Happy Birthday to me!

My birthday was a couple of days ago. Patrick was home from College that week because of Spring Break. So, as always we went out to eat dinner at the Melting Pot. I'm a big fan of fondue (as long as I don't have to have the smell in my house!) and Patrick goes anywhere if there is chocolate involved. First we had a salad, then cheese fondue as an appetizer, the entree was different meats, and dessert was chocolate fondue. Yum!!! Drew had called ahead and ordered the "Birthday Package" which was Ballons at the table, a picture of us in a nice frame, and white chocolate fondue chocolate to take home. Life is good!

Tour de Cure Ride at Fort DeSoto

After surviving the pre-ride Party at the beach the night before, we made it to the starting point of the Tour de Cure Ride. Drew was riding in the tour, and I stayed long enough to see Drew leave. It was so cold the night before and this morning wasn't much better!

I had to take care of one of the rest stops and Drew had already loaded the car with all the items we needed to take care of the riders who would stop by at our rest stop #4. I wasn't alone, my friends Kari and Jenna, and Jenna's husband Steven helped out and I think we had fun. Drew came by after the ride and we all packed up the leftovers and went back to Ft. DeSoto and then home.

Going home - and leaving again

It's time to leave North Carolina again. Linda and I went to breakfast before I left.

This time it was my turn to clean the snow from the car! After our breakfast together I left to drive to Tallahassee. It was still a 8-hour drive and I stayed in a hotel in Tallahassee overnight. The next morning I woke up Patrick and we had breakfast together, then drove back to Tampa. It's Spring Break for FSU, and Patrick plans to sleep most of the week!

On Saturday Drew and I went to Fort DeSoto for tomorrows Tour De Cure ride. We stayed at the "Postcard Inn", a cute, old-fashioned Florida hotel. Unfortunately it is way overpriced and thanks to all the kids here for Spring Break, VERY loud! We were lucky that our room was so far away from the beach, but other riders had problems sleeping that night. It was really cold and the Tour De Cure party on the beach meant we had to bundle up! But it was still fun.

Brevard and Hendersonville

After yesterday's snow fall we wanted to leave today to look at more Yarn Stores. But with all that snow it was not easy to even get to the car, much less driving anywhere! Linda had cleaned the steps to the front door all day yesterday and it was fairly easy to get to the driveway.




Making it all the way down the driveway to where the cars are was another story. We finally made it, only to find the cars covered in several inches of snow.

It's funny to see the car with the Florida license plate, covered in snow!

Looking around at the street and the trees, I was very happy! So much snow, it was quiet and calm and so beautiful. The whole world looked clean - at least until the snow plow went through and the snow started to melt!

Linda had to clean the car before we even could get in. I, on the other hand, had to look around at the beautiful snow. Separation of labor at it's best - at least for me! :)

We finally made it out of the driveway and to the stores. Another good day in the snow.

It's SNOWING ! ! !

It was snowing when we woke up this morning! Of course we knew that we would be stuck in the house all day if it snowed a lot, but we were prepared. We had our knitting, some wine, and oh yeah, we had food! Bring on the snow! I took pictures of the snow all day, but of course I took those pictures from inside the house. I like to look at snow, that doesn't mean I'm actually going into the snow. It looks so much prettier from the warmth of a cozy house.

This was "my" bedroom, at least for a few days. The balcony was slowly filling up with snow.


The bird feeder was busy all day long and it got covered in snow more and more.

The kitchen - a room we only go to when we get hungry, because it has no fireplace. We had muffins for breakfast and chocolate cake for lunch, leftover past from yesterday's dinner as a mid afternoon snack and pizza for dinner. Ah, healthy living at it's finest!

Ziggy is the master nap-taker. He has taking naps down to a science! Occationally he woke up and stalked a bird that came too close to the window. But since he was on the inside and the bird was on the outside there was no danger to the bird. But please don't tell that to Ziggy.

Linda thought she had to clean the walkway and steps in the morning. And since I'm not about to argue with her, I let her go outside. I even went out on the balcony to take a picture of her. I think that was as close as I got to physical labor (Linda's) today.

I love pictures of snow, so I took lots of them. There is nothing wrong with that.

I even went upstairs to see the path Linda had made on the driveway so we could walk. We did not really have a place to go, but after she made the path, we could have - if we wanted to. At least for the next 30 minutes, because after that it was all covered up by snow again.

Here is a picture from the top floor, the driveway is on the left and the street is on the top and right. Obviously, the snow plow has not been here yet.

The bird feeder, still crowded and getting covered in snow.

Around 4pm it stopped snowing and the skies cleared. It was beautiful! We had gotten about 7 inches of snow. Life is good!

After it cleared we could see the mountain again!

We did get a lot of knitting done today since we couldn't go anywhere.

It was time to take the bird feeder back inside so the four-legged wildlife wouldn't empty it during the night.

Cashiers, Franklin and Highlands

Linda and I went to "The Daily Bread" Diner in Cashiers this morning for breakfast. But first we had to make our way down that driveway, all the way down to the street to where our cars were.


The driveway doesn't look all that steep from down here, but it is.



So, off we went, we had breakfast and then we drove to Franklin where we spent some time at "Silver Threads and Golden Needles". Off course we bought some yarn there, 'cause neither Linda nor I have enough yarn. We bought handpainted sock yarn and because I wanted to start right away to see what the colors would look like, I also had to buy knitting needles. 'Cause I don't have enough knitting needles. We spent a lot of time at the knit shop, but that was to be expected. It was fun, we knew these are our people. We walked around Franklin and then drove to "A Stitch in Time", a quilt shop. We are not quilters so it didn't take us long to walk through the store.

The next stop for the day was Highlands. We went to the "Old Edwards Inn" for a late lunch. I had the trout wrap because I love trout! Afterwards we walked around town but most of the stores were closed because it is not Tourist Season yet.

The area we are in was expected to have some snow over night and we were not sure if we could get out the next morning, so we went grocery shopping and then went back to the house to rest and start knitting. Ziggy kept us company and we spent some time just relaxing.

Linda and I then went to dinner at "Mica's" where I had Trout Almandine. What can I say, I love trout. We spent the rest of the evening knitting and talking and drinking wine. So far, this has been a wonderful trip. It would be perfect if we really did get snow tonight! I probably won't be able to sleep tonight, wondering if it will snow.