Home Sweet Home

And I do mean Columbus!  I still feel like a traitor calling Georgia home - but alas, that is where my home is (for now).  It sure was nice to finally be home and not driving this weekend.  We absolutely love taking road trips but it was time we stayed in town for a change.    Friday night was our lazy night; we ate "tapas" for dinner which simply means I did not cook and we snacked on stuff all night and I actually convinced Jon to watch a scary movie in preparation for Halloween!  We watched Paranormal Activity and I won't lie, we jumped and "AHed!" a few times... but the most hilarious part was that we both closed our eyes at the end.  We know how it ended but didn't actually see the last 30 seconds.  We are chickens, I know, I'm not ashamed.

Well, good thing we laid low Friday night because Saturday we rented bicycles at Ride on Bikes downtown and rode through the RiverWalk for two and a half hours!!  The Columbus RiverWalk is picturesque, peaceful and with its historic markers, even educational.  It is an outdoor 22-mile linear park that hugs the banks of the Chattahoochee River and on this specifically beautiful sunny Saturday it was being enjoyed by walkers, cyclists, and joggers - all appreciating the beautiful nature that surrounds the trail.  We had such a lovely time trying out our new hobby that we completely lost track of time (and the distance!) but finally, we returned to our starting place feeling rejuvenated from our morning/afternoon ride.  We finally calculated how far we'd gone on our bikes and it was between 18-20 miles!! AHHH, can you believe that? I cannot!  I've had four knee surgeries, I never in my life would have expected to be able to go 5 miles, even less 20!  Well, I think I proved myself on Saturday :-) I can definitely get into biking.  Later that afternoon, we enjoyed a Pumpkin Spice Latte & a Salted Caramel Mocha while we did work.  I studied for the GMAT and Jon worked on his Army brief at Starbucks... doing work is so much more enjoyable with a tasty treat in hand.  I really need to either commit to this GMAT exam or not because right now I am only half committed making myself study when I'm done reading the Economist and Bloomberg.  There is no point in wasting my time studying sometimes if I'm not going to take it and there's no point in taking it if I don't really study.  I'll let y'all know what I decide...

Anywho.... we finally got back home after a trip to the Fresh Market (where I found pumpkin soy milk!!) and CRASHED.  We had absolutely no energy to get dressed and go out Saturday night.  Looks like our bike trip hit us hard!  We quickly decided it was a Trader Joe's Orange Chicken (along with some TJ's dumplings) and RedBox night.  We watched an incredible foreign film that I would highly recommend everyone to watch, Incendies.  The storytelling in Incendies strikes me as primal the way Greek tragedy is primal. Shattering. Cathartic. It is a breathtaking film. Go rent it.

This morning at CrossPointe Church our pastor, Brad Evangelista, preached a sermon called "Predestined According to His Purpose" that I would also highly encourage everyone to listen to.  It was a very real sermon on a highly controversial topic that I've never felt comfortable with.  For the first time in my life, I began feeling a bit more at peace about predestination after leaving church this morning.  Jon and I absolutely love our church here in Columbus, and come next Spring it's going to be awfully hard to leave it.  We know the Lord will provide us a new church in North Carolina but we will be sad to say goodbye to CrossPointe.  On the bright side, we get to go back to CrossPointe on Tuesday for our Life Pointe Group :-)

NC Bound: Ale's Wedding

This past weekend, one of my childhood friends got married!  It is so hard to believe that little Ale is all grown-up and married.  I have known Ale since I was in 1st or 2nd grade (she is 2 years younger), we grew up together and our families have always been very close.  Ale's family is also from Costa Rica and I still remember when our families were the only hispanic families in Lincolnton... boy was that a long time ago!  I saw Ale a few times when she was at UNC Wilmington and I was at Chapel Hill but we didn't get to see each other very often so in my mind she was still "little Ale."  I am so happy for her and Lee - getting to start their lives together and live in their favorite place, the mountains!  I am clearly an advocate for marriage as I have enjoyed mine so much thus far :) I am also extremely excited for Caroline Ranghel or should I say, Mr. and Mrs. Ashley Blake for tying the knot this weekend too!  Unfortunately I could not be in two places at once and had to miss Caroline's wedding but I know she looked stunning and had a perfect wedding in Raleigh, NC. 

Ale & Lee's wedding was the epitome of a beautiful fall wedding.  They got married at Lee's parent's mountain house in Grassy Creek, NC overlooking the beautifully orange, red, and brown leaved trees.  Ale looked stunning in her gorgeous gown and her & Lee wore orange Chacos for the wedding.  The cool, crisp air of fall surrounded them as they danced together for the first time as Mr. and Mrs. Lee Warden.  Perfect for a NC wedding (best BBQ = NC BBQ) they served BBQ, green beans, & cole slaw for dinner with pumpkin beer!  It was all too cute.  Congratulations Ale & Lee!!

My mother and husband accompanied me to the wedding and I got to catch up with one of my best friends from high school, Alex Mullen and his girlfriend, Nicole Sykes.  It was great to see some old familiar faces from Lincolnton there and also enjoy the beautiful scenery.  I am so thankful to Jon for willingly driving 8+ hours there and 8+ hours home for me to get to attend Ale's wedding.  Luckily, Lincolnton was on the way so we were able to stop and visit with my family some and break up the drive.  Clearly this is not enough time for me to consider it a "trip home" so I will be arranging another trip to NC soon :-)

During the short time we had in Lincolnton - we managed to eat mama's chuletas, gallo pinto, and empanadas and dad cooked us up some delicious kabobs before we left on Sunday!  Per usual, our trip was concluded with a dose of cafe con (tico) pan.  My parents, without fail, pick up baked Costa Rican goodies from the Costa Rican bakery (Tico Pan) every time we are in town and we delight in these with a cup of coffee.  We also ate some yummy Spiced Pumpkin Bread I made to try out a new recipe and it was tasty!
Lastly, I'd like to note that on our way home, we got gas for $2.86 in South Carolina!  Yes, exit 75 in Spartenburg!  Come on, GA, let's see you match SC's prices...

Beautiful Ale!

Jon & I with the sun in our eyes

Road Trip: Savannah, GA

                   Savannah  

I don't even know where to start except by simply saying I love Savannah.  Well, that and the fact that Jon and I have been hurting this week for all the "good eating" we did in Savannah ;)  Jon had Friday off and I took a vacation day so we could get an early start on our lovely Savannah weekend.  We wanted to get there so badly that we drove straight there (plus it was only a 4.5 hr drive) but for those of you that know Jon are well aware that he cannot go 2 hours without food.  Planning ahead, I packed him some snacks but in the morning rush I put my bag in the trunk!  TROUBLE.  So I lied when I said we drove straight to Savannah, we stopped for 2 minutes to grab the snacks out of the trunk.  As you can imagine, once we got to Savannah, we were starving!  Solution?  Shane's Rib Shack.  I did not love my BBQ chicken sandwich but I did love Jon's BBQ sandwich and the sweet potato fries were phenomenal.  Also, I think it's important to remember the Brunswick stew, it was quite delightful.  Don't get me wrong, Shane's was no Brother's BBQ, but it was a nice introduction to GA BBQ.  Clearly after stuffing our faces we started regretting eating so much and so fast but oh well we enjoyed it while it lasted :) The restaurant also has a Sunday Special, "Bring in your church bulletin and get 10% off."  Ah, I love the South!

Drinks @ Vic's



me in front of a huge pumpkin!



After a quick trip to our hotel suite to check-in we quickly departed for Historic Savannah (downtown).  I immediately fell in love and decided I never wanted to leave.  Streets and streets covered in history and historic buildings, restaurants, shops, houses, and monuments were everywhere!  Not to mention, River Street overlooking the Savannah River was absolutely amazing.  One neat law in Historic Savannah is that you are allowed to walk around with an alcoholic beverage as long as it's 16 ounces or less and it's in a paper or plastic cup.  We took advantage of the beautiful afternoon and walked up and down River Street, peaking in some of the stores and checking out the local vendors.  Due to our incredibly large lunch we weren't very hungry as the evening approached so we decided to check out Vic's on the River for happy hour.  So glad we went to Vic's!  It was a beautiful restaurant and the drinks were tasty; I had a Pina Colada and Jon had a Savannah Sweet Tea.  We loved the environment and the menu looked awesome, too bad we were still BBQ-stuffed. Well, to wrap up our Friday in less words than I have been able to use thus far, we continued to walk around and get aquainted with the area and finally ate dinner at another fun restaurant overlooking the river with live music.  At Tubby's we split the calamari appetizer and the shrimp po' boy (even though I still was not hungry!).   On our walk back after dinner, we were serenaded by a couple of guys singing "End of the Road" by Boys 2 Men and that's the best way to end a night, always.

Enjoying a bev on River St.


So I will not go into great detail with the rest of the trip, as I am trying to watch the Republican Debate and finish this post before bed...  Saturday we went on the Savannah Historic Trolly Tour and learned so much about the area and all the beautiful landmarks in the historic district.  We explored all morning and worked up an appetite.  The Pirate House seemed appropriate considering it was Pirate Fest in Tybee Island that day and many of the customers dining were in fact dressed as pirates for the festival. The place contains one of the oldest buildings in the historic district, and there was plenty of pirate lore all around. Southern style buffet for Jon: fried chicken, fried fish, fried okra, green beans, AWESOME mashed potatoes (of which I stole many bites), bbq, etc.  I delighted in a superb she crab soup with a steak and cheese sandwich and cornbread/biscuits were served with honey butter and orange marmalade.  It's clearly a popular spot because there was a 20-30 minute wait at 2:00 for lunch in October!  Skipping down to that evening, we were again too full for a traditional dinner so we went to the Rooftop Bar at the Bohemian Hotel for a drink before our night time Ghost Tour of the city.  This is probably the best place to have a drink overlooking the river at night, so beautiful and classy!  Now, for our Spooky Ghost Tour.  Savannah is in the top 3 "most haunted cities in America" and with all the deaths there from Yellow Fever and the city burning down 3 times they definitely have some stories to tell.  We walked around all over (90 minute tour) in the dark listening to the ghost stories for each building, taking pictures of the "ghosts" and getting chigger bit... well I did at least.  Oh well, it was fun and we learned a lot more about the city!  Finally, we decided to grab a "light" dinner at Jazz'd Tapas, you decide how light it really was.  A baked cheese terra cotta plate included blend of several cheeses (brie, goat cheese, fontina, and an aged cranberry cheddar) melted and topped with a succulent roasted head of garlic.  Tart green apples fanned around the edge of the terra cotta bowl, and the plate was also covered with toasted slices of baguette.  We also had the crab cakes which were a wonderful taste of a Savannah favorite. Plenty of crab meat came together for these scrumptious morsels, served with a remoulade sauce. Finally we had cuban rubbed beef satays; beef strips served with an original and successful sweet jalapeno glaze over crisp plantains.  Live jazz was playing during our delicious meal; we were incredibly pleased with our experience.

  

Jon & Scarecrow @ 17hundred90 during ghost tour

Forest Gump showed up on our Trolly Tour



Jon reading the paper before the Trolly Tour

 Sunday morning rolls around... my legs are killing me, Jon is exhausted, we must be getting old!  To our defense we did walk around A LOT the past two days and stay up A LOT later than we normally do.  The day was cloudy and windy, as predicted, seemingly there was a storm a brewing.  Due to the potential rain that afternoon and tropical storm coming in on Monday we decided to check out a day early.  We weren't heartbroken because we had seen and done a lot in our time and were quite exhausted, plus it gave us an excuse to come back and go to Tybee Island next time!  After breakfast, we packed up the Mini Cooper and headed out... but we weren't quite ready to leave, not yet.  We took one last drive through the historic district and clearly ended up parking and walking some more.  Finally, we came upon 17hundred90 Restaurant & Inn, which we had visited during our ghost tour.  In the brick-lined, low-ceilinged cellar of Savannah's oldest inn, this place is the site of Savannah's most famous 18th-century suicide.  Anne Powell is said to still be in her room, RM 204, which can be rented out.  There is a life-size female mannequin dressed in the 1800s dress which is looking out the window for the entertainment of the nightly ghost tours and is quite creepy I might add.  Anyway, the cute basement restaurant won us over and despite our lack of hunger, we split an order of french toast which we did not know also came with honey butter biscuits that were impossible to resist.  After one last stroll through the historic neighborhoods, it finally started to rain at 2:30, it was time to go home.  Until next time, sweet sweet Savannah!




one of the haunted B&Bs



Jon in front of the Cotton Exchange

Cathedral of St. John the Baptist

Gold-domed capitol building

 

Part of the Pirate House



Cathedral of St. John the Baptist




Captain Flash Runs 5K

This past weekend was a very exciting one for the Flaspoehlers... first of all, Hannah and Bobby had their little girl (and our first niece), Eberle Marie Gobel!  Congrats to them and her big brother, Silas!!  Also, Jon's mother, Donna, celebrated her birthday the very next day.  What a great birthday present, celebrating the birth of your first granddaughter!  And finally, Jon got promoted to Captain!  So now he officially sounds like a super hero, Captain Flash.    Unfortunately Captain Flash has a big brief (or some big army presentation) he has to give on Wednesday so he spent a large portion of his weekend studying/working on his brief.  We did get away Saturday morning for Jon to run in the Mogadishu Milke 5K Run.  The Mogadishu Memorial Run commemorates the members of Task Force Ranger killed during Operation Gothic Serpent on October 3, 1993.  The 5K alsos raises funds for Rangers wounded or killed.  It was an awesome event and we were honored to be a part of it.  Unfortunately, due to all my knee surgeries, I was unable to run in the 5k but I supported Jon by being there and shopping at the local farmer's market at the race! 

Yay! Go Jon!  Meanwhile, I was buying thai basil and every type of squash imaginable because I really love fall and all that comes with it.  After the race we went back home and did work...  HOW BORING! It was an absolutely beautiful day but we forced ourselves to get some work accomplished so that we could do something fun to really celebrate Jon that evening.  So for a few hours... yes, hours, I studied for the GMAT (finally) and Jon worked on his brief.  When it came time to celebrate though, we were out of the house with in 20 minutes!  We went back downtown because it is our favorite place in Columbus and ate at The Cannon and boy was it tasty.  Following dinner, we met up with our neighbor, Colin, and one of his friends at Belloo's Martini and Cigar Bar.  I'm pretty sure this was my first Cigar bar ever but nonetheless it was a fun time.  It was a pretty sophisticated environment (except for the drunk 30-something year olds fighting for the bathroom) with live entertainment playing some blues and jazz music.  Finally, we topped off the weekend with banana bread, butternut squash & goat cheese pasta, and south american style empanadas.  All homemade by yours truly.