A Special Visit……

(image courtesy of Carol Julius)

If you are friends with Carole, you have probably read about their adventures up in our neck of the woods, but because Ken and I had such a nice time, I thought I would share it here as well, even if it was over a week ago.

Carole being the thoughtful person that she always is, brought up some lovely hostess gifts…she knows me well!  A beautiful bag made by JessaLu with my favorite sister bees all over it as well as a beeutiful tape measure….and some AMAZING tequila!
Thank you Carole and Dale!

Friday night we had dinner and drinks at our usual Friday night spot, The Moat.  There may have been a flight and a lemon drop involved. 😉

Saturday, we showed them some of our favorite spots, one of which is Cathedral Ledge.  Cathedral Ledge gives you a birds eye view of our beautiful valley and the mountain range to the west which is close to where Ashley lives and Hannah goes to school.
That lake that you see…..well, notice that green color?  The kids have always called it "Echo Pee Lake"..ha!  Needless to say it's not theirs or my favorite spot to swim in up here.

We spent the afternoon just relaxing in the sun eating some snacks, sipping on that delicious Tequila and playing one of our favorite games, Bananagrams.  A little down time before the concert that we were going to later in the day.

(image courtesy of Carol Julius)

It's easy to see that Kathy Mattea is a favorite of Dale's.  He was so happy to have a chance to chat and have his picture taken her.

While they have seen her numerous times it was our first time seeing her in person and she is a delightful entertainer.  I really enjoyed the show at our favorite place in the valley to hear music,
The Stone Mountain Arts Center or SMAC as it is known around here.  GREAT place!

Now while Dale was smitten with Kathy, I could not take my eyes off of this guitar all night long.  Look at the grain of that wood…it it not the most stunning piece of wood?  I LOVED it, so much so that after the show, I hopped up on the stage, with permission of course and took some pictures to savor the beauty.
From a distance I thought it was flame maple, but Kathy told me that it was a Hawaiian wood.
Stunning!

After a leisurely breakfast, we decided to travel south to visit the Smuttynose brewery for a tour.  Even though I have been down to the restaurant there a number of times it was the first time Ken and I had the opportunity to do the tour and it was not only informative, but fun.  There was a lot of tasting for the beer drinkers in the group 😉

Traveling down to Smuttynose gave us an opportunity to spend some time at the bar visiting with Courtney while she was working.  I know that Dale and Carole are two of her favorite friends of ours, so it was nice to spend time with her.

While I was sad to see them leave, I know that they will be back again soon!
A weekend with good friends is always a happy memory to tuck away…