indigo girls: the road trip

i don't know why i was so looking forward to a weekend away, it's not as if i haven't been 'away' recently, but my guilt in being a poor pet owner was overridden by my excitement in going back to north carolina--a place that will always own a piece of me--and in seeing julie and the fam...not the least of which is riggins, the pit bull i lived with for two years, and perhaps the sweetest dog i have ever known.

after work on friday i headed over to anne's to pick her up for the ride.

she was up for a road trip, and i was up for some company during the 5 1/2 hour drive. i was tired and anne was giddy, and that made for a quick and extremely entertaining journey, including exchanging of secrets, singing of songs, eating of waffle house, and frantically searching for my registration at the dwi checkpoint.

yes that's right, i said dwi checkpoint. and not just any checkpoint. this was an all out full scale assault on the irresponsible and thoughtless drunks of the world (or apex, nc). we were notified of this checkpoint via signage that was about 30 minutes into our stop and go traffic nightmare. fortunately, there was still plenty of time for us to throw out the case of beer we had in the car before the coppers saw us. okay, just kidding, but apparently someone else thought that was a good idea...and they were probably right.

i have never seen anything like it. the construction lights, the rv sized police vehicles. they take their dwi's very seriously in this neck of the woods. but apparently two giggly girls who wanted nothing more than to be stopped by one of the bazillions of uniformed men, were not enough of a threat to warrant a 'search and seizure', or for that matter a second glance. we were waved through with no additional holdups.

we made our way to julie's and amused ourselves with the random street signage we passed. our personal favorite; stickleback.

not to be confused with nickelback.

the drive ultimately ended up being over 6 hours, and we crashed on julie and colby's doorstep after midnight. we called it a night quickly, and i attempted to sleep with anne, the cover stealer. other than that, i have no complaints about my evening.

this morning, anne, julie, madison, and i headed over to duke gardens. it was a beautiful day, (albeit a little warm and humid) and we wandered around the expansive grounds, taking advantage of the photo opps the surroundings afforded.

after the gardens, we headed to the mall, where i had the score of the century. many moons ago, bath & bodyworks introduced my favorite smelling lotion of all time. it was available for one summer only, and i have often longed for the days of smelling like strawberry lemonade. and in a bizarre and twisted turn of events, bath & bodyworks has brought back some of the favorites of the past, for a limited time only, and a seriously discounted price. i bought three lotions and three shower gels. does that seem dramatic?

we also found a cute little store with a variety of products, not the least of which was the letter keychains i have become obsessed with, ever since seeing anne's. so i picked up a couple. she picked up a ton, and we were on our way home.

we've spent the last couple of hours doing nothing, and it has been glorious! nothing is my favorite thing to do right now.

the evening promises grilled steak--that is if colby makes it out of the grocery store alive, and some quality down time.

for more pics (and there are even more to come), click here.