I'm back from NC and had a great time! Maria and I left here at 6:50 AM and were in Welcome, NC (near Winston-Salem around 11 AM. Our first stop was The Dempsey Essick Gallery. Maria's family has been buying art from him for about twenty years. He is up and coming in the NC art scene. I loved his artwork so much I had to bring some home with me. I bought "Carolina Heritage" and "View from the Veranda". The later is painted on a tile, matted, and framed. The other one is a small print, also matted and framed. The artist was in the gallery and offered to sign the pieces and wrote a little note on the back. Too cool! Maria says he's almost never in the shop, so I feel extra special. We talked about Charleston (where I'm from) and suggested that he paint some Charleston sweet water grass paintings. He loved the idea (maybe he was just humoring me?). I told him to paint balls of yarn in them, and all my knit-buds would buy them up like crazy. Grin! I can't wait to find the perfect spot to hang my two lovely paintings.

Next we headed to Salem Creek, a gift store too wonderful for words (and the checkbook!) I was good and only left with a beautiful bouquet of summer faux (fake just sounded too crude!) flowers, a home fragrance spray (smells a little like mens cologne), a mix for lemon ice tea, and a hand-painted glass soap pump (for my kitchen sink dish detergent) with purple pansies.

Before heading to our hotel, we stopped and bought some delicious bagels for lunch (and to bring home). We checked in, freshened up, and headed to Rudy (Maria's brother) and Jennifer's House-Warming Party. Stayed for a few hours, and then it was back to the hotel for their complementary "happy hour" with her aunt and uncle. I brought my knitting (got another inch and a half knit in the car) and happily sipped, talked and knitted away. We caught a "Law and Order SVU" on TV before turning in around 10:30 PM. Good, fun day!

The ride home was uneventful today. Got home around 2:30 and sat on the couch and relaxed until dinner time. Miguel and I tried out the new Mickey Piggs BBQ on 211. The Brunswick stew is wonderful, the sweet potato fries are very good, but the ribs (according to DH) were a bit dry. Three and a half star rating from us. :)