That time I said "hiney"

Is it too early in my blogging "career" to take a short blog break? Eff. I thought so. But I have a good reason... We're moving!!! {0.7 miles down the road, whoa dream big!} We're over-the-moon excited to move into our new house. {I'm excited because it means decorating; Glenn's excited because we're getting DirecTV with every sports channel known to man. Which I guess I'm a teense excited about, too. Priorities, people.} But nonetheless, moving is about as fun as getting a Tetanus shot in your hiney, so I'll see ya in a few days, tired jello arms and all!

In the meantime, can I entice you to stick around by promising a week {maybe more :)} of wedding recaps when I return?! 

 

 

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!

See you soon, friends! XO

In Vino Veritas... and Fun!

Be honest, the only reason y'all have stuck around this little blog so far is for the Napa recaps, right?! Caught ya :)

Napa truly was the best part of our trip and I'm so excited to recap it! The story is best told through some beautiful pictures, though, so this is more of a photo dump post. But I promise after seeing all of them you'll be booking your cross-country flight ASAP! See the end of this post for a list of restaurants and wineries we loved. {Umm... All of them!}

 

 

Platypus Wine Tours {Best Napa wine tour!}

~ Laird Family Estate/Whetstone Winery {Winemaker is a Carolina boy!}

~ Paoletti Estates Winery

~ Zahtila Vineyards

~ Tedeschi Vineyards

~ Acacia Vineyard

~ Saintsbury Winery

~ Auberge du Soleil

~ Cole's Chop House

~ Ristorante Allegria

~ Boon Fly Café

~ Carpe Diem Wine Bar {My favorite meal!}

Our honeymoon was the trip of a lifetime and we have so many amazing memories {that I'm obviously excited to share with whoever will listen!}. If you have any questions about Napa or San Francisco, feel free to email me. I'd love to hear from you!

Up, Up & Not-Too-Far Away

Guess who survived a hot air balloon ride? 

By the skin of our chinny chin chins, really. But we'll get to that :)

My alarm buzzed at the ungodddly hour of 4:15 a.m. to wake up and get ready for a hot air balloon ride over Napa! {Tourist Tip #4 DUH: Don't split a bottle of wine with your hubby the night before riding a hot air balloon with a takeoff time of 6:00 a.m., even if you are chalking up said consumption to "You only honeymoon once! Woooohooo!" <--- Yeah, we were them.}

Moving past my obvious lushness... We arrived at Domaine Chandon {the champagne!} dark and early, signed our life away, and to the balloons we went! Joke. Wouldn't it be nice if life could've been that easy for me this particularly fuzzy morning? Turns out, hot air balloons are kinda finicky and the slightest wind/fog/adverse conditions meant we had a teeny change of plans. So our large group loaded into 384723 vans and headed an hour away to Winters, CA, an agricultural district with just two stoplights that ended up providing such a beautiful flyover scene.

To give some scale, hot air balloons are unbelievably massive. And that dog was awesomesauce. What a champ!

Woof. But being in that balloon was one of the most surreal and memorable experiences of my life!

Ever heard "what goes up must come down"? They didn't lie. Our pilot, the cutest, most fearless man, taught us the proper landing technique to ensure we didn't lose consciousness, break our backs, etc. {Remember those waivers?} Landing in a hot air balloon is no joke! As the basket slows to the ground, air is still in the balloon so the balloon wants to keep going. About as stellar a combo as Lindsay Lohan and a free-booze nightclub. He warned that there might be bouncing and we might "tip," which sounds kind of innocent, right? Especially considering he said that happens twice, maybe three times per year...

Hot damn if we aren't gonna start playing the lottery, because September 4th just happened to be "Tip Day." I shit you not, this is how we finally landed...

Oh, heyyy, lucky ducks! *Takes a moment to brush the dust from her mouth*

YOLO, right?! {Ugh, I can't believe I just typed that.} Despite how crazy the morning was {all before 9:00 a.m.!}, this experience was priceless and we'd do it again in a second.

Next up - the real Napa. Winewinewinewinewine!

Make no mistake...

We lowly humans do not own our dogs. They own us and I dare you to challenge me on that assertion. 

Proof: Take a wild guess who carried a bag of dog poop for a mile yesterday because the neighborhood decided it was too arduous an undertaking to install dog waste receptacles. I'll give you a teeny hint: it sure as snot wasn't the dog that produced said poop. 

I mean, seriously, does this dog look "owned" to you?

These crossed paws just scream "Yes, daaahling, you may call me Your Highness" 

Pay my nekkid face no mind, porfa. Also, Holly's obvious lack of modesty is appalling, no?

Yeah, I didn't think so.

*And in case you were worried that this blog is going to involve a lot of Holly-ness, considering her face has already graced it more than mine... You're totally right. We're those dog owners and I make no apology :)

That Time We Went to Prison...

ALCATRAZ, of course! 

Well, first we went down to the SF Pier and walked around for a bit, stopping in for dinner at the popular Pier 23 restaurant and bar. All of the restaurant's seating is outside on a semi-covered back deck and the food+drinks were plentiful and delicious. We had plenty of time before our Alcatraz tour, so we moved to the front of the restaurant where they had tables directly on the sidewalk, providing the best people-watching opportunity next to Disney World and The Walmart check-out line. {Tourist tip #2: Apparently in SF it's legal for a man to walk down the sidewalk wearing nothing more than a sparse, beaded, short, hula-type skirt. N-O-T-H-I-N-G more. My eyes still sting. Color this Southern woman culture-shocked.}

*Please excuse the date/time stamp on some of my pics. Major rookie alert.

Gah, I snagged a handsome one, eh?! ;)

Next up: a frigid boat ride across the bay to Alcatraz! {Tourist tip #3: Wear a jacket. Or three. And even wearing multiple jackets, sitting on the top deck of the ferry isn't as fun as it sounds. Yeah, you'll be chillin', alright.} We decided to do the night tour of the prison, which starts around 6:45 in the light but it's dark pretty soon after you arrive, making the night tour soooo worth it!

Each tourist gets a set of headphones through which you listen to the story of the prison as told by former inmates and guards. A bit awkward when I tried to gently ask Glenn to take a picture and forgot I was wearing 'phones, so it was more like "HEYYYYY, EVERYONE LISTEN TO ME YELLING AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW IT!" Trés cool.

I don't want to give away much more of the tour because I can't urge everyone enough to go experience it for yourself! But I will say it's a creepy, extensive, awe-inspiring, and truly wonderful peek into a huge part of American history.

My special little man.

Chills, I tell you!! Seriously, go to prison. I promise it'll be one of the best experiences of your life :)  I kid, I kid.

Next up: NAPA! Aka - our future home. Now, to figure out how to move it to the South. Because lord knoooows I'm never moving out of this lovely place.

We honeymooned! {Part 1}

Though we got married four months ago, a honeymoon the week after our wedding was completely unfeasible. {I honestly don't know how people do it - we slept for twelve hours straight that Sunday night were exhausted! }

So, we planned the vacation of a lifetime for four months post-wedding and it was so much fun to look forward to it all summer! The Friday of Labor Day weekend, we arrived at the airport super early {4:00 a.m. alarm clock - mizz} to board our flight to San Francisco!

We arrived in San Fran bright and early SF time, but we definitely felt the time change and had to take a long nap that afternoon! That is, of course, after a delicious lunch of the freshest sushi we've ever eaten and a long walk around the city, during which my feet fell off. I take that back, I wouldn't have known if they'd fallen off because with all of the walking in chilly weather, I couldn't even feel them!  

Ew, no one likes talking about feet. Moving on...

That night we had a leisurely night in the city with no plans - we found a sports bar a block from our hotel because we HAD to watch the TN Vols season opener! {NCSU who?!} Though we had great intentions of eating at an Irish pub for dinner, after getting lost and walking in circles for 45 minutes {Tourist tip: You can't both be a true SEC football fan - aka beer in hand throughout entire game - and then find a specific location in a strange city. Just take my word.} we settled on an Italian restaurant that I literally pointed across the street to and said, "There. We're having dinner there." The restaurant, Puccini and Pinetti, was up to that point in my life the best food I've ever eaten! Margherita pizza, shrimp risotto, fettucini alfredo... I'm salivating worse than I do before Thanksgiving dinner. And that's A LOT.{Unbelievably, the meals got better as our trip went on!}

Thus far in the trip I'd taken zero pictures because {1} While eclectic and super cool/trendy, SF has some gloomy weather and pictures just looked kinda drab, and {2} The whole picture-taking thing is my blogger downfall. I'm working on it, promise! So, here's the only picture I took during our first 1.5 days in SF.

Judging by the "cars" closest to me, apparently a San Fran living requirement is owning a tiny, impractical mode of transportation...

 Our second and final night in SF was one of the most memorable of our lives. Can you say night tour of Alcatraz?! I'll leave you with a few pictures. Check back soon for a full Alcatraz post!

Coming in on the boat, "The Rock" was ironically beautiful and breathtaking.

Who gets the Most Demented Prisoner of the Year Award? This girl.

Say My Name, Say My Name.

Or her name, her being the deranged-but-very-loved canine that Glenn and I call Holly, or our child, or "For eff's sake stop drooling on the kitchen floor and ringing the bell on the back door!" Yes, she really tests our patience is loved :)

But that face! And that fuzzy snout! And those EARS! How could we not fawn over her like a chunky newborn, I mean really.

From stray to shelter to the spoiled dwellings of my parents' house {and now living in the lap of luxury, aka - our King bed all day errr day} by the time she was 11 weeks old, Holly's all but been given a silver spoon. {Bone?} And as ridiculous and nutty as she can be...

Hey, there's something on your head...

The way she has to lay on us, not next to us, in bed;

And the way her ears flop around all wonky when she bounds into a room;

And the little squeal she makes when she yawns 129812987 times in the morning...

MELTS. OUR. HEARTS. 

I quadruple dog dare you not to fall in love first-crush-style with that face. 

Good. Luck.

Also, she has this adorable nub for a tail, that has grown with her and we're convinced might make her take off like a hot air balloon one day. Be still my heart.

Keep Calm 

& 

Wag Your Nub. 

{Holly's trying to make it a lifestyle.}

We love our Holly/Hollybug/Buggins/Nubbins!