Vacation!!!!- Thursday and Friday

The hubs and I just came back from a short little out of town trip. It kinda developed in a peculiar fashion. We knew his parents were going down to Holden Beach, NC, for a week, and we wanted to go down there for part of it. Due to our summer jobs, we knew an entire week was out of the question. The rental was Saturday-Saturday, and since we both had off for Independence Day, we thought we could get more time in by going down this weekend. Then I had a stroke of genius. The hubs is a huuuuuuge NASCAR fan...why don't we take a (long) detour and go to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte. So we left in my little Chevy HHR Thursday at lunch time and began our pilgrimage.

We started our vacation with lunch at the Virginia Diner in Wakefield, VA. The hubs first fell in love with this place after seeing it on "Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives." We ate there a few years ago, and he was thrilled to go again. I was excited to embrace my Virginia heritage with ham biscuits, macaroni and cheese, and sweet tea.

From there, we began the sojourn out of Virginia. We were truckin' along, and suddenly, a dead stop. Along I-85 outside of Greensboro, we came to a crawl. Actually a dead stop. Some drivers around us were using an entrance ramp as an exit ramp. It was a mess. We were finally able to get off the interstate an hour later, after traveling only 3 miles. Come to find out, it was quite an unfortunate accident involving a death.

We finally got into to Charlotte about 9PM that evening. The hubs was super excited by the location of our hotel-directly across the street from the hall of fame. Unfortunately, there wasn't much else around the hotel, so we opted to head to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. It was convenient and we were hungry.

The next morning we awoke early with eagerness and excitement to head to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Ok, that's a lie. I awoke early because that's what I do, and when the hubs rolled out of bed, he was excited. We toured the facility, and, as a non-NASCAR person, I will have to say that it had it's educational and informative moments. The package deal we got included a ride in a simulator. The hubs thoroughly enjoyed that. I got motion sick and wanted to die. Oh well, we'll know next time that isn't for me. Oh yes, and we certainly stuck out like a sore thumb...I was the prissy girl in a sundress and he was the only redneck Asian they'd ever seen.

(BTW, I hate that this pic makes me look pregnant. I promise, the belly is only slightly me and more the dress.) Oh yeah, and I did find some friends there....

We had lunch at the Hall of Fame, perused the gift shop, and then headed out for the rest of the day. We first ventured out to Mooresville, NC, to visit the D. E. I. shop. For those of you not in the NASCAR know, that's Dale Earnheardt Incorporated. While this is still a functioning company, the shop we went to is no longer functioning. It is essentially a memorial shrine to the late driver. It was moving to see what an impact this person had on so many people. There were some cars there and memorabilia from his racing days, but most of what was on display were different memorials people had sent. It was sad, and a little morbid, but strangely serene, too.

From there, weventured on to JR Motorsports, Dale Earnheardt, Jr's, Nationwide Series shop. There was a little gift shop, and you could see into the car shop as well. Jr was there in the form of a wax figure, and I forced the hubs to take a picture with him. He was not pleased with me. (I need to teach him how to pose for pictures.) 

From there we ventured on to Michael Waltrip Racing. They actually had a tour. You could pay and be able to walk around the upstairs, overlooking where all the cars were assembled, and on the hour there was a guided tour around the outside of the facility. That was interesting and educational. The hubs found out that he does not fit well in NASCAR seats.

 He also decided to buy part of a fender and a splitter, whatever that is. I was worried how they were going to fit in the car.

From there, we ventured on to my favorite part of the trip: IKEA!!!! It was a record though...we only spent about $40 and an hour in there. I've never spent so little time or money in Ikea.

At this point, I was getting quite grumpy and hungry from driving around all day, so we ventured to off to dinner. The hubs had heard of this place called Barbeque King (once again from "Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives") so we ventured there for dinner. He had barbeque for the second time that day, while I enjoyed a fish sandwich and a chocolate milkshake. It was soooo good, and a pretty good ending to the day.

Our Trip to Ikea

The hubs and I both have a bit of an obsession with Ikea. He loves the kitchen items they have, and most of the decor and furniture is up his alley, too. We live about 3 hours from one, but his parents live about 45 minutes from. Since we were up there for Christmas, we decided to take a little trip up to Ikea.

Now, we only go one or twice a year, and this time we had a mission to buy a big piece of furniture, so we knew it was going to be an expensive trip. Here are some of the spoils of our visit:

My guest bedroom finally feels complete with my Myken Mirror and Reslig Frame. I'm still not happen with the picture in the frame...it needs some adjusting, but I looooove this mirror. It makes me so excited.

We have had issues with a towel rack in our bathroom since we first moved in. We could not get a traditional towel rack to stay in the wall. We found this Grundtal towel rack that the hubs said he might actually use. The bathroom needs a little touch up work where the old rack attempted to hang, but overall, I'm quite happy.
We hated our old, ugly florescent light fixture in the kitchen. A couple months ago (sometime during the summer), the fixture stopped working correctly. We switched out the bulbs, but nothing. When we hung the Kramare light fixture, we could see again! The only problem is that it is a bit skinner than the fixture hole, so I'll be off to Home Depot or Lowes in order to get that covered.
And finally, our piece de resistance. I had been searching for something for to house our massive DVD collection for 2 years now. Nothing I liked would house it all for an agreeable price. So we got one of the Billy Bookcases with the glass doors and two extra shelves. I think it looks great in the room, and I'm love how it stores our DVDs. We have plenty of room to keep expanding, too.

Now if only there were an Ikea closer...

Dreaming of Ikea.

Literally. The hubster and I both love Ikea. Unfortunately, the closest one is 3 hours away, so our visits are relatively infrequent. We're planning a visit to his parents in a few weeks, who happen to only live about 45 minutes from Ikea, and the hubster mentions whether or not we want to make a little trip up there. I woke up this morning with a shopping cart full of Ikea goodies. Seriously, who does that? Who goes shopping in their sleep? And who knows the catalog well enough to pick up real things there?




1) A new desk and shelving unit for the hubster. His NASCAR room is in need of some serious organization, and I think this would be practical and display his collectibles nicely.

2) I love this mirror for the guest bedroom.

3) We both would love to make our living room, or "parlor" as the hubster likes to call it, into more of a library.

4) I have no practical use for this, but I have an obsession recently with formal black furniture. I don't know why, I just love it.

There were some other things-we seriously maxed out all of our credits cards. It's a good thing it was only a dream.