Overdue Update

It's pretty hard to believe that we left our home in Durham one month ago today. Since then our days have been filled with unpacking and settling in to our new apartment in Chicago. Sure, we've done some exploring and fun city things, but mostly we've been working hard to get our apartment completely put-together before it's time to leave again. You see, we will be heading to Maine for most of July to prepare for the wedding, then it's off to Hawaii for our honeymoon and when we get back to Chicago in August, Cameron will start work straight-away.

I know that everyone is eager to see pictures of our new place, but I'm going to make you all wait a couple weeks longer for a 'Before and After' blog post. However, I thought I could share a few teasers:

Winter in Chicago won't seem so bad with this wood-burning fireplace

Ikea bookshelves, functional and decorative

Work In Progress: Wall Collage

Also, for those of you that aren't on Facebook. Here are a few pictures from our road-trip to Chicago:

Camping at Lake James State Park, NC

Good times in Asheville, NC

Live music in Nashville, TN

State Capitol in Indianapolis, IN

A Sad Day

Duke bachelorette party, Vegas bachelor party, Maine bachelorette party and bridal shower, thirtieth birthday, Beach Week, GRADUATION, and now moving day. The past few weeks have been quite a blur. Now I find myself holed up on the screened in porch, on the few remaining pieces of furniture, as movers pack all of our belongings. It's hard to believe that twenty-two months ago we were packing up our tiny New York City apartment in preparation to move to North Carolina. 

Life in North Carolina was great. We made wonderful, life-long friends. The Duke MBA program proved challenging but immensely rewarding. Cameron finished in the top ten percent of his class earning himself the title of Fuqua Scholar. If you're a follower of my blog then you know how fulfilling I found my job. Working for a small business that supports the local community taught me so much and ignited a passion inside me that I never knew existed. I don't know what Chicago has in store for me, but I look forward to tapping into all of my past experiences in order to find a job that makes me happy and one in which I feel successful. 

It may be a while before I am able to write a new blog post. We will be hitting the road tomorrow night, or first thing Thursday morning, for a five day road trip to Chicago. There's so much to explore between here and there, and since the moving truck won't arrive until later next week, we figured we would take advantage of the opportunity. First stop, camping in Lake James State Park (Pisgah National Forest). Friday we'll be in Asheville, Saturday and Sunday we'll be in Nashville, Monday in Indianapolis and Tuesday we push through to Chicago. Wish us luck! 

The Wheel

I love game shows, always have and probably always will. My favorites are Price is Right, Let's Make a Deal, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. I remember watching Price is Right on days when I stayed home from school sick or had a weekday off. Memories of watching Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy with my grandparents (and even my great meme) are some of my favorites. Heck, when I first moved to New York and couldn't afford to go out after work (and/or was too exhausted to go out), I ate dinner in front of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune and called it a night.

Lucky for me, Cameron also enjoys a good game show. We both feel like watching Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune is a family tradition in the making. We aren't always home when they air, but our DVR is set to record them so that we can watch together in our free time. Imagine our excitement when we learned that the Wheelmobile was coming to Raleigh.

What is the Wheelmobile? Basically, it's Wheel of Fortune on the road looking for new contestants. It's the pre-screening before final auditions. It was our chance to be on the show!  You can visit the official Wheel of Fortune website to learn more, click here. It's also a big bus, see below.

After a long day of standing in lines and waiting to hear our names, we didn't make it up on stage, but what a fun experience and at least we can say we tried.

Spring Break on the Road

There are so many places that Cameron and I want to visit in the world. Heck, there are so many places that we want to visit here in the United States. We both feel that we have done a pretty good job exploring the areas surrounding our home(s) over the years, but with him being in school we weren't satisfied with our efforts to explore the Carolinas. Spring break offered us the perfect opportunity to fix that problem.

During my orientation (remember that Partners had a separate orientation from the students) there was a few slides that addressed weekend trips, getaways, and places to visit while living here. Essentially it boils down to the mountains and the coast. As you may recall, we visited the mountains (Asheville, Blue Ridge Parkway, etc.) for my birthday last year (click here to view that blog post). We did visit the coast with friends over fall break, but it was a quick, quiet trip and we didn't actually explore any of the towns that define the North Carolina coast. Also, we knew we needed to get down to South Carolina while we're so close. Combine those desires with our recent membership to AAA and we knew that we could design a killer road trip for spring break.

The first Monday of spring break we packed up the car, grabbed our AAA maps and guidebooks, and set out for the coast. First stop, Wilmington. Wilmington is considered the Hollywood of the east. Many famous TV shows have been filmed there including, Dawson's Creek and One Tree Hill. It also has a very rich history and was the site of the state capital for a short time in the 1700's. We decided to check off two towns at once by staying on the beach in Wrightsville at the Blockade Runner. You could not beat the view:

In Wilmington saw a lot of historic sights, including the U.S.S. North Carolina Battleship:

My dream mixer

That night we decided that there were too many great options for dinner, and since we only had one night in Wilmington, it only made sense to do our own food tour. We started out with appetizers at Caffe Phoenix, wandered toward the river front to have a drink at Caprice Bistro, couldn't stop ourselves from meandering into Kilwins Chocolate shop, needed more food so we went to Deluxe for more appetizers then ended our tour at Front Street Brewery for some house-brewed pints.

The next morning we checked out of our hotel and headed back to Wilmington to hit the sights we didn't have time for on Monday; the Riverwalk and Bellamy Mansion.

After our whirlwind day and a half in Wilmington we headed south toward our next destination, Charleston, SC. Recognizing that half of the fun of a road trip is being on the road, we took the scenic route and drove down to Carolina Beach for lunch at Shuckin' Shack then on to Fort Fisher to catch the car ferry to Southport. Rosie's first time on a ferry!

When we got off the ferry we explored Southport a bit then headed down Route 17. Route 17 follows the coast line of North and South Carolina so there were plenty of opportunities to jump off the main road and explore the little (and big) coastal towns including North Myrtle Beach, Myrtle Beach, Murrell's Inlet, Georgetown, and McClellanville. Route 17 leads all the way to Charleston, but once again we were checking off two places at once by staying just outside of town in Mt. Pleasant.

For Tuesday and Wednesday night we selected an adorable Inn that is anchored by a restaurant called the Old Village Post House. It is a Maverick restaurant and we were familiar with their downtown Charleston sister restaurant, SNOB (Slightly North of Broad), so we figured we couldn't go wrong. We couldn't have been more right. The staff was super friendly and helpful, the food was superb (so superb that we ate dinner there Tues. and then had appetizers there on Wed.), and the location was just right.

We spent the full day Wednesday and Thursday exploring historic Charleston starting with a quick visit to the Gibbes Art Museum followed by an amazing lunch at Husk. I could write a whole blog post about Husk, but you can read all about how wonderful it is online or in the New York Times, or Bon Appetit, or... you get the point. We shared a couple of appetizers including the BBQ pig ear lettuce wraps and a classic southern dish, fried green tomatoes with pimento cheese dip. YUM!

After lunch we were ready to explore, and I can't recommend the AAA guidebooks enough when it came to navigating this magnificent city. There were tours-galore from horse-drawn carriages to Segways, but, our guidebook had two self-guided walking tours that were wonderful. We went at our own pace, read the facts about each sight, and were generally satisfied and felt as though we saw everything we wanted to see. Plus, that meant we had extra money in our pockets for all of the wonderful restaurants that friends and colleagues had recommended. 

By four o'clock on Wednesday we were ready for our second self-guided food tour of the trip. This time we were determined to take advantage of the happy hour specials that the bars and restaurants along East Bay Street offer. We started out at Pearlz Oyster Bar for, you guessed it, oysters, then headed to Social where they had ridiculous $3 happy hour food and drink specials. Next we had to hit up a highly recommended bar, named after my favorite spirit, The Gin Joint. Finally, we wanted to catch the sunset so we headed to The Library Rooftop Bar at The Vendue Inn.

Oyster shooter, there's a first time for everything...

Despite our marathon day Wednesday, we drove back to Mt. Pleasant determined to continue exploring. We were staying in the Old Village so we checked that off of the list, but there was also a riverfront area with a couple of restaurants that we thought we should check out. We ended up at Red's for a low country boil (not the best I've ever had) and mason jars with mystery punch. It was a fun place, and we could easily see how it would be a party-scene in the summertime, but the food was nothing special. Hence, our return to the restaurant at our Inn on Wednesday night.

Thursday we awoke early, checked out of our Inn, grabbed lunch from the local bakery and headed to the beach on Isle of Palms.

When we were finished with our lunch we went to the Boone Hall Plantation. Boone Hall Plantation is best known for its row of 200+ year-old oaks leading up to the house. Many movies and television shows were (and continue to be) filmed here including scenes from The Notebook, North and South, and Army Wives.

After exploring Boone Hall we went back to Charleston to continue exploring. When we planned our road trip we weren't sure where we would stay Thursday night. We didn't know whether we would need more time in Charleston or if we would drive off to explore somewhere else. People that have been to Charleston are probably reading that and thinking, of course you had to stay in Charleston longer. And we did. A quick call to our AAA agent and we had a lovely historic Inn booked for Thursday night that was walking distance to a couple of downtown restaurants that we had yet to dine at.

Prior to dinner we happily stumbled upon The Cocktail Club. It was on the second floor of a historic building and they were mixing up prohibition era craft cocktails. We love stumbling on new places like that! Generally there are only 3 meals in a day, but Cameron and I try to pack as many meals into a day as we can. So Thursdays dining included The MacIntosh, which is Charleston's hottest new restaurant and Fig. We probably should have switched the order, but the reservations were tight. We enjoyed both places, but The MacIntosh stole the show.

Friday we had two more Charleston sights to see and one more place we had to eat at before we left town; The Battery, Calhoun Mansion and Hominy Grill.

Bill Neal's Shrimp and Grits

The last leg of our trip was somewhat uneventful. We drove through Charlotte on our way home and spent the night downtown hoping to explore one more city. Whether it was a lack of energy or a lack of sights, we basically ate dinner, got a good night's sleep and then hit the road early Saturday morning.

What a trip!

Whoopie

Whoopie for Whoopie Pies, that is! If you follow my blog then you saw that my parents enjoy sending little gifts for Valentine's Day. In addition to my lovely earrings that my dad sent me, my mom sent me a beautiful calendar that contains Maine recipes. One of the teachers at the school where she works collected all of the recipes and illustrated each one. The recipe for February was for Whoopie Pies, a Maine tradition. After staring at it for half of the month, I could not wait to try it out, so this past week I hosted a get-together with friends and whipped up a batch. They were D E L I C I O U S!

The fun thing about Whoopie Pies is that Maine and Pennsylvania both claim to have invented them. For this reason, Cameron and I are very likely going to have Whoopie Pies in place of cake at our wedding. But, back to the history lesson. There's no argument that these tasty treasures came to be when resourceful women decided not to waste leftover cake batter. Instead they spooned it onto cookie sheets, baked it up, then put two rounds together with leftover frosting - YUM!

Pennsylvanians claim that Amish women were the first to start baking Whoopie Pies while Maine claims that Labadie's Bakery in Lewiston, ME was first when it started baking these treats in 1925. Unfortunately a fire in the 1960's burned down Labadie's Bakery and any Whoopie Pie evidence. In 2011 Maine tried to end the ongoing debate by floating a piece of legislature that would designate the Whoopie Pie as Maine's official dessert. The Pennsylvania Dutch Convention and Visitors Bureaus kiboshed the attempt and Maine settled for calling it the official State Treat. The official dessert of Maine is Wild Maine Blueberry Pie, of course. Ironically, the only state that can produce any evidence of inventing the Whoopie Pie is Massachusetts. The Berwick Cake Company, based out of Boston, has recipes that date back to 1926.

Cameron and I like to tease each other about the origins of the Whoopie Pie, but one thing that cannot be argued is the name. If you've ever enjoyed one then you know that the mere sight of these delicious treats makes you exclaim, Whoopie!

This Seems Silly

For the past few months there has been construction off of I-40 between Durham and Raleigh. Signs went up indicating a new section of Toll Highway on the Triangle Expressway. It was all a bit confusing because the signs read, "NC Quickpass" or "Bill by Mail". Also because in the two years that I have lived here, I have never paid a toll on a North Carolina highway. Cameron and I have an EZ Pass that he bought this past summer when he was in Princeton. Would that be accepted for this new toll? It was a mystery up until this past week.

To fully understand why this is worthy of a blog post, we must rewind just a few weeks. After leading a food tour in Raleigh, I was heading back to Durham to meet Cameron and friends at a bar downtown. Rosie (our trusty Subaru Legacy) has a built in GPS system and I usually use it when I'm heading somewhere from a direction that I'm not familiar with. On this evening I forgot to program the GPS and figured I could remember the route and figure it out on my own. Well those new signs confused me and I got off the highway a couple of exits early at I-540 instead of NC 147, oops! It was the strangest stretch of highway I've ever traveled. There were, literally, no other cars on the road. I actually wondered if I was on a highway that was not actually open for traffic. Then I went under a back to the future-esque structure that flashed as though there were a dozen paparazzi snapping photos. I guessed that was the toll...

The structure just beyond the bridge is the toll

When I arrived at the bar I told everyone about the strange highway and toll, but I was still completely baffled about whether or not the EZ Pass would be billed for the toll or if I was going to receive a bill in the mail. The whole bill in the mail thing seemed so ridiculous, but then this past week:

If you look close you will see that the NC Quick Pass (Company?, Authority?) paid $0.374 to send me two pieces of paper. The first slip of paper has a snapshot of my license plate, the date and time the photo was snapped and an amount that I owe, $0.77. The second slip of paper explains the new toll and attempts to get me to sign-up for an NC Quick Pass so that I can save 35%. This would require me to set up a pre-paid account and put a $5 sticker or $20 transponder on my car (mind you that would be in addition to the EZ Pass that is already mounted on my windshield). At the very bottom of the sales flier is a short explanation indicating that they are working on agreements with national toll collections systems like EZ Pass and SunPass, but have yet to reach that agreement. The NC Quick Pass, should you choose to sign-up and purchase it, will only be accepted in, you guessed it, North Carolina. Maybe this was part of North Carolina's effort to create new jobs; build a new stretch of highway, set up a new company (NC Quick Pass) to be in charge of the tolls, hire staff to work at said company, use USPS to mail bills...Ooh bonus(!), it attempts to keep our defunct USPS in business.

I will write a check for $0.77 and buy the $0.45 stamp to send my bill back, but doesn't this seem a bit ridiculous? Leave a comment to let me know your thoughts.

Surpriser vs. Surprisee

Valentine's Day is a great opportunity to tell the special people in your life how much they mean to you. Growing up we always awoke to a lovely basket of goodies from the Valentine's Day Birdie - a fictional character that I'm pretty sure my parents made up. My sisters and I now live all over the country, but my parents still make that special effort to tell us how much they love us. Usually it's a silly card, or a pair of Valentine themed socks. This year my dad really surprised me with a lovely pair of earrings from a local jewelry maker, so lovely!

I love surprises, but Cameron will tell you that I'm nearly impossible to surprise. If I suspect a surprise then I go all detective mode and try to sniff it out. Thing is, I love to be the Surpriser more than I like being the Surprisee. Cameron has class all day on Mondays so I made up my mind weeks ago that I would set up a Valentine's Day celebration for him to come home to. A little help from Michael's, Trader Joe's, and Jamie Oliver and a nice, yet affordable surprise was underway.

I didn't snap as many pictures as I should have, but the spread included a plethora of construction paper hearts and heart mobiles, a lovely cheese plate that included Cam's favorite pâte (which I shaped into a heart), and of course flowers and chocolates. The main course was a spin on Cameron's favorite dish of all-time, Beef Wellington. Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution cookbook has a recipe for Ground Beef Wellington, which is much more affordable than the classic dish because it replaces the filet mignon with ground beef and doesn't include the pâte, which was okay with me because Cameron prefers it as an appetizer anyway. For dessert I made another favorite, red velvet cake. Everything was delicious and Cameron was completely surprised (and sated). Success! 

This was only HALF of it, and again, should've snapped a better pic. but you get the idea