Love NC #22-24

This is the coffee-drinking you-know-who again. The Sweet-Toothed Wife has a toothache right now, so I'll post something for her in the meantime. How about a sports themed post!

22. The most famous Minor League Baseball Team in the World

There is no minor league baseball team better known across the world than the Durham Bulls. The reason is simple... the popular 1988 movie Bull Durham. That being said, the Bulls are actually good and are in the top tier of minor league baseball, the Triple-A International League. They are an affiliate of the frequently dominant Tampa Bay Rays. The Bulls are about 20 minutes west of us... while the Carolina Mudcats are 30 minutes east. Asheville has the Asheville Tourists. All in all, North Carolina has over 30 minor league baseball teams.


23. The Carolina / Duke Rivalry

The Triangle in particular, but the rest of the state as well, is crazy for college sports. This is especially true about college basketball. Near where we live we have Wake Forest and NC State... but the real focus is on the hardcore rivalry between Duke and UNC: Chapel Hill... aka "Carolina." These are two top-rate universities in academics as well as sports, and they seem to be trading off winning national champions in recent years. In order to invoke strong emotions from any UNC student... just say "Duke" and vice versa. These fans are rabid, and the teams are guaranteed to play one another at least twice a season, not counting any March Madness meetings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina%E2%80%93Duke_rivalry
24. Carolina Hurricanes

North Carolina may not seem like a hotbed for ice hockey, but it certainly has become one. The Carolina Hurricanes play in Raleigh, the capital city. I am definitely a 'Caniac,' as the fans are called, and have been rooting for the 'Canes since they won the 2006 Stanley Cup! Nothing beats watching pucks smack against the glass, fists slam into faces, and John Deere Zamboni machines smoothing the ice.

Love NC #19-21

19. Sand boarding
One activity that I would like to do sometime while at the Outer Banks is sand boarding. North Carolina is one state out of five states in the US that has sand boarding available! Sand boarding is a lot like snow boarding, but is done on a sand dune. Anyone up for trying it out with me?!?


20. Snowboarding
So at one extreme you have sand boarding, and at the other you have snowboarding. With the mountains at a higher altitude, North Carolina is able to provide this winter sport. My first time ever and only snowboarding was in North Carolina a couple years ago. Although I could barely move the next day, I had a ton of fun and would definitely do it again!


21. Zip lining
Another extreme activity that can be done in the mountains of North Carolina is zip lining. Justin and I went zip lining in the rain forest during our honeymoon in Costa Rica. It was so much fun and I would recommend that anyone try it out!

All geared up and ready for our zip lining excursion in Costa Rica!

We survived!

Love NC #16-18

16. The Outer Banks (OBX)
North Carolina is home to one of America's most popular set of beaches, the Outer Banks. The Outer Banks is a long, narrow string of islands off the coast of North Carolina, about 200 miles in length. The OBX is full of gorgeous beaches, six of North Carolina's most popular lighthouses and wild horses. We are hoping to make a trip to the OBX in June with Debbie to check out the horses! I have also heard that you can camp out on the beach. I'm not much of a camping girl, but maybe camping in a warm climate with the sound of the waves as I fall asleep doesn't sound too bad. Maybe a certain sister(s) can come with me?!? ;)

Spontaneous Outer Banks trip in October 2009

Do you see Justin?

17. Kitty Hawk
Kitty Hawk, North Carolina is where the Wright brothers took their first airplane flight in 1903. It was here on the Outer Banks that an airplane was flown for the first time. And the Wright brothers are from Ohio, woohoo! You see, if North Carolina wasn't here, we might not have airplanes :)


18. Jockey's Ridge State Park
Jockey's Ridge State Park is one of the most popular landmark in the Outer Banks. Jockey's Ridge is the tallest natural sand dune on the East Coast. On our spontaneous trip to the OBX in October of 2009 we checked out Jockey's Ridge. It was really fun to walk on the dune. It felt like you were in the desert! It would be fun to see it during the summer and partake in some of the recreation that you do in that area (see post tomorrow!)

Love NC #13-15

Much thanks to the Coffee-Drinking Husband for blogging for me the other night. I was way too tired but he pulled through for me :)

With the gorgeous weather that North Carolina experiences on a regular basis [unlike Ohio] there are so many fun activities to do outside. North Carolina has many rivers that run throughout the state. With all these rivers, there are also some pretty fun activities you can do!

13. Tubing Down the River
One fun and relaxing activity that you can do is to tube down the river. I did this on a Youth Group trip a couple years ago (it was actually in Tennessee but I have seen it done in NC as well). It was a lot of fun. You start at a higher point on the river, plop down in your tube and enjoy the ride. It would be really fun to do this on camping trip near a river. You can grab a group of friends (that you will make or those who visit) and have fun trips and play games as you float down on your tube.

14. Kayaking/Canoeing
The rivers of NC also allow for as much canoeing or kayaking as you can get. Since these rivers flow through National Forests, the views are breathtaking! You can rent canoes or kayaks for an inexpensive price, or just borrow your bro's!


15. White Water Rafting
The most extreme activity that you can do on the river is white water rafting. I have been white water rafting twice in North Carolina, and both times have been a blast! There are some rafting places less than an hour away from Asheville.

Love NC #10-12

* This is the Coffee-Drinking Husband. Apparently the Sweet-Toothed Wife is too lazy to blog tonight, so she asked me to guest blog for her. This has been more specific to Asheville than to NC in general lately, but so be it! Asheville rocks.

10. The Blue Ridge Parkway

The Blue Ridge Parkway is a true feat of engineering - 469 miles of winding mountain highway designed to connect Shenandoah National Park to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It took 52 years to complete! This most-visited part of the National Parks system offers stunning vistas and is a great place to go in the Fall, where you can watch the gradient of changing Fall colors at different altitudes. Driving here is especially cool in a convertible!

11. Contra Dancing

Contra Dancing is descended from French ‘country dancing’ but with an Appalachian twist. This is the kind of dancing you might see in movies like Pride and Prejudice, but instead of classical music, you have bluegrass. Each contra dance is improvised by a ‘caller’ and is different from the previous one. Picture it as a casual but fun, and often more complicated, version of line dancing or square dancing. Pretty much every guy dances with every girl and vice versa… so this can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the crowd.

12. People Watching at the Drum Circle

Asheville is a quirky, artsy and eclectic city. During the warm months, there is a large public drum circle downtown in Pritchard Park every Friday evening. All sorts of diverse individuals dance, drum, or play some other sort of musical instrument at this regular and crowded communal gathering. You will see some pretty interesting individuals here… this is a true Asheville institution.

Love NC #7-9

7. The National Gingerbread House Competition
Asheville, NC is the home to the National Gingerbread House Competition, held at The Grove Park Inn. Every year, hundreds of contestants bake, build and decorate the most exquisite gingerbread houses that you have ever seen. The houses are on display at The Grove Park Inn starting before Thanksgiving through Christmas. It is quite the sight to see and could definitely become a new family tradition!

Christmas 2009

8. The Biltmore Estate
The Biltmore Estate is America's largest home, with 250 rooms. It is a very beautiful, extensive, and massive house with impressive grounds and gardens. The house is decorated for the different seasons of the year. It is fun to check out the gardens in the spring and summer and in the summer months they also have a concert series. Who wouldn't want to live in the same city that has what Americans would call a castle?


9. Tea at Chelseas Tea Room
One of my favorite things that I love to do in Asheville is to go have afternoon tea at Chelseas Tea Room. Chelseas is a very cutesy shop that also has a lovely afternoon tea. If you aren't into tea, it also serves the most amazing lemonade. While you're sipping away, you also get to snack on tasty desserts (the reason I go). It is a fun place to go for birthdays, celebrations, or even if your sisters or friends come to visit ;)

Love NC #4-6

Alright folks, here are reasons #4-6!

4. The Blue Ridge Mountains
One of the great things about North Carolina, particularly Asheville, is that it is nestled within the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Blue Ridge Mountains provide such a picturesque and scenic place to live. It is fun driving throughout North Carolina and seeing the stunning views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

4th of July weekend- Summer 2010

5. Natural Water Slides
The mountains provide a lot of entertaining and free activities. One of Justin's [and mine if I build up the courage] favorite activities are the natural water slides that can be found in the mountains. There are several locations where you can slide down rocks/waterfalls and jump of large rocks into the river. One of Justin's favorite places is called Turtle Back Falls. In all, I think that I have slide down 3 different natural water slides and jumped off 1 very large rock in NC.

Turtleback Falls (I would have provided a picture of me actually going down the falls but I couldn't figure how to download it off of facebook).

6. Hiking
The mountains also provide a plethora of beautiful hikes. One of our favorite hikes is Mt. Pisgah. The hikes and trails are almost always very interesting and lead to a beautiful view of the mountains. Since hiking is a Thanksgiving Day tradition, this tradition would still be able to be kept alive. This picture was actually taken just a few weeks ago when Justin and I visited his family in Asheville. And SURPRISE, we will be taking another trip there this weekend. My mom called a few hours ago and said that her and my dad were on their way to Asheville and asked if we would be able to spend the weekend there too, so we are!




Convinced yet?!? ;)

50 Things to LOVE about North Carolina

This blog post is a request via someone that I love very dearly and who makes me laugh every time I talk to her. I hope that these reasons will bring a smile to her face. I would also like to dedicate this post to this person's younger sister, these reasons are for her too :) She requested that I give 10 reasons why North Carolina is awesome. I decided to go above and beyond and give 50 reasons. Justin thinks that I should give 100 reasons, but if I am revealing 3 reasons a day, I don't know if I have the patience and energy to make it that long. So we will start off with 50 reasons and go from there.

Enjoy!

1. The Weather
The weather here down in the South is so much better than up in gloomy Ohio. Through research I learned that on average, Asheville, NC has 99 days of full sun and 212 days with some sun. Whereas, Cleveland, OH has 66 days of full sun and only 163 days with some sun. Would you rather live in a state that is almost always gloomy and overcast or in a sunny state that brightens your day? From living in NC for almost two years now, I have learned that NC springs and summers come a whole 2 MONTHS before Ohio has its spring/summer. Our first blossoming tree happened in February. Ohio was still having snow into March, possibly even April. Although we still get our light dusting of snow down here (which satisfies those who miss the snow) there is no harsh winters where the snow stays on the ground for weeks on end and you begin to think that winter will never end.

Ohio

North Carolina

2. The Beach!
North Carolina actually borders the Atlantic Ocean, which means-THE BEACH! Asheville is only 4 hours away from the beach, which could be made in a day trip or a fun weekend trip. If you were to visit a certain special someone who lives in the Capital city then it would only be a 1 1/2 to 2 hour drive. The only beach Ohio has is Lake Erie, which could hardly be called a beach. There are over 300 miles of coast in NC, which means lots of public beach access!

3. Flowers on the Freeway
The very first time I visited North Carolina, one of the things that I noticed that I thought was so neat and would make me want to live here was that beautiful wildflowers grew on the freeway during the summer and spring. I am making this reason #3 because it is currently happening. Every day when I drive home from work I pass this huge patch of red poppies. There are patches of purple irsises, tulips and other wildflowers. They are just so beautiful and every time I pass them I wish I had my camera to snap a picture.

There are reasons #1-3 for you. Stay tuned tomorrow for reasons #4-6!

Back in the Swing of Things

Sorry for the lack of blog posts [ahem.. Stephanie], I have been so exhausted with all of my traveling. We got back from San Francisco last Sunday night after traveling for 15 hours on 2 hours of sleep. It took me this whole week to recover, and I feel like I still am. My jet lag and the time difference really hit me on Wednesday.

Every morning my alarm clock rings at 6:45. I proceed to hit the snooze button every five minutes until the second alarm goes off at 7:00. I then continue to hit the snooze button until I finally decide to dismiss the alarm at either 7:10, 7:15, or 7:20 (depending on how I am feeling, if I have my outfit already picked out, or if my lunch is already made.) This system has worked for me this entire year. I have never overslept and I have never been late to work... until Wednesday :(

Wednesday was the first time EVER that I have overslept and been late to work. I have never been late to school in high school, never been late to class in college and have never been late to a single day of work. Wednesday morning I apparently dismissed my alarm and immediately went back into a deep sleep. I was jolted awake at 8:19. I leave for work at 8:00. I am supposed to be at work at 8:30, and it takes me 20 minutes to get there, you do the math. I immediately shot up and yelled, "Justin! It's 8:19... what do I do?" I got dressed and brushed my teeth and was out the door in 5 minutes. Yes, was out the door, but forgot to close it. Apparently I ran out the door, left it open.... oops! I was so worried because I had never been late before, I didn't know how to handle myself. And to top things off, this was like the one day out of the entire year that it was important for me to be at work. We started End of Grade testing on Wednesday and I was to proctor a test.

I made it to work in record time, with all green lights! But, oh no, what else could go wrong? It was Muffins for Moms day and every. single. parking space was taken, along with every curb. I ended up having to park on the road. I dashed inside and tried to get my hot mess self together. Fortunately everything worked out and no one really noticed that I was late. On Thursday morning I naturally woke up at 5:40 and couldn't really go back to sleep. I did not want a repeat of the day before.

All of my traveling, Washington DC, Charleston, Asheville and San Francisco has really taken a toll on my body. This whole week it was a struggle to wake up and really do much of anything. I came home from work and just relaxed until I usually crashed around 9:00 or 10:00. I was so happy to be able to sleep in today and I actually cleaned our house! Things feel like they are getting back to normal :) And with that, I will hopefully have more time and energy to post more about our trips and show you all pictures within the next couple of days!