Chapel Hill... AKA Every Basketball Fanatics Dream... or those that like UNC :)
Ok, I may ramble today... just consider yourself warned :).
Steve and I packed a "tiny" bag and headed out on an adventure this Friday thanks for our dear friend Jon who was willing to feed the dogs for us! Thanks Jon!!
So we excitedly packed out bags and hit the road at 3pm on Friday afternoon... our goal? Rock out to John Mark McMillan with as much energy as we had... and we succeeded. If you are not familiar with John Mark McMillan please, please PLEASE do yourself a favor and watch the video at the end of this post. His lyrics are so profound and his music strikes you in the heart. It was such an amazing time of worship for Steve and I... along with the 500 other friends that came to the show... cause that's what it felt like... like we were with a bunch of friends.
Honestly at the end of the concert, when we were walking back to our car, I turned to Steve and told him "This is what I think heaven will be like". Now bear with me on this one. I think a lot of people think of a choir setting in a church when they think of heaven... that we're all there robed out and ready to sing our best choir number... and don't get me wrong I love a good choir number... but there was something so raw and beautiful about singing at the top of my lungs, worshiping the risen Christ and doing it in a dark bar where I'm sure some not so glorifying shows have taken place. We were surrounded by kids from every walk of life.. some clean cut, some tattoo covered... but EVERYONE there was there because they love Jesus and JMM's music helps point our focus there. The end of the night was so powerful singing "10,000" acapella.... we all didn't even notice the band was gone at first... we were singing to our Jesus!
So we finally got "home" around midnight and ate some dinner (I know right?) and then PASSED OUT! For those of you who know us well you know we go pretty non stop. That's just our life. We love it and we don't mind it most of the time but sleeping in on a Sat. is not something we get most of the time. Well our hotel room had these AMAZING blackout curtains.... now by amazing I mean it was 9am and I thought it was 1am. Yeah.. they were THAT amazing! So we got ourselves up and checked out of the hotel ready for a day of adventure... well eating was more like it :)
We headed back to Franklin street which is "kinda" like Kerry Town but I personally like Kerry Town better! If I spelled that wrong get over it you know what I meant! We went and ate breakfast at this awesome southern, soul cooking place called "Mama Dips". It was so good! I don't have pictures of the food cause we ate it that fast but it was adorable there and the food was amazing. If you go to Chapel Hill anytime soon make sure you make it to Mama Dips!
After we ate the plan was to explore. Well both my sweet husband and I like to have a general idea of where we're going when we explore... yeah that's just the little control freaks in both of us rearing their heads... Well all the info Steve had read just said walk down Franklin St. it's amazing and oh, go see the UNC campus. So we started walking down Franklin... well we started in the WRONG spot cause it was shall we say.... a little not safe where we were... ok that's an exaggeration but there were NO fun shops and all there was was a thrift store that smelled like urine inside... YAY VACATION! So I got emotional and Steve being the awesome husband he is took me to the UNC campus. There are all these humongous trees and pretty benches. So we sat down and regrouped. After a few min. of freak out we started to just talk and it was so nice... we never just sit and talk. We're always rushing from this to that and passing each other as we eat dinner and then we head off... mostly to the same thing but you know how it is... when you're heading to do something you're talking about what it is you're about to do. SO, we got to sit and talk and just enjoy the big shade trees... made me kinda fall in love with UNC...yes for their trees!
After we regrouped we realized I was hungry because with my PCOS I'm usually always hungry if I've had anything remotely resembling a carb or sugar... and let's just say I couldn't pass up the blueberry pancakes at breakfast... so we went to eat at the Mediterranean Deli. My heart did a happy dance as we walked in. I was in Sudan a little over 2 years ago and fell in love with Lebanese and Mediterranean food and well we don't have that many places here that do a decent job. It was so fun to eat and just enjoy the fact that we had nowhere to be!
We finished lunch and knew we needed to be heading home so we ducked in a few shops and Steve surprised me with some beautiful hand made earrings.. I love them and have worn them every day pretty much!
As we headed out of town we made one final stop... to the Whole Food Market. Oh, my heart couldn't take all the happy dances it did that day :). I love natural food, I love local food even more but I love knowing what my body needs and learning the best ways to get it! The Whole Food Market was a feast for my eyes... I say eyes because my husband was insistent we had to be out of there in 15 min. So we rushed through the whole store, bought ourselves two healthy drinks and hit the road!
All in all it was a perfect weekend filled with new discoveries and decisions. I'm so thankful that we were able to do that and can't wait till our next mini-vacation~
love to all!
 |
| Jon |
So we excitedly packed out bags and hit the road at 3pm on Friday afternoon... our goal? Rock out to John Mark McMillan with as much energy as we had... and we succeeded. If you are not familiar with John Mark McMillan please, please PLEASE do yourself a favor and watch the video at the end of this post. His lyrics are so profound and his music strikes you in the heart. It was such an amazing time of worship for Steve and I... along with the 500 other friends that came to the show... cause that's what it felt like... like we were with a bunch of friends.
Honestly at the end of the concert, when we were walking back to our car, I turned to Steve and told him "This is what I think heaven will be like". Now bear with me on this one. I think a lot of people think of a choir setting in a church when they think of heaven... that we're all there robed out and ready to sing our best choir number... and don't get me wrong I love a good choir number... but there was something so raw and beautiful about singing at the top of my lungs, worshiping the risen Christ and doing it in a dark bar where I'm sure some not so glorifying shows have taken place. We were surrounded by kids from every walk of life.. some clean cut, some tattoo covered... but EVERYONE there was there because they love Jesus and JMM's music helps point our focus there. The end of the night was so powerful singing "10,000" acapella.... we all didn't even notice the band was gone at first... we were singing to our Jesus!
So we finally got "home" around midnight and ate some dinner (I know right?) and then PASSED OUT! For those of you who know us well you know we go pretty non stop. That's just our life. We love it and we don't mind it most of the time but sleeping in on a Sat. is not something we get most of the time. Well our hotel room had these AMAZING blackout curtains.... now by amazing I mean it was 9am and I thought it was 1am. Yeah.. they were THAT amazing! So we got ourselves up and checked out of the hotel ready for a day of adventure... well eating was more like it :)
We headed back to Franklin street which is "kinda" like Kerry Town but I personally like Kerry Town better! If I spelled that wrong get over it you know what I meant! We went and ate breakfast at this awesome southern, soul cooking place called "Mama Dips". It was so good! I don't have pictures of the food cause we ate it that fast but it was adorable there and the food was amazing. If you go to Chapel Hill anytime soon make sure you make it to Mama Dips!  |
| Mama Dips :) |
After we ate the plan was to explore. Well both my sweet husband and I like to have a general idea of where we're going when we explore... yeah that's just the little control freaks in both of us rearing their heads... Well all the info Steve had read just said walk down Franklin St. it's amazing and oh, go see the UNC campus. So we started walking down Franklin... well we started in the WRONG spot cause it was shall we say.... a little not safe where we were... ok that's an exaggeration but there were NO fun shops and all there was was a thrift store that smelled like urine inside... YAY VACATION! So I got emotional and Steve being the awesome husband he is took me to the UNC campus. There are all these humongous trees and pretty benches. So we sat down and regrouped. After a few min. of freak out we started to just talk and it was so nice... we never just sit and talk. We're always rushing from this to that and passing each other as we eat dinner and then we head off... mostly to the same thing but you know how it is... when you're heading to do something you're talking about what it is you're about to do. SO, we got to sit and talk and just enjoy the big shade trees... made me kinda fall in love with UNC...yes for their trees!
We finished lunch and knew we needed to be heading home so we ducked in a few shops and Steve surprised me with some beautiful hand made earrings.. I love them and have worn them every day pretty much!
As we headed out of town we made one final stop... to the Whole Food Market. Oh, my heart couldn't take all the happy dances it did that day :). I love natural food, I love local food even more but I love knowing what my body needs and learning the best ways to get it! The Whole Food Market was a feast for my eyes... I say eyes because my husband was insistent we had to be out of there in 15 min. So we rushed through the whole store, bought ourselves two healthy drinks and hit the road!
All in all it was a perfect weekend filled with new discoveries and decisions. I'm so thankful that we were able to do that and can't wait till our next mini-vacation~
love to all!
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