I started to jump ahead with my last post, but last week was a crazy week of traveling and avoiding snow storms for us. Joe and I had decided to join our friends Scott and Tricia and travel to North Carolina to visit Kyle and Ken, and partake in the Krispy Kreme Challenge, a 2 mile run to a Krispy Kreme run from NC State, where you then eat 1 dozen glazed donuts and run the 2 miles back to NC State's belltower. Oh yeah, and the challenge is to do it in under an hour.
Joe and I were flying out on Thursday, with the plan being I would drive to St. Louis with Joseph and Molly. A huge snow storm was headed our way, though, with forecasts of 12-20" of snow and ice. Instead of waiting until Wednesday or Thursday to make the drive, I hurriedly packed the car and got on the road Monday morning to make it out ahead of the storm. Good thing, too, as I-70 was shut down from Kansas City to St. Louis almost all day on Tuesday due to the blizzard conditions.
Kansas City got 12" of snow, while St. Louis saw mainly ice with a few inches of snow. Grandma and Grandpa were thrilled that the weather meant a few extra days with the little guy... except for the fact that he and I both developed a cold. Couple that with some serious teething (tooth #7, bottom right cut on Saturday the 5th!) and Joseph wasn't much fun during the week.
He did have a good time with all of the doggies and toys, and learned some new tricks too - playing the piano, how to go down the stairs, turn on a singing and dancing stuffed dog toy, and how to hold up one finger when asked how old he is!
He has decided dogs are more fun to cuddle with and ride like ponies, and Molly is happy to oblige. The food treats she gets from him keep getting better and better the older he gets!
Thursday Joe and I flew out to Raleigh for the weekend, our first away from the little guy. We got in pretty late on Thursday evening, and after checking in to the hotel headed a few blocks over to an area with a lot of bars and restaurants to try and get dinner. It took a few tries to find a place that still had the kitchen open after 10pm, but we settled on an Irish bar called the Hibernian that had a live band playing reggae. Go figure! The band was good, the kitchen was still open, so we decided it couldn't be that bad. Turns out, their food on the very limited menu was really quite good! We didn't stay out too late, as we were both pretty tired.
Friday we enjoyed sleeping in, having a big lunch at The Diner, and hopped on the free city bus to tour downtown Raleigh. Apparently it isn't very big, as we were halfway around the city within 10 minutes of being on the bus! Our server at the restaurant had recommended that we stop by an antique store called Father and Son to kill a few rainy hours while we waited for Scott and Tricia to arrive.
Joe wasn't really excited about the idea, but the only movie theatre in downtown was an IMAX showing science movies, so we opted to check out the store on our way to the theatre. We were amazed at some of the random vintage goods, but hit the jackpot in the basement where the 1/2 price sale items were housed:
Our tux jackets! There were multiple racks of them, with more hidden behind each turn. We managed to convince the rest of the group that they would make great race costumes, bargained the shop owner down to $10 per jacket, found 8 for the group and headed back to the hotel (Scott and Tricia had joined up with us at this point).
After a great pizza dinner at the Mellow Mushroom, where our waiter clearly practiced the "mellow" mood lifestyle (this guy was so stoned he could hardly talk straight!), we retired back to the hotel with Scott, Tricia, and Tricia's parents, while waiting for Tricia's brother, sister-in-law and their kids to arrive.
Saturday morning came too quickly, but it was time for the rice. We managed to score the last two parking spots just off the start of the race, and for some reason decided it was wise to wait in the rain for the 30 minutes before the race started, instead of inside the cars.
We had decided to run to Krispy Kreme as a group, but after 3 or 4 minutes, the guys started to pull away since they are all faster runners than Tricia, Rebecca and me. The three of us made our way to the store, and about 3/10 of a mile away, the winners of the race were already passing us on their way back to campus. CRAZY!!
The group all finished strong, with Ken and Gabe successful at the challenge... the rest of us took longer than an hour and/or didn't finish all of the donuts. Everyone managed to keep the donuts down though!
After the race, Scott, Tricia Joe and I headed back to the hotel to clean and warm up, while Ken, Gabe and Kyle drove back to Greensboro. A few hours later we joined them and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and getting ready for the big birthday party that night. Best part? Watching the guys work in the kitchen to prepare the food and drinks!
We had a great time meeting Kyle and Ken's new friends and partaking in lots of old time debauchery. Although we got the party shut down before midnight (thanks silly security guards), we still had a great time and luckily again, all managed to keep the contents of our stomach in place. Although at that point, no one was really feeling all that fortunate about it!
1 comment:
I don't know what counted as debauchery when you were in college, but Saturday was, at most, shenanigans.
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