Weekend News, It's a Tuesday...

So, this weekend Jonathan and I had a wonderful, romantic adventure! I'll start with Thursday...

After school on Thursday, Jonathan and I were talking about what we were going to do for our anniversary (next weekend). We have wanted to visit Town Creek Indian Mounds, so decided we'd find a Bed & Breakfast around there & then go. We looked online and found out that this weekend (the 15/16th) there was a special live demonstration going on... including open-hearth cooking, flint knapping, archery, and story telling. So we spur-of-the-moment decided to head out this weekend. We found a nice B&B called the Cardinal Pines Inn, right in Mt. Gilead (not far from the mounds).

So, Friday after Jonathan finished school (at 1:00!) we headed out. It took me some time to pack (will it be cold, hot?), but we got out at 1:30. The directions said it would be 1 hr 45 mins, but we got there in 1 hour! The drive was lovely.... we passed through some really quaint towns and determined to stop on the way back up. We had the sunroof down, I had a Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper, and we were laughing and talking like the best friends we are! It's so awesome doing things together... We're always a little surprised at how much fun we have and one of us invariably says, "It's so great to marry your BEST FRIEND!"

So, since we arrived too early for checking in, we decided to tour the small town of Mt. Gilead. There was this cute little coffee/ice cream shop, but it was closed!!! So we wandered into an old-timey hardware store where we bought some kale & collard seeds for our garden, and some hot roasted peanuts. We also had a key made and the total was only $3!

Then we took our peanuts and found a bench. There was a slight breeze and lots of sunhsine! Afterwards we went to the inn and checking into the "honeymoon" room. We settled in, then at 4 there was a "Sherry/Port and Refreshments Reception" in the library. We enjoyed some hot coconut-chocolate macaroons, cheese and crackers, and grapes, with little cordials of the liqueur. Then we walked outside all around the property & took some pictures. (see pics)

That night we headed to Albemarle for dinner. We planned on trying a place called Pontiac, it looked kind-of Italian, but we heard it was good. We couldn't find it, but we saw a Pizza Hut and I kept going on and on about how I couldn't wait to try their Dippin' Sticks.... How maybe we could get some and watch a movie at midnight... So Jonathan said I could choose where we ate. We'd seen the Yadkin Valley Steak House and thought it looked good. So I chose that, knowing I could get Pizza Hut anytime. :)We pulled up to the Steak House and inside it was quite elegant. We got sat at a back table with little candles lit around. They had a special method of cooking called Stone Grilling, in which they heat up a slab of granite and sear all their meat on it. So it sears in all the juices. We got pepper-encrusted beef medallions with a caramel sauce.... It was out of this world!! The hot peppercorns contrasted with the sweet caramel was tantilizing! They served lots of black bread too. We enjoyed the meal so much, we didn't have room for dessert, so we ordered a chess pie to go. I still had two cups of terrific Yadkin Valley coffee. :)

Then we went back to our room and watched Notting Hill. It was cute, but the message rather dumb. Still, we had fun and then had the chess pie. We kept the fire running, because the house was large and a bit drafty.The next day we had a glorious breakfast in the sun room and headed out to the Town Creek Indian Mounds. We learned a lot about the Pee Dee Indians that used to live there, and then we got to watch a woman actually cooking just like they would have. One thing the indians did was get a large smooth soapstone from the river and then they'd place it over coals and cook on it... Jonathan is sure someone visited here and saw that, and then implemented it at the steakhouse. :)

So we had a great time and headed back. That night we took the Mustang on a drive so Jonathan could teach me how to really control it accelerating really fast.The rest of the weekend went fun too. Sunday Josh & Jennifer showed up and we had fun at church, at the mall (Starbucks), and hanging at our house. So the weekend was long and really fun. Jonathan and I loved that it seemed so long and really counted!