Back Home Again 4/18/23

 Hello and Good Morning!

Gosh I've missed you all.  I confess to not doing very much blog reading at all while I was on vacation.  I mostly ignored my phone other than to take pictures and text with the kids.  Guess that's a sign of a good vacation.  Actually it was great!

We started off Easter weekend in Suffolk, VA at Fletcher's brother's home.  Damon and Peggy are just lovely people and we always have a great time with them.  Easter Sunday family and friends wandered in and out.  It was too windy and chilly to sit outside, but there was a wonderful spread of food and it was great to catch up with people we had not seen in a couple of years.

Then we headed down to Chapel Hill, NC where we checked in at our AirBnB.  Hands down, this is the nicest AirBnB we have stayed in.  Our hosts, Anne and Robert were wonderful - friendly, helpful, fun.  

Fletch on the front porch of "our" Bungalow.

The back, screened-in porch of the Bungalow.  The sofa was long enough for napping (which Fletch took advantage of one afternoon).  This was a great spot for bird watching.

The living area and kitchen (my knitting bag on the coffee table!).  The sliding barn door at the back is the entrance to the bathroom.

There was even an outdoor wood fired stove/pizza oven that Robert had built (he also built the Bungalow as well as their log home).

There was a huge garden (complete with a totem pole), a chicken coop and chickens (no roosters) and inside everything you needed in the kitchen.  

The following day we drove down to Buies Creek, NC where Fletch had gone to school.  He even managed to find the old farm house where he lived with some other students.  Later we met up with our friends Dick and Lois for dinner.  We ate at Nomad which was simply amazing.  Everything was so good!  And the following day they took us to the Duke Gardens.  What a beautiful spot.

And, as you can see from the picture, it was a beautiful day to be out and about.  Perfect weather!

I loved the Asian Gardens.  So peaceful and pretty.

That night we went out for BBQ which did not disappoint.  The following day Fletch and I took a 2 hour hike at the Johnston Mill Nature Preserve which is part of the Triangle Land Conservancy (I confess that every time I saw a sign for the TLC I thought I was seeing "tick" - yuck!!

There were some fairly muddy spots - we even had to get off the trail at some points due to flooding.  What a beautiful place.  And, it was great to get out for such a nice walk as the following day we'd be back in the car returning to Virginia.  

Friday we woke to grey skies which suddenly opened up.  Our first clap of thunder sounded like a shotgun!  Luckily the rain paused long enough for us to load all our stuff back in the car.  But our drive back was in heavy, heavy rain - torrential downpours and thunder and lightening.  We made it safely though.

 Damon and Peggy (and Maise - they were dog sitting one of their grand-dogs).

Their sunroom (behind them in the picture above) is a great place to bird watch.  Lots of goldfinches, red winged blackbirds, bluebirds, and even a towhee (which we rarely see at home).

We lazed around on Saturday, going out to lunch and shopping for peanuts (after all, we were in Virginia!!).  I loved this picture in the restaurant where we had lunch.

Click to enlarge if you like.  Elephants, of course, since we are talking peanuts.  LOL

Damon grilled some steaks, crab cakes and oysters for us which were delicious (well, not the oysters - I don't eat them - LOL) and we settled in the gazebo for some music and a campfire.  A delightful evening.  Damon had even picked up some fireworks which he set off.  Their house is surrounded by fields, so not close to neighbors.

We drove home on Sunday in extremely heavy traffic.  We were glad to get home and see Mabel who has been very affectionate since we returned.  And, we came home to our redbud tree in full bloom as well as our apple tree.  The lilac is beginning to open and even a bit of our wisteria.  Luckily our mower guy came yesterday and cut the lawn which was very overgrown, and I caught up on laundry.

Today, unfortunately, is back to work.  I am dreading turning on my work email.  We haven't been to the grocery store yet, so we need to do that today as well.

Thanks for sticking through this lengthy recap of our time away.  I'll be back tomorrow for Unraveled Wednesday!