Feels Like Carolina

I had such a great weekend down in South Carolina with my sweetheart. I flew out Friday night after work and was lucky to have zero delays. Don't you just love being picked up from the airport? Having someone waiting there for you, both of you anxious for the plane to land? It makes me so happy to walk out the door and scan the line of cars for his.

We drove from the airport to his childhood home so he could pick up a few things and show me all the cute baby TJ through high school football TJ pictures. I can't get enough of those dimples... 

After our little pit stop we continued on to the lake. We didn't have any concrete plans for the weekend except to watch football and be attached at the hip and we definitely accomplished both those goals.

Saturday we woke up and watched College Game Day and the fog clear off the lake. For breakfast I had baked some pumpkin bread to share and there was also some of the best cinnamon bread ever which I can never say no to. We would have been pretty satisfied to just stay on the couch and stuff ourselves all day. But we decided we'd feel less guilty about the bread and later the BBQ, and the gumbo, and the steak, if we got outside for a bit of fresh air.

It's slowly starting to look like fall down there so we headed off down the scenic Highway 11 and pulled in to the Keowee Toxaway State Park. It was the perfect temperature, just a little cool and just right for a hike.

We weren't out too long- like I said, Henry's BBQ was calling our name. The rest of the day we happily lazed around, watching Tennessee beat South Carolina (go Vols). We took a break from the football to watch World War Z. TJ and I both share a love of zombie movies although The Walking Dead is by far superior.

After watching a pretty fantastic sunset from their porch we sat down with his parents for a delicious steak dinner with sweet potatoes and salad- all the veggies were from their garden.  Following dinner we attempted to watch the Clemson game... but had to change the channel when it got too painful. I'd had about enough football at the point anyway and ended up dozing off on his shoulder. It was a pretty perfect day.

The next morning his parents headed out early and then we took our time leaving- how was is possibly already the last day of my visit?

We had plans to head into downtown area to meet up with my sister and her boyfriend who also happened to be visiting.  On our way, we drove through our university's campus and laughed about all the times we were in the same place at the same time but didn't really know each other. I'm so thankful that our ties to this place brought us together eventually and at just the right time. (P.S. isn't this just the prettiest campus? I'm not biased, it is an absolute fact.)

Driving into downtown just made me feel homesick. I wanted to go to all my favorite restaurants and just see all the things that I've missed. The number one thing I miss, though, is my sister. 

We ordered some cheese fries for the table (of which the boys had none and sister and I had all of them) and the guys talked football, fantasy football, baseball, whatever. Meanwhile sister and I happily imagined future double dates and vacations with all four of us if only we were all in the same place.  Of course we made the waitress take our photo- the parents wanted this documented. 

We said goodbye to these two and then TJ and I went back over to his parents house for a little while longer, where I got the grand tour, saw the garden where all those yummy vegetables came from, and met their horse (named Dixie- just like my pup).

All too soon TJ was driving me to the airport and dropping me off not even 48 hours after picking me up- my least favorite part of the weekend. Of course in order to make this distance less painful I already have another trip planned in a just a couple weeks. We've decided a month apart is our max and that's pushing it.

Let the new countdown begin.