I met with one of my best friends over the weekend to hang out and catch up. We like to do coffee dates every so often to talk about what's going on in our lives and what we have planned for the future. Lots of exciting things happening for my friend and for me, so it's always fun to catch up.
Even with exciting things happening, life is composed of the good and the bad. My sweet friend wanted to help cheer me up since the passing of Roosty last week, so she came bearing a huge bouquet of mums in the cheeriest yellow color I have ever seen.
I've always loved cutting and arranging flowers and find it to be very therapeutic, but something about arranging these lovely flowers was extra special.
You know there's gotta be a cat in the mix somewhere.
I thought this was just the kindest and sweetest gesture and it meant so much to me. She is always inspiring me to be a better friend and an even better person. And the yellow color did definitely cheer me up. The cats seemed to like it as well - the flowers were on the table for a whole 15 minutes before they had to be moved to a safer location!
Now they are placed in different rooms throughout the house so I can get a burst of sunshine wherever I go and think of my dear friend and her thoughtfulness. The world is made so much better with good friends!
There's nothing I love more than being on the homestead, but every once in a while I find it is good to get away for a bit. I like to have new experiences whenever I can, and I always end up appreciating what I have even more when I return home. This past week I had one of the most fun trips of my life with two of my best girlfriends, Heather and Angela. We decided early this year to take a road trip together and agreed our initial destination would be New Orleans! Our first stop there was Café Du Monde for the world famous beignets (fried squares of dough dusted in powdered sugar) and café au laits. We decided to go through the take out line and eat our beignets behind the restaurant in a cute little area with the most beautiful doors.
From there we spent the rest of the day exploring the city. We took a little ride on the trolley, just because, and kind of got out of the way a bit so we ended up walking the rest of the day.
We saw the farmers market, flea market, Jackson Square, and visited the St. Louis Cathedral.
St. Louis Cathedral
The cathedral is absolutely gorgeous with old wooden pews, stained glass windows, and murals all over the ceiling and walls. Plus it was air-conditioned, so it gave us a nice break to sit and cool off a bit after walking around in the humid heat all morning long.
After Jackson Square, we headed over to Bourbon Street. We really wanted to see it, but the nightlife scene isn't our thing, so we made sure to go during the day (apparently it can get kind of dangerous at night as well). On the way down to Bourbon, we heard some awesome live music, so we stopped and watched the street performers for a bit. They were amazing! I even took a quick video so you could get the authentic New Orleans experience.
I made sure to give them a few dollars before passing by. I love music and try to support the arts whenever I can.
Just a short walk past the performers, we reached Bourbon Street. It was neat to see all the different shops and signs, but we didn't end up spending too much time down there. We are glad we went to see it, but agreed it wasn't our favorite part of the trip (the smell didn't help much!).
One of my favorite parts of the trip was visiting the Garden District in New Orleans. The houses in this area are some of the most beautiful and grandiose I've ever seen. Heather was driving, so I enjoyed just looking out the window as we drove past all the estates.
I loved the marble staircase and dark entry doors.
After a quick bite to eat in the Garden District, we headed back downtown because we had a steamboat cruise planned for the evening. It was actually a crazy night, because just as we arrived at the dock, we saw a steamboat taking off into the Mississippi and thought we missed our cruise! We figured we could at least ride the ferry to get the river experience, so we rode that a couple times. After exiting the ferry, Heather saw another steamboat getting ready to take off at a different location on the dock and come to find out, that was the boat we were supposed to board! The gates were closed, but we made it just in time to get on board before the boat took off. Phew! It was such a lovely cruise and when the sun went down all the buildings looked so pretty all lit up.
After the cruise it was getting late and we were exhausted, so we called it a night and headed back to the hotel. The next morning we were heading to Gulf Shores, AL to spend a day at the beach, but things didn't go as planned and we didn't make it there until just before dark. We did stop at Gulfport, MS on the way there and checked out their beach after some shopping at the awesome outlet mall. We weren't too impressed with the beach there, but we did see some of the cutest gulls. I tried to get close to them to get their photo but they kept flying away from me! I did manage to get this shot which I think turned out really cute.
The next morning we headed home, and stopped in Memphis for an early dinner on Beale Street at Miss Polly's Soul City Cafe. This was actually my favorite meal of the whole trip because it reminded me so much of my grandma's "soul food" cooking that I grew up with. It was so delicious!
I've always wanted to see the ducks at the Peabody Hotel, so before leaving the city we checked them out and I was in love! I didn't get to see them take their parade through the hotel to the elevators back up to their rooftop home, but maybe I'll get to see it someday.
We really packed a lot into our four day road trip and I have so many happy and funny memories that I will cherish forever. I kept joking that we'll have so many stories from this trip to tell our kids someday. The kind of stories we will tell them over and over again and they'll know them by heart and get sick of us telling them, haha.
For me, the best part of coming home is seeing all the animals. Gizmo seems to have grown so much in just a few days while I was gone! As much as I enjoyed returning home, I think David was even more thrilled to see me. He had to tend the homestead all by himself while I was gone, and this week was a crazy busy week of band camp for him, so he had his hands full. Maintaining the garden and tending to all the animals while working full-time is definitely hard for just one person. But he did a great job and the garden totally exploded while I was gone.
It was a fun trip, but it is good to be home :)
~Tammy
PS - I'm still playing catch up, but I look forward to checking in with all my blogging friends soon!
Over the weekend we traveled to Montgomery, Alabama for the wedding of one of our best and oldest friends. David was in the wedding, so we drove all day Friday to get there in time for the rehearsal at 5:00 Friday evening. Even though we forgot our suitcase and had to backtrack, we somehow made it to Alabama with a little time to spare.
The rehearsal dinner was delicious and a lot of fun. The table settings had a nice southern touch with the mason jars. And, of course, there was sweet tea!
After dinner, I was excited to see a cute dog roaming around the back yard!
Being the animal lover that I am, I was excited to see Fred the dog. Then I saw a cat running around and got to get some play time in with him as well. He was so cute and looked like a cross between our cats, Jasper and Fitz.
On the wedding day, Fred dressed for the occasion with a bow tie.
The wedding was in the evening, and everything somehow became even more beautiful when the sun went down.
After the wedding, some people had the crazy idea to jump into the pool, fully clothed. I almost wanted to jump in, too! The ambiance was perfect.
Towards the end of the night the boys got silly. Who knows what they were pointing at!
It was nice to get away and have a change of scenery for the weekend. We had such a blast. Everyone was so gracious and we felt really welcome. I was loving the Southern hospitality!
Saturday morning started early - met Heather at 6:45 to pick cherries in Fruitland. The cherries are small, about the size of marbles, with such a sweet taste. I pitted them all and put them in the freezer until I figure out what to do with them. Nothing was wasted - I collected about 1/2 cup of cherry juice in the pitting process! Will probably end up freezing the juice as well until I find a good drink recipe that calls for fresh cherry juice.
Next up, I met my family for some berry picking at Blue Berry Hill Farm in Cobden, IL. We picked strawberries first and I got almost enough to fill a flat! Then we went up the hill to pick blackberries. Next weekend we plan to pick blueberries if they are ready!
We've been gorging on the strawberries and blackberries the past few days. Nothing better than hand-picked fresh berries!
On Monday David turned 29! We both took off work so we could go to St. Louis for the day and spend some time together. You only turn 29 once, after all.
First up was his "surprise." I wanted to plan something that would be a surprise to him to create some birthday excitement, but he totally called it.
Yeah, we totally geeked out. David has been a life-long Star Trek fan so I knew this would be fun for him. I'm not as much of a fan as he is, but having been forced to sit through many episodes, I have developed an appreciation. :)
Of course no cameras are allowed inside the exhibit, so we had to pay out the wazoo for these shots taken while walking through. They are good souvenirs, though, so it was worth it.
Before entering the exhibit, we were offered a ride in the space shuttle simulation. David said sure, and the next thing I know I'm being strapped in and told that it goes upside down and there's a giant red button on the inside that I can push if it's too much. Oh boy. It was David's birthday, so if he wanted to go upside down we were going upside down. It didn't end up being quite as bad as I thought, but I still got a little queasy! Birthday spontaneity at its finest.
We also explored the rest of the Science Center and saw some really cool stuff in the gift shop. This section was calling my name.
This next one was the best by far.
"Overflowing with information about pee, poo, and farts!" Amazingness.
After the science center we went to Chesterfield mall for some retail therapy. David had saved up his fun money for a while and wanted to buy some new clothes. He bought me some stuff too so I was happy. :) Then he dropped me off at the salon I used to go to in Chesterfield when we lived up here after college. It had been over a year and a half since my last hair cut and I was in dire need. My stylist up here was the only one who could ever cut my hair the way I liked it, so I wanted to go back to her. It turned out great!
If you know David, you know we had to hit up the casino on the way home. His new favorite is River City Casino. I lost $5 on the penny slots on a machine called "Milkin' It" with cows, chickens, and barns. It was perfect! David had a roller coaster of a ride with the Roulette wheel, but in the end came out $60 ahead!
Nicest bathroom ever.
Our good friends, Jamie and Holly, invited us to go to the Cards game with them on Wednesday night, so we said that was an extension of the birthday extravaganza. :)
We had great seats!
I am a huge fan of birthdays. My philosophy is that your birthday is your one day of the year that you can do whatever you want and everyone has to go along with it. It's the one day that can be shamelessly all about you. What could be better? :)
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, watch this first (and if you still have no idea what I'm talking about, I have no idea why we are friends. Only kidding, of course...).
You know, we work hard out here at the farm (or pretend to anyway, most of it is just fun for us). But David does work hard at school, and I work semi-hard at work, so inspired by Parks and Rec we decided to take a day to treat ourselves. This year, we went up to STL for a day trip. Our hard-working friends, Jamie and Holly, joined us and a new tradition has begun.
First stop, Starbucks!!!
Pumpkin spice latte for David, soy latte for me
Jamie and Holly didn't have breakfast before we picked them up, so their first treat of the day was McDonald's breakfast!
Our first stop in STL was the West County mall (didn't get any pictures of that, we were too busy shopping at H&M and Francesca's!). After working up an appetite, we really treated ourselves...
SUSHI!!!
California roll in the middle, philly tempura roll on each side.
Jamie convinced David to drink some warm sake with him.
After we finished the sushi, they brought out this for us!
Of course no trip to STL is complete without our final stop. At least, that's the case if David and Jamie are in tow.
David's game is roulette (go 36!) and Jamie likes blackjack. Holly and I kill time with $20 on the penny slots :) Our favorite slot machine was called "Kitty Glitter." It was fabulous.
I think it's illegal to take pictures in the casino...don't turn me in!
We had a blast and are already throwing out ideas for Treat Yo Self 2012. Can't wait!!!
