Happy 2010 Y'all!

This weekend we drove to Charlotte, NC to visit Mark's college buddies/roommates Caleb and Matt ("Tater") who live down there. Caleb was kind enough to let us crash his pad for a few days. After we rolled into town Thursday night, we went over to one of his friend's homes to celebrate New Year's Eve. Good times!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!



Mark, Caleb & Tater

Amanda, Sarah, & me

In the morning we all grabbed breakfast a fun little joint called Zada Janes. After that Caleb had to get busy preparing for his 4th "beer dinner," to which we were kindly invited. In the meantime, Tater and his fiance Sarah (congratulations to them on their recent engagement!!) showed us around Charlotte on Friday. I had never been there, and it was much bigger and spread out than I expected. We enjoyed driving down streets lined with tall, old trees and enormous homes, but we were hit with the harsh reality that none of us would probably ever be able to afford one of them! They took us to Freedom Park, which was huge and beautiful, and we walked about and tossed the ol' pigskin around. We hit up Cantina for a Mexican dinner, watched a movie (Away We Go - I really liked it!), and Caleb met up with us later to play a very entertaining game of Balderdash.


On Saturday we met up with Mark's other NC State roommate, Rob, a blossoming film director in LA. He was home visiting the fam in NC for the holidays. We hadn't seem him since our wedding, so it was great to catch up. In the evening we had the beer dinner, put on by Caleb and his friends Amanda & David at their home. Another of Mark's college friends, Tony, drove down from Raleigh to attend the dinner and it was awesome to see him again too! Caleb did an amazing job designing the menu and cooking all the food with Amanda's help, while David served us and expertly described the variety of beers he'd selected to pair with the food. The whole event was very fancy and professional. There were six delectable courses matched up with tasty beers. I've never liked beer much, but recently I've been trying to branch out, and Mark has me sample all the different beers he gets. I was surprised that I enjoyed most of the beers at the dinner, and it was interesting how they really complemented the food. Not sure I'd call myself a beer drinker yet, but I'm working on it! The dinner was a blast and the night ended with some reminiscing over the guys' college days at State.

The NC State crew: Mark, Matt, Caleb, Rob & Tony

The menu


Pretty calamari (too bad I don't eat seafood!)

The weekend wouldn't have been complete without stopping in for a Bo Berry Biscuit & fried chicken at Bojangle's. What a great start to a new decade - spending time with old friends and making new ones. We don't know what 2010 has in store for us, but it's exciting to imagine where we'll end up after graduation this spring or summer. We hope this year will bring love, health, & happiness your way too :)