Our Weekend!

People often ask me "how do you always find fun things to do around Jacksonville?" I always tell them the same thing - lots of Googling. My other secret? Billboards. North Carolina loves billboards and they are always advertising fun local events. Last week I added another recourse to my list: the radio. Everyday last week my favorite station was advertising for a chili festival at the local Harley Davidson. We love food festivals! So I knew we just had to go!

Saturday morning after running around, only to find that my favorite used book store is no longer around, we made our way to the chili festival. There were 20 teams - all biker dudes. We paid $5 each to eat an insane amount of chili!

We started at one end and attempted to make our way around to all the teams. Some were good, a few we delicious, and there is one that stands out in my mind as being absolutely disgusting (note to all: cheese wiz in chili is not a good idea.) After our 8th chili we had to take a break. Then we started sharing small bowls. And at about the 12th chili we had to call a quits. We were at a chili overload! I ended up voting for a sweet and spicy chili, while Danny voted for a hearty chili cooked by a guy in a trailer. They were both delish!

Sunday we had a big "to do" list. We started in Sneads Ferry for Danny's weekly haircut. Then made our way to Richlands, Jacksonville, and North Topsail. Then we came home for some cleaning, relaxing, and a movie. Before we passed out at 9:00. We are officially old....and weekends need to be longer!

Chili and Homecoming!

You know what's fabulous? Having weekends off. And this weekend was one for the books! Since we are early birds we had an early start on Saturday. It was a relaxing morning with coffee from our new Keurig (which I love, by the way!) Followed by an hour or two of grocery shopping...I honestly don't know how long we were there, but we came home with a ton of stuff.

Our next stop was the local chili festival. Chili and beer. Does it get any better than that!? The festival was supposed to last until 10PM...thank goodness we got there early, they were already starting to run out! We had 8 different chilis, all so different and so delicious. My favorite was the chocolate chili. YUM!

I was so full when we came home, I put on some stretch pants and curled up to watch a movie while Danny played his game. We had to rest up for the rest of our night!

Danny's been counting down the days for the past year....homecoming day for our friend Dustin! It's so great to have our favorite couple back together again, that means we can start having double dates again! And Jen went all out for the party. Awesome party decorations, great food and drinks...and, of course, a ton of laughs with great people. It was so fun to watch Danny be around one of his best friends again! Unfortunately, I don't have an pictures of the reunion....but I have a ton of pictures planned for tomorrows post!

Long Autumn Weekend

Since I've started working I've really learned to appreciate time off. Especially a long weekend!

We had a big list of To-Do's for Saturday. First stop was daycare for Miley! She's been cooped up in the house since I started working...and she's been such a good girl. I knew that since me and Danny were going out for a day of fun the puppy deserved the same thing! Next up we grabbed some Starbucks for the road. Then we made our way to Morehead City for the North Carolina Seafood Festival!

 We walked around for a few hours in the not-so-autumn weather....it was ninety degrees out! We looked at everything the vendors were offering, watched a chef make some yummy food, and sampled a few wines. Then, we finally decided what yummy seafood we wanted to try! There were so many ordinary things, like clam chowder, bacon wrapped scallops and fish tacos. So, me and my adventurous Hubby opted for the alligator chilli! It was pretty yummy, I would have liked bigger chunks of gator. I left wondering how the alligator sausages were...guess I'll just have to wait for next year!

We didn't last nearly as long as we thought we would..the crowds were huge and it was just way too hot out! On our way to pick Miley up we did some autumn shopping. I got some red and orange chrysanthemums, a pumpkin and a cute "welcome" sign for our front stairs. It looks so autumn-ish now!

Miley was so exhausted when she got home from her playdate. She passed out the second we got home! Me and Hubby decided to go out to eat to my new favorite local place. We've been in our house for six months and are just starting to find local places that we love. This place has a great bar, live music and awesome food. Hubby had a mixed bbq plate and I had grilled swordfish with mango salsa. Um, YUM!

Sunday was a lazy, lazy day. My butt was planted on the couch all day "watching" football. Usually Sunday is my housework day, but it was so nice to just sit down and do nothing all day. At some point Danny decided he wanted Chinese food, so that's what we feasted on for dinner. We usually don't eat out that much...but something about a long weekend just screams "don't cook!"

I woke up this morning well rested...and by myself, no alarm clock. It's not even 60 degrees out. And I'm sitting on the couch sipping on coffee with my Hubby. I'd say this is the perfect start to an autumn day! We plan to do some (much needed) yard work...and eventually I need to clean the house. Eventually...

Shrimp Festival!

Since we've moved to Sneads Ferry we've been looking forward to the Shrimp Festival! So, of course we were disappointed when we woke up Saturday morning to a downpour. Around noon it started to clear up, so me and Danny decided to check out the festival...fully expecting it to be a little boring.

It was anything but boring! There was a different live band every hour, a beer and wine tent, and of course...shrimp!

We eventually met up with Allie and Ryan and claimed a picnic table...that was our for the next seven hours. At some point Ryan was talking to a random guy, turns out it was the guy who recruited him! Small world! A few hours later I found out they actually know Katie and Frank...and were even at the wedding. Even smaller world!

We took many, many trips to the beer and wine tent. Had tons of delicious shrimp and other fair food. We were having so much fun we didn't realize that time flew by and it was already 7:00. Or that we all had awful sunburns! OOPS!

Cupcakes and Wine!

There are about a million reasons why I love North Carolina. The number one reason why I love it here? There is always something going on. There's always some kind of fair, festival, or event. Most weekends we have a hard time deciding which one we want to do!

Thursday night me and Jacque made our way down to Wilmington for what sounded like a perfect night. Cupcakes and wine. Seriously, does it get any better than that?!

Fortunate Glass and Coastal Cupcakes hosted an amazing event. Five cupcakes, five wines, $25. My taste buds are watering just thinking about it! Here's the menu:

 1st Pairing

2008 Shramsberg Brut Rose

Strawberry Champagne Cupcake with Buttercream Frosting

2nd Pairing

2011 Crossings Sauvignon Blanc

Seabreeze Cupcake with Buttercream Frosting

3rd Pairing

2010 Hopler Gruner Veltliner

Lavender Cupcake with Honey Cream Cheese Frosting

4th Pairing

2006 Bodegas Covitoro Gran Cermeno Crianza Tinta de Toro

Pistachio Cupcake with Cream Cheese and Caramel Drizzle

5th Pairing

2008 Scott Harvey Syrah

Chocolate Cherry Jubilee Cupcake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

I don't think I need to tell you....but they were all delicious! If you are ever in Downtown Wilmington make sure you visit The Fortunate Glass. It looks like the perfect spot for a date night! And then make sure you check out Coastal Cupcakes. You won't regret it!

It's Getting Chili in Here!

Okay, maybe not. It was actually a gorgeous weekend! But we did eat a bunch of really amazing chili at the Havelock Chili Festival!

It was such a great set up. Chili tents where assigned a letter A-Z, you walked around and tasted as many as you wanted...each sample was only $1. After 5 I was stuffed. What a wimp! I missed out on 21 other amazing chilis!

And, if you were wondering, the Jamaican chili was our favorite! Who knew Jamaicans had such fabulous chili!

When our bellies were full we walked around and enjoyed the rest of the fair. There was a John Deer ice cream maker! And Pedro made a special appearance!

I couldn't leave without getting a tacky tourist photo!

We came home with a bottle of locally made hot sauce. We do what we can to support local products! And you know we will put it to good use! YUM!

I'm in the Army....

....The Beer Army!

Yesterday me, Danny, Jen and Dustin went to Brew Bern.

We strategically planned the night:

load up on carbs, get a hotel room, walk a half mile to the festival.

And then drink.

Have you ever walked into a huge room full of beer?

IPA, dark, light, hefeweizen, hard cider...

anything your little heart desires!

But not only that..you can drink as much as you want.

These things always start the same...walk in circles and have lots of samples.

But they never end the same....

Will someone steal a sweatband? How many times will you do the Cupids Shuffle?

Who will wear an eye patch?

And how many times do you need to frequent the Sam Adams booth before they know you by name?

 
After four hours of drinking someone will be craving fried food.
For some reason you let the drunkest person lead the way,
because they have been drunk on that road before and they think it's like the movie Beerfest.

But after they almost get hit by a car you decide on the first restaurant you see.
The manager will ask you to quiet down, you'll order something you "see" on the menu and the waitress will laugh at you. And soon the guys will be holding hands.
Sadly, you'll forget to take photographic proof of all of that!

When all is said and done the half mile walk home seems much further....
so you call a cab. And someone will profess their love to the cab driver.


And if you're successful at a beer festival...
everyone will be passed out before 10:30.
And breakfast will be full of trying to piece together the night for atleast one person.

 

To read about last years epic beer fest...click here!

Wine Riot!

I'm always on the lookout for fun events....and I'm pretty good at finding them! A few weeks ago I saw that Boston was hosting Beer Summit and Wine Riot. Tickets were outrageously expensive, so I made a deal with myself: I'll only go if I win tickets. I got on Facebook and Twitter and started entering all sorts of contests. And guess what...on Thursday I won!

Saturday me and my sister got dressed in our best wine drinking attire and headed into Boston. In true New England fashion...it was raining. Thanks to the website directions we got a little lost. Instead of looking like a wine fashionista...I looked like a drowned rat.

There were forty booths...over 250 wines. It was wine heaven. I had wines from Portugal, France, Italy, California...and who knows where else! They gave us a book to keep track of everything we tried, I liked a lot of the whites but most of the reds were way too oaky for my taste. My favorite red didn't even taste like a red, Relax Cool Red. YUM! And of course when I ran across Flip Flop wine, I just had to try it! I highly recommend it!

They had super cheap food too! Upper Crust had yummy pizza and they had yummy pretzels at another stand. Thumbs up for the food, two thumbs way up for the wine!

We were so interested in the wine and food that we missed out on the crash courses. I wanted to go to the "Price Whore No More" course and a few of the others. Guess I'll just have to go next time!

Our awesome day ended in the photobooth (and fake tattoos!)We grabbed a few props...and came up with this great picture!

I'm a World Traveler!

Okay, not really...but this weekend I did hangout with people from all over the United States. In one weekend there was Massachusetts, Texas, Georgia, Ohio, Arkansas, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, and more places that we never discussed. Back in the day, before I married into the Marine Corps family, I never thought I would spend a weekend with people from all over the country. Call me a nerd, but I think that's pretty cool!

Friday night I gave my house to the guys for a poker night (Miley supervised!) and I headed out for a girls night. First, never under estimate how much pizza a bunch of girls can eat. Second, Apples to Apples is a great way to really get to know someone. Let me just tell you, my friends all have a sick sense of humor...and I love it! And I also I had my one-and-only s'more of the year. It was heavenly!

Saturday morning I did some early morning baking and headed to Katie's bridal shower brunch. If you know me, you know I love brunch, so I was thrilled when her sister said that's what we were going to do! We had delicious chocolate chip pumpkin muffins, yummy cookies, and my special strata. And we drank a lot of coffee. I was so excited to give her my gift, I had a panty bouquet made for her...and a lingerie cupcake. Seriously, the cutest things EVER! I can't wait for her sister to post the pictures..my camera apparently didn't like to take early morning pictures!

After the shower me and Danny made a brief appearance at Oktoberfest. It was a bust. (Rachel, I should have listened to you.....) But that's only because Danny left his ID at home. Um, Oktoberfest with no ID? Not gonna happen! I took a picture to prove we were there, ran home to get his ID...and ended up having a sushi date night. When we got home there was a little concert going on in our neighborhood, we went up for a little bit but Miley didn't really like the crowd (can't blame her...there were some creeps!)

We had a family day today, went for a walk, cleaned the house, did the Sunday-haircut-routine, and watched a movie.Now I'm sipping on a pumpkin spiced latte and ready to enjoy the evening with my little family! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Muscadine Harvest Festival

What a fun time! Yesterday Me, Danny, Carmen and Mike headed to a wine festival. Ever since me and Danny started dating we have loved drinking wine together. So we were really looking forward to the festival to get to try new wines and have some fun!

One of the many things I love about being a military wife...discounts. What would have cost of $50 to just get in the door, only cost us $24. Except when the man taking my ticket sees that I only have a $12 ticket, he assumes I'm underage...and gives me a funny look when I tell him I'm 24. So, there it is...this haircut might actually make me look younger than my long hair.

There were over 20 wineries at the festival. Over 150 wines. A band, food, and drunk old people. Sounds like my kind of fun! When you walked in they gave you a wine glass, you walk up to each stand, and get as many samples as you want. The samples aren't big...but when there are that many of them...they build up! You could also buy glasses of wine for $5.

Muscadine grapes are really sweet. So there were some wines that I didn't like...at all. Like apple wine, no good! But I did buy a glass of blackberry wine, which was amazing. We hungout in the Duplin tent for a while and tried all their Christmas wines and some of my old favorites. AND I had a grape cider slushie...amazing!

Of course we left with a bottle of wine. Our big purchase of the day was Catawba Belle by Vineyards on the Scuppernong, NC. It was yummy!!!


My goal for the season? Go to one fair every weekend! This is one of the many reasons why autumn is my favorite season!

96 Hours

I have always loved holiday weekends. But a military holiday weekend is amazing. Danny got out of work early on Friday. We headed to Raleigh for dinner with the in-laws. Danny's step-dad got a new truck, one of those fancy-schmancy ones with OnStar. Seriously, how cool is that? You call, a lady picks up, and you tell her where you want to go. She then sends the directions to your truck. When a direction comes up, the radio volume and air conditioner get quiet so you can actually  hear whats coming up. AND it has a built in phone. The TRUCK has it's own PHONE NUMBER! All five of us called Danny's grandma. Oh, and dinner was good too!

Saturday, after Miley peed on our bed, me and Danny had a long-overdue date night. First, we headed to Target to get some shelves for our living room, I love having pictures around the house...you can never have enough! We had dinner at the Olive Garden. Red wine, pasta...mmm, it was a good night! We were going to see a movie, and I don't really remember why we didn't...but we ended up back at the house finishing up season 1 of LOST. Danny swore he would never get addicted to it...but if you're a fan, you know that's impossible! We slept on the floor Saturday night....after Miley peed on the bed, I washed my sheets...and was waaaay to lazy to make the bed!

 Date night!

Sunday we hung the new shelves and put up some new pictures. I've never celebrated the 4th without a crowd, so it was a little different for me. We made ribs and corn on the cob...very yummy! Then we headed out to New Bern for the air show. We got there waaay early. We sat in the sun, listened to music and people watched. For doing absolutely  nothing, I had a lot of fun. The air show was awesome. The first guy went straight up in the air and shut his engine off! A lady walked on the wings of an airplane. That is I-N-S-A-N-E. We wanted to beat the traffic, so we left early. We settled in for the night with the Boston Pops and Toby Keith. I love the Pops, I've seen their Christmas show so many times. Watching it totally made  me miss home!

 Drawbridge in New Bern

This dog was waaaay bigger than me!

This girl was so cute! And I loved her dress!

LOVED the air show!

Monday I woke up, and my hips hurt. I think the night on the floor and sitting at the airshow killed my hips. Danny says its because I don't drink milk (I like it in coffee, cereal, ice cream and cheese...can't do it straight.) I seriously think he is going to make me take vitamins. ICK! We went to the golf course, he hit a bucket of balls. I was just getting getting enough nerve to hit a ball myself when a ton of people came. I'm such a wimp, totally bailed. I promised him next time I would hit a whole bucket. We took Miley to the pet store, she get's SO excited when another dog comes up to her...she always pees. That girl needs some bladder control! We ended the day with a great dinner and a trip to Starbucks!

Fun in the sun!

Today was the last day of "vacation." We went down to Wilmington to do a little shopping. Jacksonville has so many stores, including two Walmarts, but there is NO KOHLS! We got some cheap beach towels, a couple area rugs and I got the cutest dress! I also started scoping out ideas for the summer essentials swap! We're grilling out again tonight...and probably going to end the day with more LOST.

You know what my favorite part of a 96 is? Danny only has 3 days of work...and then it's the weekend! LOVE IT! 

And just a little blogging business: if you are going to sign up for the swap, please do it before noon tomorrow. That way I can figure out the pairs in time for Thursday's post!  I haven't decided if I'm going to do it by location or randomly. Any feedback would be great!

Hope everyone is having a great week so far! 

Azalea Festival?

Yes, with a question mark.

I was expecting flowers. You know, because an azalea is a flower.

But nope, no flowers were to be seen. But we still had fun. The weather was bea-u-ti-ful! I even got a little sun on my shoulders. Yay and nay, I like being pale..but love that it's warm enough to start getting sun! The festival reminded me of my college World Music class. There were African drums and kids playing trash cans. I thought it was pretty awesome. Danny liked all that stuff..and the food and beer. If there is food...we will find, and we will eat it!

Portable Greek salad. Mmmm perfect!