. (DOWNTON!)

Last, and most terrifying, was this giant beast of a fish in the river exhibit:

STUFF OF NIGHTMARES. I am 100% sure I would die of fright if one of these ever swam next to me. I could hardly stand to look at it, but Miles made me face my fears and take a million pictures of it.

And thus concludes all the pictures I will make you look at from our Chattanooga weekend. We had so much fun and hope to plan another trip back sometime in the future. Possibly to see the River Monster exhibit? If my nerves can hold up.