North Carolina Trip

For my Christmas present this year Scott arranged for us to spend three nights in a cabin in North Carolina. I keep getting asked why North Carolina (because apparently you need to have a reason to plan a cabin trip to NC). The reason is simple: I have never been to NC (and want to eventually visit all 50 states) and Scott liked the idea of a cabin with a hot tub and a fireplace. Makes perfect sense if you ask me.

We finally got to go on our trip the first week in February. It felt like it took forever to get here and Scott and I were both really looking forward to it. We may have even built it up too much in our heads. Scott, Zoey, myself, and our dog, Tempe, set out for North Carolina on a Monday morning. It was nice because we decided not to set a time that we wanted to leave by, so we didn't end up feeling all rushed and stressed out.  It ended up being about a 9 1/2 hour car drive when all was said and done.

Zoey packed and ready to go. She looks thrilled. LOL!

Tempe hadn't found her comfortable spot laying in the trunk yet

Zo was pretty tried when we stopped at the rest area

Once we got to the cabin, we spent some time unwinding and exploring a little bit. Scott was disappointed to find out that his fire place was an electric heater that looked like a fire place and didn't actually put out any heat. It was still a nice little cabin, which was was probably more of a cottage. It had a hot tub on the back porch that Scott and I relaxed in when Zoey was napping or down for the night. It also had rockers on the front porch, but since it was still pretty cold in North Carolina, we didn't really put them to use.

Getting out some energy by rolling around

Once we got ourselves settled, we decided to head into town to get some dinner and a few groceries. Unfortunately, it became dark while we were out and due to poor GPS directions and my poor driving, we ended up getting lost on some dark, narrow, mountain roads. Luckily, Scott was able to figure it out and we made it back to the cabin safely.

That night we discovered that Zoey is basically able to step over the side of the play pen and climb out, which made sleeping extremely frustrating. Scott slept on the couch in the living room, while I tried to sleep with Zoey on the bed in the bedroom. However, the poor thing got sick pretty much as soon as we got to the cabin and had a terrible time breathing, so she did not really sleep well. We are thinking it was allergies because she was fine once we got back into Ohio.

We made the best of it on Tuesday despite none of us getting much sleep. We went into town again and had lunch at Yummi Yummi Chinese Buffet. It didn't live up to it's name in my opinion, but Scott thought it was good. We then walked through town and looked at a couple of shops. Zoey and I got cupcakes at a local bakery. Scott got a whoopie pie. Scott and I were not impressed, but Zoey seemed to like hers.

Scott also ventured into a used book store and Zoey and he explored what they had to offer. Zoey was obsessed with a series of books about other countries and kept pulling them off the shelf to look at them.

Scott's smile is due to finding a Thundercats book. LOL!

We also spent some time on Tuesday exploring the land behind our cabin, which had a stream flowing through it. Zoey seemed to enjoy being outside in the snow and she wanted to explore. Scott let her go down with him to the stream (I was not a huge fan of that idea, but trust Scott with her). They didn't go in, but just stood by the side. (I dared Scott to go in later that day while Zoey was napping and like a champ he did).

That night was even rougher than the first night, so Scott and I decided on Wednesday morning to come home a day early. We both knew that if we went with another night of little to no sleep that we would not have a pleasant car ride home. So we packed up all our stuff and headed back to Ohio.

Tried to get a family pic before we left. Didn't turn out great :(

Special Daddy-Daughter moment

Giving Tempe some exercise at a rest stop

Zoey relaxed and reading on the way home

So the trip didn't quite live up to what we had made it out to be in our heads. However, I still think it was a success because we got in some good quality family time, which we don't get nearly enough of.