The South will rise again.

So, last weekend I took a trip to Charlotte, NC for my Memorial Day getaway. It began with me getting to the airport like 4 hours early, because my office had a power outage and by the time they realized they wouldn't be able to fix it, it would have been kind of pointless for me to go back home. Anyway, I arrived in NC on Friday evening and had a good time eating ice cream and watching SYTYCD with the Whitleys.

The next morning I got Emaline up and gave her the big plush Rocket from Little Einsteins I had brought, which was received with great enthusiasm ("Ohhhh, this is a GOOD one!"). Obviously I am her favorite aunt. Then it was off to Bojangles for a delicious and healthy breakfast. Em was very excited about this as well (although actually, "excited" is pretty much her natural state, so you should probably just assume that's what she was in every situation unless I say otherwise) and kept shouting, "We're going to the Jangles!"

The next stop was at a farm for some strawberry picking. Alli, you might want to avert your eyes for this part (Alli hates strawberries and is therefore very foolish). When we first got there we chose a row that looked nice and started picking. BIG mistake, apparently. The old guy guarding the strawberry patch as if it were a military base came at us, shouting and waving his orange flag. We made our walk of shame to our assigned row and continued picking delicious and often gigantic strawberries. Allison (not to be confused with Alli the strawberry-hater) had mentioned that when they came the week before with Jeff and Kirsten, some people were eating strawberries as they picked, and Allison had kind of laughed at them. Since then, having actually tasted the glorious nuggets of deliciousness, she had changed her opinion. I lost count after the first 6 or 7 that I ate. Emaline was shoving strawberries in her mouth with reckless abandon. These were ridiculously good strawberries, people.


That afternoon, Em and I had a little picnic on the balcony and watched the birds that flew in and out of the trees behind their apartment. I could not tell you what sort of bird each one was. Emaline could. She would be all, "That's a chickadee!" and I would be like, why is this 2-year-old smarter than I am?

Later that evening we got a true Southern experience at Captain Steve's Seafood Restaurant (which is actually over the border in South Carolina). Let me tell you, when you go to a place where one whole page of the menu is taken up by the choice between "LARGE FRIED PLATTER" and "SMALL FRIED PLATTER", you know you are in a good place. I opted for a small fried platter of shrimp (which was still rather enormous) to compliment the hush puppies we'd already eaten, but also got a side salad to make myself feel better. Not that that was necessary, since the general trend of the clientele was towards obesity and large hair. Awesome.

The rest of the weekend was basically spent hanging out and eating delicious food (strawberries, waffles with fresh strawberries and whipped cream, chocolate chip cookies, strawberries, roast beef and mashed potatoes, strawberries, etc.), which was exactly what I wanted. On Monday afternoon I got the tour of uptown Charlotte (adorable) and we stopped off for some ice cream and milkshakes.

I dare you not to want to squeeze this child. Anyway, it was a fantastic weekend! More pictures here.