A Lovely Summer Day

I interrupt my baby posts to bring you something resembling my old blog content.  We had a nice day today so I thought I'd share.  The weather was in the low 80's in Charlotte and after a leisurely morning involving blueberry pancakes and playing the baby and dog for awhile, we ventured out to check out a place I've been wanting to try for a long time- Pinky's Westside Grill.

That is a VW bug on top of the restaurant :)

We arrived dead in the middle of lunchtime on a Saturday (not that smart) and actually brought Clyde with us too, not knowing if it was dog friendly or not, and figuring if we had to we'd get the food to go and find a park to eat at or something.  They have outdoor seating at Pinky's, and while technically, it's not dog friendly, they allowed us to have Clyde outside the fence next to our table.  We were also seated in less than five minutes, which was impressive.

This was one of the better lunches out Allie has had lately.  She hardly got fussy at all and was able to stay in her car seat the entire time, which rarely happens these days.  Pretty soon we'll probably be able to put her in a high chair, and maybe that will help.

Pinky's is a burger and hot dog joint, with some other stuff on the menu as well (I was actually tempted to get fish tacos), but what makes them extra exciting is that you can get veggie burgers and veggie dogs there, which is pretty much heaven for Greg, since he leans towards vegetarian much of the time.

We started with a small order of fried pickles, which was enormous.  

They were hot, salty, and tangy.

I opted for a cheeseburger, since let's face it, I still haven't lost my cheeseburger cravings since pregnancy.  I pretty much got the standard burger with lettuce, tomato, pickles, mayo and ketchup, except with pimento cheese.  It was delicious :)

 

I also got a side of sweet potato fries, which were good, but we ended up taking at least half home since we were so full from the fried pickles.

Greg had a veggie hot dog with chili and coleslaw and loved it.

We got a kick out the fact that when feeding Clyde bites of stuff, he immediately could tell the difference between the meat of my burger and the veggie dog.  Smart dog.

Allie took a little nap on the way home.

Back at the house, I thought about what to do for the rest of the afternoon and then decided to get out our outdoor blanket and do some playtime with Allie outside in the fresh air.

It was great to be outside for a while, and nice that it wasn't too hot today.  We stayed in the shade and I made sure to lather Allie up with sunscreen.  

The rest of the afternoon and evening was low key.  Allie tried acorn squash for the first time and seemed to like it.  I think it's funny, because she seemed to like that better than sweet potato, which we tried earlier this week.  Apple, prunes, and pears are her favorites so far.

After dinner we did the usual bedtime routine of a bath, jammies, a book, and one last nurse session for the day before Allie drifted off.  She's on her fourth or fifth night sleeping without the sleep suit now and it's going well.  She's been sleeping in a Halo sleep sack on her belly and seems to like it.

The night ended with a batch of chocolate chip cookies I made.  These have oatmeal and nutritional yeast in them, which is supposed to be good for lactating mamas.  I may have just eaten four...

Anyway, it was a great day.  I'm off to bed at a little after 9pm, because that's what mom's with six month old babies that are tired do.  Hope you guys are having a good weekend!

Family Trip to Asheville

For my birthday, mother's day, and our 7th wedding anniversary, Greg wanted to take me to Asheville.  He actually suggested doing this trip a few weeks after Allie was born, and I told him he was insane.  After three months with our little girl, I am finally comfortable enough to consider traveling with her though.

A while ago (I think before I started blogging), we went to Asheville and stayed at the Grove Park Inn, which is a pretty fancy hotel nestled in the outskirts of Asheville overlooking the city and mountains.

I think this was 2008?  Check out my short hair!

The Grove Park Inn a pretty amazing place.  It's also kind of ridiculously expensive to stay there, eat there, or use their spa, hence it being my present for three separate holidays.

Greg splurged on a room with a view, that was also dog friendly (for a fee) so we could bring Clyde, and included breakfast.  He also got me a massage at their fancy spa and watched Allie and Clyde for me so I could have an hour of bliss.

Our journey started around noon last Wednesday, when we hit the road with a full car of baby, dog, and adult luggage.  Yes, we're crazy.  It takes a little over two hours to get to Asheville from Charlotte, and I we did end up stopping at a rest area once we got close to Asheville so I could nurse and change Allie, which worked out well.

On the way I stalked my friend Jen's blog for ideas of where to go, since I know she frequently visits Asheville and raves about amazing food she has while there.  I noticed that French Broad Chocolate Lounge came up on almost every trip she took there, and she said the carrot cake was a slice of heaven.  We immediately bee-lined for the bakery so that I could get my hands on some of that carrot cake :)  First we decided to walk around Asheville a little though.  When we parked, we noticed it was looking kind of ominous and checked a radar app I have on my phone.  It looked like rain was coming, but we ventured out with the stroller and both the baby and dog anyway.  We found a dog store and ducked in, thinking we'd maybe wait out the rain there, but after it did little more than sprinkle, we decided to head back outside.  This was a mistake.  It definitely unloaded, and we were lucky enough to find a closed restaurant with an awning for us to hide under, but were stuck there for about a half hour while we waited out the downpour, which included hail!

Allie somehow slept through the whole thing (thank god), but Clyde was scared and trembling while huddled on our laps.  Finally the storm let up and we ventured back out.  We had an early dinner at a place called Farm Burger.  I had a chicken burger and Greg got the veggie burger and we split some garlic fries.  I also fed Allie again in the rest room, which was a single female one, perfect for private nursing.  Asheville is probably the one place I could nurse in public without a second glance, but I like our privacy ;)

After dinner we went back to the bakery and I got a slice of that heavenly carrot cake, plus a piece of chocolate layer cake, to go to have at the hotel later that evening.

We got checked in, and then decided to just go for drinks at one of the hotel bars since we weren't really hungry after our burgers.  They had a menu of centennial martinis since it's the hotel's 100th anniversary, and each included a souvenir glass.  Greg and I liked this idea and both ordered martinis.

I can't remember what was in this, but it was kind of dessert-like and came with a piece of pistachio biscotti.

Greg's martini was more like a margarita- kind of citrus flavored.

We enjoyed a great view while drinking our fancy martinis.

Allie did pretty well, but woke up a little fussy at one point, so here I was rocking her a little to get her back to sleep.

Both kid and dog did well in the room, which was a relief.  The next morning we went to our included breakfast, which was amazing, and which I forgot to get any pictures of.  They have a two room buffet with juices, pastries, oatmeal, fruit, cold cuts, an omelet station, and a hot area with eggs, sausage, bacon, potatoes, eggs, french toast, pretty much everything you could possibly eat for breakfast.  I had fruit, an omelet, potatoes, grapefruit juice, and coffee and it was delicious.

After breakfast, I made sure Greg and Allie were all set and then headed off to the spa for my massage.  The spa at the Grove Park has a couple pools, both indoor and outdoor and I received a tour of all the facilities, which was I welcome to use that day.  Unfortunately, I really didn't have time to do anything but get the massage since Greg had Allie and Clyde, but the massage was really wonderful.  I chose lavender scented massage oil, a focus on my neck and shoulders, and some relaxing music.  My masseuse was wonderful.

Once we checked out of the hotel, we headed back into Asheville one more time to get some lunch before heading back to Charlotte.  We found a place called Carmel's that was dog friendly and sat outside.  It was a gorgeous day.

I had a spinach salad with grilled chicken and pears that was delish.

Allie slept through lunch.

We took a quick walk around after eating and then decided it would be wise to hit the road before sooner than later to make sure we didn't spend two hours in the car with a screaming baby.

It was a quick, but memorable getaway and it's nice to know that we can do this kind of thing with the baby and the dog with a little team work and planning.  We had a good time!

Things That Happened Easter Weekend

My Easter weekend began with a Friday night run when I got out of work.  I mentioned before that I'm right on track for my 10K next week, even though I've been moving around training days in my training plan to accomodate my schedule.  If anything I'm usually bumping up my mileage to more that I have to run, but just slightly.  I'll do 3.25 miles instead of 3, that sort of thing.  That's what I ran on Friday night.

Even better?  I ran slightly faster than a 10 minute mile on that run. 

One of my fastest so far in this round of training.  I felt great! 

Saturday, I met my friend Sarah in South Park because we had plans to find me a bridesmaid dress for her wedding.  We went to J.Crew.  Sarah has told us that we can select any dress we like in Organic Green Silk Taffeta.  She and I had both honed in on the Selma dress as the first option for me to try.

It looked great great on.  Even the sample size was perfect for me, so I didn't even have to wonder what size to order.  I tried two other ones on, just for kicks, but this one was the clear winner.  Done!

Sarah and I did a little more shopping and grabbed a quick lunch, before I headed home to hang out with Clyde for a bit before going out for the evening.  I went over to Kelly's house for Brad's birthday party. 

Me and the Birthday boy



Kelly had the party catered, and the food was an awesome spread of Southern fare.  I grabbed a plate with a bit of everything, a wing, brisket, potatoes swimming in creamy sauce, cole slaw, salad, a fried green tomato, and some pimento cheese on crackers.

I washed it down with an Allagash White.  Gotta support my New England breweries ;)

The food was great, but I enjoyed the company even more.

My friends crack me up...

Sarah and I, my friend that I went bridesmaid dress shopping with earlier.

As per usual, I called it a night fairly early and was home by about 11pm. 

 I later heard I missed some funny shenanigans late night, but oh well, I was snoozing with my pup at that point!

Which was good, because I had my long run of 5 miles planned for Sunday morning.  The problem with that was, I slept in, did dishes, cleaned, played around with ITunes, and generally did everything I could think of to procrastinate instead of running.

I had a bagel to fuel for my run.

I finally got out there a little before noon for my run.  Immediately I regretted that I didn't start sooner.  I could feel that it was already kind of hot out.  Five miles shouldn't feel that long to me since I'm a marathoner, but it did yesterday.  It was one of those runs where things just didn't feel right.  I felt hot, tight, and it was labored.  I did get the miles in though.  Back at home after the run, I took my shoes off and realized something was wrong with my left ankle.  It hadn't specifically bothered me on the run, but once I stopped running, I could tell it was messed up.  The jury is out on whether I'm going to be able to do my 10K this weekend.  Right now, it's hard to even walk normally.  Ugh....

Greg got home early afternoon on Sunday.  I greeted him with a kiss and an Easter basket.

I also made us a crustless quiche.  It was a beautiful day and we wanted to do something outside, but anything involving weight on my foot was out.  Solution?  Kayaking.  The best part?  We got to see Clyde in his new life preserver.

He was so friggin cute in that life jacket!

The problem with kayaking with Clyde is that he wants to be in which ever boat he's NOT in, and whines the entire time trying to get to the other boat.  We passed him back and forth a lot over the course of our paddling.

Silly dog!

Overall, it was an excellent Easter weekend.  I'll keep you guys posted on my ankle.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do, except rest it a lot this week in hopes that it'll hold up for Saturday's race.  Ack.

Another Hilton Head Adventure

Hi there!  I'm down in Hilton Head for another weekend of fun with the 'rents.  Greg is actually with me for the first time in I-don't-know-how-long.  We headed out yesterday afternoon on the 3ish hour drive from Charlotte. 

Cue pictures of Clyde and I in the car...

We arrived to my mom in a bathing suit telling us to hurry and change into our suits because my dad was up at the pool making sure plantation security didn't lock the pool so we could get a dip in before dinner.  Oh, and we were each handed one of my dad's signature margaritas (1/3 tequila, 1/3 fresh lime juice, 1/3 Cointreau + splash of OJ), which we drink out of water bottles while floating in noodle chairs in the pool.  You know, the usual routine.

After a quick float, we headed back to the house for dinner.  My mom made shrimp francaise, which is basically shrimp in egg wash/flour and sauteed.  Also, pizza (which I had a little slice of), and salad for all of us.

The other part of dinner was wine, that I brought.  A while back I stumbled upon the Weener's Leap Winery.  I don't even remember how I found it.  Probably googling dachshunds and wine.  Everyone does that, right?  Anyway, a winery that has a dachshund that looks just like mine??  YES.

Doesn't he??  That's Clams, not Clyde.  They could be brothers.

Weener's Leap is a boutique winery in Paso Robles, CA and they don't sell their wine in stores, at least not on this coast.  I contacted the owner and he said he'd send me a bottle of wine in exchange for a donation to a dachshund rescue league.  DONE.  He even threw in a poster of their wine labels.  Anyway, the wine (a nice Petite Syrah) sat in the wine rack for a while, waiting for a good chance to drink it.  We decided this was a good weekend to have it, since my parents are such wine nuts.

Everyone agreed, it was the best wine we've had in a while.  It was thoroughly enjoyed.  I might have to bug the owner for another bottle...

Today I got up and ran 3.25 miles around the plantation.  At times I felt slow, at times it felt great.  It was one of those mixed runs.  I enjoyed it though, because Hilton Head is still my favorite place to run.

Breakfast was just some fruit, yogurt, coffee, and some danish.  We kept it simple.  Then it was time for a walk on the beach to give the pup some exercise.

We lucked out and the weather was pretty nice.  Kinda cloudy, but pretty much the perfect temperature.  It's good we went went we did, because some big storms came through later in the afternoon.

Clyde likes the beach more and more every time he goes and has gotten much more adventurous going in the the water and running in the sand.  It's cute to see.

We came across a jelly fish that looked to be freshly washed up...

My mom wanted to find a way to throw him back in!

I guess this was not the jelly fish's lucky day though, since we are not jelly fish rescue people.

After our walk, we headed home, cleaned up, and got lunch at a local Mexican place.  We hit up a tour of homes going on in the area, did some outlet shopping, and had another float up at the pool.

Our last stop of the evening was at Red Fish for a nice dinner.

We had this wine.

Mmmmmm.

I had seared scallops with lobster mac and cheese and asparagus.  Amazing... 

(Excuse my crappy IPhone pic)

I can barely keep my eyes open, so I'm calling it a night.  More to come later on the rest of the weekend.