The night before the trip, while sitting in bed, I thought I’d give nail adhesive strips a try. You know, something new and fun for the no-children-allowed trip with my husband.
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| (Turns out not such a good idea, the nail sticker.) |
Later that morning my husband and I headed out to drop my daughter off, only to discover our initial babysitting plan was no longer an option. Moved on to plan C, which was last minute-dropping off my 3 year old in the completely capable hands of my super-awesome cousin at work:
Still, my heart was heavy. I drove away crying and feeling like I had just abandoned my baby after nobody wanted her.
Stopped for strong coffee and the morning bagel with too much cream cheese, and took a pit-stop. Found this happening in the bathroom:
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| (Do you think someone’s job was to sit and watch the trashcan fill up? Is it there for potty viewing? Is there a toilet ghost in it?) |
Got on the road, an hour past schedule. Took selfie to cheer up a friend:
Stopped for gas in South Carolina where gas is cheap and the snacks are just a tad bit different than what I’m used to…
Later began instagramming them out of boredom:
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| (My favorite is the jerky wall) |
Stopped for lunch at ‘Bacon Brothers Public House’ in Greenville where they have good, local beer:
…fancified southern plates and a meat curing room:
Arrived in Atlanta.
Checked into hotel and immediately headed back out on foot for a little shopping.
“It’s only 2 blocks away”, says hotel clerk. After an hour walk in HotLanta we arrive and do a little window shopping… and drink more coffee.
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| …because Vacation Abbey drinks too much coffee then has to take something in order to sleep at night. (Vacation Abbey is a rebel.) |
We hot-walk back to the hotel and FaceTime with the kiddos who are enjoying a requested trashy microwave meal al freso back home:
We get ready for a fancy dinner of our own…
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| (Cleaned-up hotel bed-selfie) |
and head off to James Beard award winning Chef Hopkins’ place- ‘Restaurant Eugene’ where my husband and I turned into teenagers discovering they had a Great Wall of Bourbon:
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| (Much better than a jerky wall, yes?) |
I drank champagne the color of rubies, my husband drank a craft whiskey sour and we split a bottle of Pinot:
We ate like kings. We ate like foodies and not like parents. We sipped shots of blueberry-basil-buttermilk purée, ate pimento cheese macarons, foie gras in ham broth, crispy duck, guinea hen and sugared cubes of passion fruit gel.
I had the quote of the evening, says our waiter, when he asked if we would be interested in any dessert. My answer-
“How can I eat dessert if I couldn’t even finish my fat?!!”
Returned to the hotel far later than we usually stay awake at home.
And I began to wash off the evening:
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| (I call this one After-party Selfie.) |
…slipped into bed and finished the Pinot in hotel glasses with my husband by my side. We both fell asleep watching something on Food Network and slept late the next morning.
Ordered room service:
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| (It was horrible. Absolutely terrible. The grapefruit juice was not, the coffee was a mere whisper of such and I’m still trying to figure out what they did to my sausage. But neither one of us cared because we didn’t have to make it.) |
I worked out in the room…
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| (Sweaty selfie) |
Rushed to get ready for check out and head to the morning/afternoon business meetings across town.
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| (Blurry elevator selfie) |
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| (Do you think I brought enough stuff for one night?) |
I dropped my husband off at meeting #1 and killed some time in CVS. Usually I’m chasing after small children rearranging displays so it was nice to aimlessly walk in peace. This particular CVS was, let’s just say, not the cleanest one I’ve been in. The bathrooms hadn’t been cleaned in…I’m just taking a wild guess here…247 days, and my sandals literally got stuck to the floors. Also-the makeup had all been used:
I bought myself a few fun items to play with and doused myself in Purel on the way out.
After meetings and lunch we got on the road that would lead us home.
I became bored again and took more unnecessary selfies…(had to see how I liked my new CVS goodies!)
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| (Found an un-used lipstick! -NYX in pure nude) |
And 5 hours later we pulled into the driveway, squeezed our babies who jumped at the sight of us, and thanked my Other Mother who was the stand-in mama while we were gone.
Cleaned things, bathed people, and climbed into bed to drink wine and watch trashy reality TV.
Woke up super early to these monkeys:
And continued life as usual.
What I’ve learned is this- it doesn’t matter how far away you go, how clean or dirty it is, how good or bad the food is, how long the drive is, how many self-gratuitous selfies you had to take to pass some of the drive-time, it is always and forever-always good to go away for a bit.
Just so you can have the feeling of coming home again.
Because home is where my hearts are.
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So…it’s not in fancy macaron form, but it is pretty yummy and cool- Here’s my Pimento CheeseCake recipe that you simply have to serve at your next cocktail party!!
(Super old post) Click here!: Pimento CheeseCake
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