It's not just a gas station... it's a Seven Eleven!

October 12th, 2013

Today is the last day of our vacation. Today we return to Georgia. We woke up before normal breakfast hours for the B&B, hoping to return to Georgia at a decent hour. We quietly dressed, packed, and walked downstairs for breakfast. Juliette said she'd leave milk in the fridge for us so we could have granola cereal before we headed out. Jason grabbed and apple and we both at a small bowl before leaving. Right as we finished eating, we heard Juliette in the kitchen feeding her cats. We decided to drop off our bowls in the kitchen and say goodbye before heading out. She wished us a good trip and then we left.

Once on the road, we decided to find a Seven Eleven to stop at. I've never been in one. I had seen one when we went to the zoo, but wasn't able to stop because, to be honest, there wasn't a reason to stop at the time. I've had numerous people tell me how amazing Seven Elevens are, and I've always been curious...what's so special about them? I know they have the slurpee machines, but so do Burger Kings and Quick Trips. Today I could finally find out. Jason had been in one before and told me not to expect anything amazing... it was, after all, just a gas station. Well, we found one... the only one on the way home actually. Here's a picture, just cause:

Well, we went in and got the famous slurpee, cherry. We also grabbed some almonds and then left. Have to say... wasn't impressed, as far as gas stations go. I have definitely been in fancier gas stations and their slurpee was the same exact thing as a freezie at a Quick Trip. Don't get it. At least it gave us a fun laugh and a good drink. The next half hour Jason and I started coming up with fun, ridiculous commercials about seven elevens. Since everyone talks so highly about them, as though they are the Ritz Carlton of gas stations, we decided the commercial should be super fancy. Maybe a man with a red, velvet smoke jacket as the star. He slicks back his hair, takes a puff of his giant cigar while holding a whiskey glass, and says in a British accent... "it's not just a gas station....." (he puts down his whiskey and trades it for a cherry Seven Elleven Slurpee) "....it's a Seven Eleven!" Jason says the actor should be the guy from the movie Hot Fuzz who they call "The Slasher!" Haha, good times with Jason on a road trip :^)

Slowly, as we left Virginia, the colorful leaves begin to return to their evergreen state and the outside air thickens with the North Carolina heat. We both felt our vacation slip away as the colors fade. Always sad. The trip was so amazing. Jason and I both have always felt the south was just not for us... but in Virginia, although it's still a southern state, they are so different. They love their southern routes and are very proud of their southern history, but they don't have massive cars that are extremely loud, nor do they carry massive guns while speaking in a thick accent. They just are who they are, respect their past, and are still respectful of others. They're a perfect southern state. Plus, they still have tea and they have an actual cold, colorful fall here. Definitely going to miss it.

Once we reached the edge of North Carolina, we decided to stop for lunch. We found the restaurant called Cook Out. I ordered and awesome corn dog with fries and Jason got a chili cheese dog with chili cheese fries. We also split a peanut butter fudge milkshake. Amazing. Here's a picture... last vacation meal:

So good. A few bees showed up though and made it difficult to eat. For some reason they really love Jason on this trip. This time they didn't sting him though. After eating lunch we hopped back in the car and headed home. The closer to home, the worse the traffic got but we finally made it. When we walked in our cats were waiting for us by the door meowing at us. They missed us so much. We asked Jordyn to watch them while we were gone but our garage door wasn't working so they couldn't get in the house. They were fine though. Had water, liter was good, and still had food. I think they were just lonely. They did really well though... nothing was broken at all. They had obviously gotten on the counter but they refrained from getting into the food or knocking over glasses. We have such great cats!

Nothing special once we got back. Just brought in our luggage, watched some tv, went to Panera, shopped at Target, and returned home to watch the Office. The usual. Although vacations are wonderful, it's nice to be home to normal life too. We really missed our cats and now we can just enjoy life at home and relax. I love my life with Jason. He makes even the boring days amazing.

The Beardicle And The Beardless Go A Cavin'

October 11, 2013

Friday, our last full day in Virginia. Tomorrow we'll head back to Georgia, but not today! Today we head to the Virginia mountains and explore some caves. Of course, no one can go cave exploring on an empty stomach. Therefore, we met Juliette for breakfast at the regular time, and were welcomed with pears covered in raspberries. Jason also accepted cranberry-grape juice from Juliette, where I simply followed my regular hot tea with two lumps of sugar. I can say things like that because a British woman was serving the tea and food. After finishing the fruit, Juliette brought us some broccoli-cheese quiche, sausage links, and toast with her homemade wine jelly. Looking forward to trying the wine jelly at home, since we bought a jar from her a few days ago! Yum! During breakfast, Juliette told us that we had been a challenge for her. Apparently, most of her guests stay only 2-3 nights, so she usually just prepares three breakfast dishes. Since we stayed 6 nights, she had to create more dishes than usual. Luckily, she didn't seem to mind. She's an excellent cook and did really well. We informed her we wouldn't be eating breakfast tomorrow since we were going to be leaving before breakfast hours to return to Georgia. She said she's leave us some milk in the refrigerator in case we wanted a quick bowl of homemade granola before we left. She also encouraged us to take some fruit from her fruit bowl by the window as well. We thanked her. She told us to just leave the bedroom door key in the door on our way out, and had us sign a receipt. We thanked her and told her she had been wonderful.

Just as we finished eating, the new couple that arrived yesterday came down for breakfast. To avoid being rude, we said hello and asked where they were from. They apparently are from West Virginia and were simply stopping through to visit Monticello. We told them it was beautiful and wished them a safe trip. Jason and I then went upstairs and planned our day. We packed up our things and headed out for Luray Caverns. It was exactly an hour away. I love driving around in Virginia. While driving, Jason and I kept humming the tune that Abed and Troy sing in their morning news program on the show Community. We always can somehow have fun together, even in the moments where you can't really do much. However, even when driving you can still sightsee. It's so mountainous here and the farmland is just beautiful! Both Jason and I agree that we would love to move here one day. The weather is lovely, the people are nice, and it's just beautiful! Once we arrived at Luray, we bought our tickets and waited for the tour to start. It was a misty day, still trying to rain, so we staid inside and browsed the shop.

Once they announced the tour was about to start, we formed a line at the entrance so they could scan our tickets. After doing so, we headed down some stairs and waited for everyone else to join us. We waited in a large room surrounded by stalagmites (the ones coming from the ground) and stalactites (the ones from the ceiling). Here is a picture of that room:

Once everyone arrived, a young woman began to give us instructions. Both Jason and I were having trouble actually listening to her words because we were distracted by how robotic she sounded. It was as though we were listening to our GPS guide us through the caverns. She added weird inflections when she spoke, without any emotion, and paused in random spots. "Here...we have... the STALAC....tites! To..our...left... there is a formAtion that is 700.......MILLION... years old." Hard to write it exactly out how she spoke, but, like I said, just go listen to a GPS and you'll get it. It became funnier and funnier the farther we went into the cave.

Here are some things we saw:

 The fish market (looks like fish hanging down in a row).

 Just a bunch of them. Looks like a giant face of a man with a very large and long nose.

 More just random pictures of inside the cave.

 This is called dream lake. The lake on the bottom of this picture is only 18 inches deep, but the reflection makes it look so much larger! It's so pretty!

 Here we have Pluto's ghost. They called it this because it apparently looked like a ghost to the first people who discovered the cave. They weren't able to have flashlights, just candles and found themselves believing it was a ghost due to the size and the way it appears to be cloaked.

 This is what they call Skeleton gorge. It's the giant stalagmite on the right. Apparently they found some bones from an Native American girl. They didn't find all her bones, just some. They believe she was buried in the ground above, but due to the cold and rainy weather, her bones were pushed lower into the earth and some fell into the cave. They found her bones by the stalagmite on the right. We walked right past it... kinda creepy.

 Picture of me and the stuff behind me... couldn't get it to work at the same time.

 Picture of Jason and the stuff behind Jason, still couldn't get it to work right.

 This is the flying camel. I was at a bad viewing spot, so it's not the best but it does look like a camel in the sky.

 This is the shaggy dog. As you can tell, the top left looks like the head of a dog and you can follow it's back across the top. There also appear to be two large feet that go down to the floor. Pretty cool. This was massive.

 Just thought this was pretty.

 This is what National Geographic calls the best example of drapes in the world. They are actually called Saracens Tent. It really looks like someone folded curtains . . . very large curtains.

 This is apart of the curtains above. I took this picture because they placed a light behind it, making it look like a decorative towel that was hanging. It's apparently only 1/8th inches thick due to the water that drips down. Really does look like curtains... very cool.

 This is what they call "The Fallen Stalactite." They call it this because... you can obviously see it fell. It fell 7 thousand years ago from some earth disturbance. Still in tact because it was cushioned by mud and water when it fell. It's huge!

 They call this the Virginia Bacon. It's the part with the light shinning behind it. They call it this mainly to go with another stalactite in the cave that they say looks like scrambled eggs.

 This is the Giant's Hall. They call it this because it is the deepest part of the cave, 164 feet deep. There are also two giant stalagmites and stalactites (in the middle of the picture) here. They call these two the Bride and Groom due to how many weddings they have here.

 This is the Moose. Looks like a moose, if you couldn't see it.

 Next we listened to the coolest "rock music" ever, as our tour guide said in a flat voice. It was actually amazing! They have hooked up an organ in the room and each key is attached to a stalactite with wires, like the ones shown in the picture below...

 Once the key is pressed, it causes the wires to move that round thing on top and hit the stalactites, creating a sound like an organ would make. They played us a song... it was beautiful!

 More of Pluto's ghost, up close.

 This is the Wishing Well. It appears green, not because the water is green, but because the pennies that everyone throws in for wish-making has turned the stalagmites green. We threw in a penny and a nickel. I wished for something and Jason said wishes aren't real. He's wrong and admitted it, but then he said they are real but just pointless. He's wrong about that too, he just doesn't know that yet.

 This is a picture of what they call... the Beardicle and the Beardless," according to Jason.

 Fried eggs. They call it this because it looks like that. It apparently formed due to some stalactites falling over. We thought they were going to be huge, but they were literally the size of eggs. Disappointment.

After we left the caves, we worked our way through zillions of children to leave the store...we have decided the kids here don't ever go to school... instead they are on field trips every day. Once we left, we headed over to the museum and then the car exhibit. Below are the cars we saw. I know nothing of cars, so just enjoy the pictures:

 car

 car

 car

 black car.

After visiting all we could, Jason and I decided to quickly find a place to eat... we were super hungry. We drove for quite a while until we finally saw something open. Things here don't open like normal places. We parked and then walked down the sidewalk of this small main street until  we found a restaurant called Kathy's. This is not the same place as last night's dinner. Here's a picture of us eating, cause that's how we roll.

After eating, Jason and I walked down the street to an "antique" store. There were no antiques in there at all, but it had a lot of super cute fall decorations. We didn't get anything but it gave me a lot of fun ideas of some fall projects I can do, like make a wooden pumpkin or a scarecrow or make ghost pillow. Should be fun! After browsing a little, we headed back toward Staunton.

Once back at the Inn Jason and I decided to relax a little and just read reddit. Okay, well, Jason read reddit and I napped cause I can always fall asleep at the drop of a hat and Jason can always reddit. After relaxing a bit, we started looking up places for dinner and what else we'd like to do for our last night here. We decided to head toward the oldest church in Staunton to sightsee. I took a picture of it yesterday, just in case it was raining and we'd miss it. Today, however, we got to actually go inside. Or rather, we went inside the fence to look through the church grounds. Apparently, the church was established in 1746. Jason said he had read that they buried so many people in the churchyard that they could dig a grave without striking and old one, so that's when they made Thornrose Cemetery across the street from the cottage. It's truly a lovely church. Here are some pictures of the church and the graves:

 Yes, that does say 1794.

After visiting the church we decided to walk down to the Clock Tower for dinner. I posted a picture of the restaurant before, but didn't note it. Here is another picture of it. The restaurant is, of course, right underneath the building with the clock:

 When we walked in, a British man (who looked very similar to Ricky Gervais) showed us to our table and then introduced himself as our waiter. Jason ordered a flight of beer and then we both also got waters. The waiter took a long time with his ID because Jason always looks so young and we were from out of town. He finally agreed he was old enough and took Jason's order. Jason got the following: Rogue Dead Guy Ale, Apocalypse Ale sixth seal, Spaten Oktoberfest, and a fourth he can't remember the name of. After he brought our drinks, we ordered our food. Jason got spinach and artichoke panini and I got a half order of the chicken Parmesan with a cup of beef and barley soup. Here is a picture:

Jason and I had the best time at dinner. We laughed so much and really enjoyed the food. The waiter was also super kind and really awesome to listen to since he was British. We talked about our trip, the zoo, the crazy llama, and all the amazing vacations we've been fortunate to have. We also had a fun conversation about me one day being a "right, proper housewife." Haha. Apparently to be a right proper housewife I will also have to train our cats to ring a bell when dinner is ready and have the other one bring slippers and food! Haha! Never boring with Jason. After Dinner we walked over to the Split Banana again for gelato. Here is a picture:

 Mine is the left one and Jason's the right. I got chocolate and coconut and Jason got cinnamon and Virginia peanut butter. Both were very good. We let the other taste what we got... so good! Below is a picture of the ice cream shop:

You can't see it but to the right of the door was a piano that said "play something nice," and there was actually a Split Banana worker who was playing classical music. He was really talented! We had a great time! After ice cream, we walked through downtown and headed toward the Inn. On the way up the street we heard a group of random Asian kids who said "Nachos, nachos, nachos, nachos, nachos" about a billion times with no explanation as to why. I assume they don't know English very well and that maybe they were discussing how the word Nachos seems very strange? Another strange American phrase we learned today, "Yuck nuts." Haha Jason and I laughed a lot! Now back at the Inn, we're finishing this blog post and enjoying the wine we got at the grocer the other day. It's been a wonderful trip. Sad to see it end. Tomorrow, the open road back to the Georgia hotlands. I'm so thankful for weeks like this and for an amazing man to share life with... both the rough moments and the wondrous ones! Three years and so many, many more!

Hey, Hey, Hey, Boo-Boo!

October 10th, 2013

As Jason and I head down to breakfast we hear new voices coming from the tea room. As we enter, we realize it's the guests we had briefly met the day before. A middle-aged couple apparently in town for their anniversary as well. Juliette served us bacon and French Toast with homemade berry sauce. Amazing, as all her food is.

Jason and I grabbed our hot tea and Jason's plumb juice as we began to get to know the couple. They asked us more about the zoo experience, and Jason entertained them with the llama story. They both, like us, were extremely surprised a llama had been outside of a cage. The husband, I think his name was Mike, said that they had taken their 10 year old daughter with them to the same zoo, but that they also did the Safari ride where you feed more animals from your car. He said it had turned out to be an interesting experience, but his wife said it was probably better left to another time, one where we wouldn't be eating. I had mentioned that we would have liked to have gone on the safari ride, but decided against it since their website mentioned how some animals were prone to bucking cars if they weren't feed fast enough. The couple laughed and decided maybe they better go ahead and tell their story. Apparently, the couple had missed a sign at the entrance stating some animals were not to be fed and to simply drive past them. One of those animals was the water buffalo. Since they had not seen the sign and the buffalo appeared hungry, they began to try to feed it from their car. The husband said the buffalo wasn't very interested in the food he was offering so the buffalo decided to see what other food might be in their car. To do this, the buffalo placed his head in between the driver, Mike, and the steering wheel to find more food. At this point his head was fully in the car. Mike said they were, of course, unable to drive off and that they weren't sure what to do but wait for the buffalo to make it's move. After an awkward minute, the buffalo sneezed on him and his wife and then pulled his head out of the car to leave. Mike said they drove off with their daughter laughing in the back seat (she was perfectly clean and free from any remaining buffalo matter). They decided to quickly leave to go home and clean up. Guess we made the right decision. . . no safari ride or buffalo sneezes for us!

After we swapped stories with the couple, we learned that they, too, have the same anniversary date as us, October 9th. Not only that, but they also celebrated their anniversary at the same restaurant that we had, Byers Street Bistro. They said they had even seen us leaving right as they were walking in. Later on Jason and I realized that we had actually held the door open for them, but never recognized them! The couple said it was getting too weird and that, surely, we had planned our wedding date to be on the 8th and that the church must have canceled on us or something. We laughed and then Jason said, "actually..." and then he told them of how our priest bailed on the wedding, along with a groomsman, and the photographer. They were shocked and apparently also had the same issue with a photographer as well! Crazy! When we thought it couldn't have gotten any stranger, we later learned that they both had lived in Georgia for a few years near Atlanta as well. Small world.

After enjoying our amazing breakfast and saying goodbye to the couple (they were leaving today), we headed upstairs to plan our day. It was drizzling slightly outside and was colder today than any other day. We decided to get bundled up, grab our umbrella, and drive to the many antique shops in town. Apparently antiques is what Staunton is known for, one of the many things. We parked in downtown and walked into "Jolly Roger's Haggle Shop." There were three stories of antiques in this shop. The owner walked over and told us that if we found something we liked, he would give us a better deal on it. He was true to his word. Jason found this 1930s antique razor.

The razor was marked for 7 but he told us he'd give it to us for 6. We didn't even try to haggle him, he just offered. We later learned that this same razor was being sold on ebay for 50. Score!

Jason and I left the Jolly Roger's and went to an antique store we had previously visited on the trip. It was right next to the Baja Bean restaurant that we loved so much. I was able to find a picnic basket that I've always wanted and for very cheap, compared to most baskets like this in regular stores or on-line. It was an amazing deal.

Perfect size for four people and big enough to put a blanket in, too. Perfect! The straw is still in perfect condition and extremely sturdy as well!

Jason also found this, which will be perfect for our sconces at home:

Also, we found a cool ghost!

After shopping, we decided to stop in the Baja Bean for lunch. We had a different waiter this time than the previous visit. He walked up, said "how are you two," and then held his hand up and began coughing a great deal. When he returned closer to our table Jason said, "I think the real question is how are you doing?" He laughed and then excused himself, stating the weather was changing and causing him issues. We live in Georgia, we completely understand. We both ordered the Baja Tostada, the same dish I had ordered the last time we were there. The restaurant was quiet as we waited, and the rain was making it a very calm atmosphere. Our waiter returned rather quickly to give us our food. As he went to set down my plate, Mexican music began to play. The song seemed to start at the middle rather than at the beginning and was about ten times louder than the previous song. Everyone was clearly startled, but our waiter handled it beautifully. He set my plate down, had only a brief moment where his eyes became very large from the unexpected sound, and then he said in a loud voice "Hey! Okay!" He clapped with the music as he quickly walked to the front of the restaurant to change the song. Took a while for us to stop laughing. He was pretty funny. Shortly after that, he brought a drink to the man at the table next to us. As he was leaving, he swiftly turned back around and said "Did you say lemon or no lemon?" The man next to us said "none." Our waiter walked back over to the man, out of eyesight for me (my back was to him). The next thing I see is a lemon flying in the air and landing on the floor. The waiter took it back! Haha! Pretty entertaining.

After lunch, we headed back toward the car. Once we arrived at the parking lot, I realized that all the other cars had tags they had purchased to park there. Apparently we parked without paying. We hurried to the car. We were lucky that we found no ticket and that our car had not been towed (we had left it for about two hours). Close one! How horrible would that be... car towed while on vacation many states away from home.

Once back at the hotel, we relaxed a little and Jason cleaned up his new razor. We also made funny faces at each other, cause we do that...

 The weird us and the normal us. I told Jason we should make one of those pictures that change. At first you see a normal picture of us (the one below), but tilt it slightly and our faces change to the funny picture (the one above, in case you weren't aware).

Shortly after this we also had a "who's taller competition." I won, as always. After relaxing and enjoying the rain indoors a bit, we decided to head out for some more shopping. We ended up parking the car in a spot where we knew we wouldn't have to pay and then visited a shop that has been closed each and every time we try to go in. The stores in this town have weird hours. For example, there was a restaurant that was open on Monday (with zero customers) and has been closed each day since. Also, there were two to three antique stores that appear to be open only a few hours a day, and apparently these stores only open when we are unable to visit them. Today, however, we were able to catch one of these antique stores during the only hour it's ever open. Sadly, we weren't able to find anything we liked. We then returned to the previous antique store where I bought the picnic basket, mainly because we discovered there was a second floor that we had missed. We walked in, headed toward the downstairs, and went exploring. We saw some old bikes, a very large spinning wheel, and some other pretty interesting things. We left, however, with nothing. Seems our taste are just a little bit different than most of the items in these antique stores. We then hopped in the car and headed toward dinner.

Tonight we ate at Kathy's. We had seen it on-line and discovered this was apparently one of the only places you could actually find good genuine Virginia country ham. Each place we ate at I would try to find Virginia ham, since ham is the only type of food they are known for here. Finally, I found it. They were also rating the number one breakfast spot in Virginia.

Jason ordered their quiche of the day with fried apples and a cranberry muffin. Jealous, right?

I, of course, got the Virginia ham with fried apples, mashed potatoes, and a role. Pretty good... was not aware of how salty Virginia ham is! I had heard it was, but I guess I just thought it wouldn't be to that extent. Kind of like when you hear that Katy Perry can't sing, but you just don't really know how bad until you hear her try yourself.

 After we ate our dinner, we also ordered a Pecan Ball to share. This was amazingly awesome. Jason and I both completely dived in and started eating... wasn't until halfway through that I realized I hadn't taken a picture of it. I might take too many pictures, but at least now we can always remember how awesome it looked, even if the taste fades from our memory and mouth.

After dinner, Jason and I headed back to the hotel and are just relaxing. We did some on-line shopping and Jason is working on restoring his new razor... looks pretty shiny and amazing now. He's great at things like that. Oh, and before I forget... I remembered to take pictures of the tea room/breakfast nook at the B&B. It's so pretty!

 This is where we get our tea in the morning. She even has a little tea box to the left with a zillion types of tea bags and tea leafs. I really would love something like that in our house one day. A nice tea bar would be amazing!

This is the other part of the same room. Here is her cozy fireplace and sitting area. You can't see it but behind the couch are a ton of homemade jams and jellies that she sells. She even has tea pots and jewelry to the left that you can buy as well. I didn't take a picture, but we discovered that Juliette is a beautiful painter as well. She left her canvas out that she was working on while we were gone. It was of a woman and it looked gorgeous! Really realistic and lovely. She's pretty amazing. Until tomorrow... only one more day here!