Down South

Branson and I were fortunate enough that we got to fly out to North Carolina in April.  It was beautiful, and delicious and hospitable. 

Our flying experience was not the best ever.  We were supposed to depart Salt Lake at 10 am, have one stop over, then arrive in Raleigh N.C. at about 5:30 pm.  We ended up having a hail storm in Salt Lake so our plane was a couple hours late.  That meant we missed our connecting flight in Philadelphia.  They scheduled us for another flight a few hours later so we stopped to enjoy a Philly sandwich.  

We then crossed the airport and found out we had to go through security and recheck in and missed that flight.  At 8pm we made it out of Philadelphia and flew to Connecticut, then on to N.C.  We finally arrived a little after midnight.  We were flying with Branson's parents and little brother and everyone was a bit perturbed at all the chaos and delays.  I however, wasn't bothered all that much.  I had a good book and no children climbing all over me.  Just sitting in an airport reading felt like a vacation.

The next day we slept in and then headed to downtown Raleigh to a beautiful park.  We were staying at the bachelor pad (Branson's cousin Jeremy's house- he was the one getting married).  So Taylor and Karl picked us up from the park and we decided it was time for our first taste of Southern food.  We went to Bojangles, a southern fast food restaurant.

It was really good, I had the fried chicken with a biscuit and cajun rice.  So yummy, we substituted the iced tea for some lemonade.

We had a little time to do some sight seeing so we went to a real historic Cotton Plantation.  It was amazing.  I felt like we stepped back in time.  After reading so many books about the south and it's history, and currently reading The Help, it was pretty cool to actually see it all.

Branson is sampling a cotton boll in this picture.  Taylor tried his hardest to pick up that several hundred pound bale of cotton behind them but was unsuccessful.

They had a model of a sharecroppers shack from 1910, this is the kitchen.

And one from more like 1880.  Here is Taylor doing some spinning.

Me next to a 700 lb bale, I didn't feel quite so huge next to it.

Here are Taylor and Branson out picking some cotton.

I totally fell in love with the architecture down there.  I love the houses with their big wrap around porches and columns.

After our tour of the cotton plantation, we went to Kevin and Gay's home (Branson's Aunt and Uncle).  They live in one of those cute southern homes on a good bit of property with the forest tucked right up to their lawn.  The cousins decided to take us on a little walk to "the grand canyon" and a "waterfall".  We were visiting some places from their childhood.  We were surprised that there was no trail, but made it without injury or poison ivy in spite of our flip flops.

Here is the "Grand Canyon".  Sadly the waterfall was all dried up.  Childhood memories are much grander in the mind than from an adults perspective.  However, it was still a beautiful place!

The next day was the wedding.  Jeremy and Emily were sealed in the Raleigh, N.C. temple.  Going to a live sealing is such an amazing experience.  To feel that spirit, and remember our own sealing nearly ten years ago is a powerful and joyful experience.  I can think of no greater blessing that to get to be with my Branson forever, and my babies too!

Aunt Gay asked us to go pick up some Hush Puppies for them while they were getting pictures done.  Karl and Karie dropped us off to wait for them while they went to pick something else up.  It didn't take long for our order to come up so Brans and I decided we needed to sample some.  They were so good we couldn't stop snitching and had to go order some more.  Hush puppies are like sweet fried corn bread and oh so good.

We arrived to the luncheon a little late and enjoyed some Southern BBQ.

The reception was a beautiful outdoor event, very different from our typical Utah receptions.  It started with non-alcoholic cocktails in the backyard.  Then we went to the front to formal tables under a tent for dinner.  There was no reception line.  We just enjoyed it all from our tables.  

Here we are being fancy-shmancy.

Such a wonderful trip!  We owe a huge thank you to all of our neighbors who took turns watching the kids while we were away, and Brandon and Dawna.  I'm pretty sure the kids had an awesome spring break getting spoiled at every house they stayed at.