A remote location definitely makes traveling longer. I arrived at the Flagstaff airport at dawn (at least there is an airport, right?), then headed to Phoenix, then to Charlotte (where the sun was now setting), before finally landing in Louisville. My pictures from the airport make it clear I had arrived in Louisville. It has been a while since I have actually flown to Louisville, and I don’t remember these goofy things, but they are so Kentucky I just could resist a couple of quick snapshots.
Although the flying part of my journey was quite done at that point, it was still an hour and twenty minute drive to my parent’s house in Madison. We went to dinner in Louisville at one of my favorite places to eat: Café Lou Lou. R and I are addicted to the Mezze Platter. Although it is on the menu as an appetizer, we make a very good meal out of it. What is it about dips? It is so fun to pile up a little bit of this and a little bit of that onto a pita. It is definitely one of my favorite Mediterranean dishes of all time. We have attempted a couple of times to make some of the more unusual items on the platter with varying degrees of success. Here is a picture, although it is a little dark.
As referenced earlier, I was not done with my mountains of end of semester writing even though I had anticipated being done with everything by the time I travelled. So, I spent Friday morning holed up writing away. I was thrilled that my darling Callie kitty was excited to see me. It has been hit or miss with her affection since they were moved to “grandma and grandpa’s” house after R and I got married. No pets allowed in campus housing, sigh. She snuggled up with me all night and as you can see, was a great foot warmer while I was writing my papers. However, Roxie, our
Brittany spaniel, was very jealous of all the attention she was getting so, she had to get up on the bed, too. Talk about two jealous old ladies! They are not each other’s biggest fans and I think they spend a lot of time competing for who gets the most love. Callie swats at Roxie when she gets too close, but Roxie knows she has the size advantage. After a morning of writing, my mom and I headed to my Nana’s house (godmother) as I had not had a chance to see her in a long time. She is a wonderful woman who has literally known me since the day I was born, and once kindly put a roof over my head for a few months while I was in transition after college.
That evening, I met up with a high school friend, A, at one of the local wineries. Here is a link to The Thomas Family Winery. It is still sometimes referred to as “the old Greyhound station.” I met Steve and Elizabeth shortly after they moved to Madison to start the winery, gosh… wow… close to 15 years ago. Where does the time go? They make wonderful wines, have live music on the weekends, are great hosts, and provide an all around great pub like atmosphere. So A and I spent several hours gabbing and catching up over red wine and cheese. We have travelled a lot together over the years, but it has been a while. So, we are planning a trip for the fall of 2012 when I should have my diploma in hand and hopefully a new job. She always has the best ideas. We are going to do a Irish horse drawn caravan trip. Okay, I know you are going, what??? I did the same thing until she sent me a link explaining it. So here is a link that does a much better job of showing you what it is all about. I think it is gonna be way cool and an interesting way to explore the Irish country side. http://www.irishhorsedrawncaravans.com/
Saturday was our big family gathering. My sister, her husband, and my darling niece came down from Indianapolis along with my other sister who is in college there. J’s birthday happened to be on Monday, so we celebrated her birthday. I won’t overwhelm you with a bazillion pictures, but here are a few highlights of me and my crazy family. If you want to see more, you can check out my album on Facebook. As you can see most of the day was about my niece and her being the center of attention. As the first grandchild and niece of our generation, I think she had more pictures taken than the average super model on a photo shoot! She is 6 months old, so she is at that super cute age where she is aware of you, getting wiggly, rolls around a lot, and almost crawling. She has also found her voice and is starting to babble. Anyways, it was great fun, and yes, I did let other people hold her. The pictures are proof of that! After a busy day of family and food, I was headed to “the Ville,” (Louisville) or Luhvul as we like to say. If you say “Lewisville” or “Looeyville” people will know you are NOT from the area.
I get to feed my niece
This is what happens when we try to take a picture together (it took about three)
Much better with Darling Niece
The next 24 hours was a whirlwind of meeting up with good friends from my Louisville days. Starting with a sushi dinner on Saturday with my good friend C (where I, as usual ordered too many rolls), Sunday brunch at Lynn’s Paradise Cafe for the best biscuits and gravy (why oh why is there no good biscuits and gravy out west???), on to tea and Cake Flour cupcakes (featured on Food Network's Best Thing I Ever Ate) at the Hillbilly Tea (which is a new and super cute downtown destination, and I would totally have eaten there if not stuffed from biscuits and gravy). Then I did mad more paper writing to meet my Sunday night deadline then wrapped up with a good gab fest with my host P (and bestie) and our good friend Double D. I should mention that P fosters another one of our cats, Kobi. He was a bit standoffish, but as you can see, he
couldn’t resist curling up with my netbook. After they left, I finished proofing my paper so I could email it from a local coffee shop, before heading back to Madison. It was getting pretty late in the day and the snow was sticking so I was in a hurry. This is where it gets interesting, frustrating, and embarrassing.
I load my backpack and purse into my mom’s Pathfinder, and pull out the snow scraper to brush off the snow. I had the brilliant idea to start the car so it could warm up while I was getting the snow off. A little voice in my head told me to leave the door open as I had vague recollections of it being easy to lock the keys in this car. So, this went fine, until I rounded the final corner, skidded a bit, knocked the door and it swung shut. I had that NOOOOOOO moment. Then I thought to myself that maybe I had made up that whole locking the keys in the car business, so I tried the handle. Nope, definitely locked. Tried the other three and the back, just in case. Yep. Definitely locked. Did I mention it was snowing? Did I mention the car was running? Did I mention everything, including my cell phone and AAA card were in the locked car? Did I mention that my host had already left for some evening plans? Pretty sure I used some strong expletive for a few minutes while I considered my options. Knowing that P has decent relationships with her neighbors, I went there and knocked. I introduced myself and explained my sorry situation. They very kindly let me in to use their phone and internet to look up a number for AAA. Which, by the way, is very difficult to find on their website. Humph! Called for lock service, and then called my mom to break the news about why I was going to be a bit later than I had planned. Well, then I learned that there was a key hidden for that very reason… So, called AAA back to cancel service, and was on my way about five minutes later. Stopped at Highland Coffee for a latte and to email my final paper. I really wanted a mocha with blackberry whip cream (and I always order my drinks without whip, so it is THAT good), but was in a bit of a sugar overload by the end of my day, so went for the straight latte. A very slow 45 mph drive then ensued, and I made it home almost two hours later. Sheesh! What an end to the day.
Other than a lunch date with another high school friend, the rest of my trip was pretty chill and was spent hanging out with my parents and brother, which I needed and enjoyed. Before I knew
it, it was time to head to the airport. Callie tried really hard to get me to pack her up for the return trip back. Mom treated me to a hearty breakfast at Wild Eggs, where I got the Truffled Scramble, yum. I want to learn how to make their Everything Muffin, it is sweet and savory at the same time. Then it was time to come back to Flag. I love it here, but boy, do I get homesick for Louisville and my old haunts when I am there. You just cannot beat the architecture in that area. Both Louisville and Madison just have the most beautiful architecture and green space. I was looking forward to escaping the cold, snow, and rain. However, the blue skies and fifty degree weather disappeared with my return to Flag. Has been gray, snowy, and rainy ever since. Sigh!
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