Before we had kids, Jason and I had a tradition of seeing his favorite basketball team, the Trailblazers, play the Bobcats in Charlotte once a year. It was my absolute favorite trip every year, and I have missed the time with him greatly since having the kiddos. Now that Eden and Harry are a little older (and we have AWESOME friends that watch them for us!) we were able to reinstate our annual trip! Monday afternoon, Jason and I headed out to Charlotte for the game. We had a groupon for a restaurant called Fitzgerald's so we stopped first for dinner. This is our attempt at a self portrait:
The food was delicious! We started with a hummus appetizer:
(it was supposed to come with pita chips, but they graciously swapped them for corn chips so I could avoid the gluten!)
I ordered a Grilled Balsamic Chicken entree with sauteed spinach and goat cheese:
It was wonderful! I could drink balsamic vinegar from the bottle and goat cheese is a favorite, so I was in heaven.
Jason ordered a burger with a goat cheese medallion and fries:
He said it was enjoyable but not stellar. Once he added some garlic aoli sauce, it helped!
The restaurant was right across the street from the Time Warner Cable Arena, so we were able to leave our car in the parking deck (with validated parking, woot woot!) and walk over. Our seats were great, but my camera's shots came out a bit fuzzy.
It was a great game and we won in overtime! It was exciting, at least to us (we were among about 10 Blazers fans in the arena).
We stayed at the Wingate by Wyndham that night, and the next morning headed out to IKEA! Check out our excitement on the way in:
Okay okay, so I was excited. Jason - not so much. But this was a somewhat staged photo. :)
One of the lines that IKEA carries for furniture is called the Hemnes line and I love the whole thing! Such nice, clean lines with no fuss. I have been eyeing the Hemnes bookcases for over a year now, but they are $180. Well lo and behold they have been marked down to $149 this year! And guess what we found in the as-is section? I'm so glad you asked - a floor model of the Hemnes bookcase marked down to $100!!!
Now normally I would be raving about how we packed that lovely up and brought her home, but alas...my thrifty and wise husband put the kibosh on that idea. Of course, he was right - we had no way to get it home (we drove his car, not the Aztek) and we really did not need to spend an extra hundred dollars on something that was not a necessity. But I can't help and ponder how sweet it would have been to have the perfect bookcase for such a good deal.
We managed to leave only spending $10 (we got a frame, journal, gift bag and toothbrush holder for the kids' bathroom) and I was still happy. :)
We left IKEA and headed to Concord Mills to peruse the stores a bit and catch a matinee of the latest Bond movie. It was really good! Going to the movies is a luxury for us, so I was happy just to be there, the two of us.
We headed back home to see our kiddos and relieve our babysitter. It was a happy reunion!
We are so blessed to have had a wonderful 24 hours to recharge and just hang out together. A big thank you to our dear friend, Rebecca, who gave up her evening and two days to take care of our kids so we could go. Here's to reinstating annual Shmoopy trips!
No comments:
Post a Comment