Visit to Charlotte, NC

I was lucky enough to be able to extend my business trip to Charleston, SC so that I could stay on the East Coast for the weekend. I took the opportunity to drive up north about three hours to visit my aunt, uncle and cousins who live in Charlotte. So now I can say that I have driven through the Carolinas (Charlotte is really on the southern border of North Carolina, but I am counting my sojourns through Charlotte as counting towards "The Carolinas")

It was awesome to see Doug, Nicole and Lexi and then to meet the newest addition, Spencer. He's only six weeks old. He's so adorable! Despite having the cold from hell, I powered through and had a great weekend. I got there around 8:30 or 9 on Friday night (I got lost when I got close to their house, it added a half hour to my drive time), and Nicole had made a delicious pan of lasagna for us. After the late dinner (sorry I was so late, guys!), Lexi and I read from the American Girls books that I got her for Christmas. I got her the Kirsten series, and I was very impressed with how well Lexi was reading. She was comprehending the story as well, which was great to hear. Once Lexi had read for 15-20 minutes, she was allowed to stay up extra late to watch a movie with me. She picked out Bridge to Terabithia, which is really a sad movie. Of course, Lexi fell asleep in the middle (it was midnight, and she is six, people) but we still had a fun time.

The next morning, Lexi desperately wanted me to wake up, and kept tiptoeing in my room to check on me. She'd shut the door quietly, then sort of yell to her dad, "Everytime I go in there, she's still sleeping, but she keeps rolling over!" Hilarious. I got up around 9 or so, and we hung out during the morning. In the afternoon, we went to uptown Charlotte, which is their "downtown" type area. That's where the majority of the city's banking industry is. We did quite a bit of walking around, saw that there was a circus in town, saw some horse-drawn carriages and went to Imaginon, which is this neat children's theater and library. We stopped at a Baskin-Robbins on the way back home, and enjoyed a little ice cream treat.

That night, Doug, Nicole and I went out to an adults-dinner in Charlotte. We went to a place called Encore Bistro and had a really good time. We got an appetizer platter, salads/soup, main course AND dessert. Yum! After dinner, we went to a place that is sort of like Dave and Buster's - it's an arcade/bowling alley/general fun place, and played some games. We initially wanted to bowl, but the wait for a lane was almost two hours! We said no thanks to that, and ended up playing some mini-bowling, air hockey, skee ball, basketball and even a little Dance Dance Revolution. We had a really fun time, probably better than if we had just bowled.

We went back home after that and just hung out. I had to leave for the airport this morning around 8:30 ET, so didn't want to stay up too late. I had so much fun in Charlotte, and was really excited to see the entire family. Great times were had by all!

Now I am back in Seattle, and it was really nice to see Travis for the first time in ten days. (He was in Minnesota and didn't get back until I had already left for Charleston.) I'm not sure why I missed him so much this trip, but I did, so I am glad to be home with hubby.

We're watching the Super Bowl now, and then it is Vick's VapoRub, here I come!

-SKH

PS - I will post pictures at some point, just not tonight. The ones I have are on Facebook, and Nicole will be sending me hers sometime soon, too.