Small Town Girl in The Great Big City

    A few months ago, I was contacted by the mom of a Senior, who wanted me to meet her across state line, to take her daughters photos. What an HONOR!

  It worked out perfectly, because it just so happened to be our 12th anniversary as well.  So we decided to stay two nights and make it a working-anniversary trip.  I had never been to this town before, and it’s BIG, like 3 million big.  How exciting!

  We hit the road Friday morning. Nana was so gracious to move in for the weekend and take care of the 4 littles.

  We were on a limited budget so I went on one of those hotel discount sites to book our room.  It had 5 star reviews, so I hoped it was as nice as promised.  When we arrived, they had us in a double bed room.  You all, I did NOT bring kids on this trip, and I sure don’t plan on needing TWO beds. 
The lady at the front desk asked me if I meant to book that kind of room, and after a few jokes from Dale, we told her no, its just what the website selected.
We talked for a bit, and she said, you know what, I am going to upgrade you to our King suite with a view, AND get you VIP access to the 11th floor lounge where you can eat 3 times a day, breakfast, lunch and appetizers/dessert bar.
God is so good!  I love His surprise blessings.   

I, of course, did NOT wear “Mommy shoes” on this trip, but my best colorful, wedge heels.  It was a great thought, but it didn’t take long to kick them off for flip flops, BECAUSE, in this particular part of town, you could walk everywhere you wanted to go.  SO cool and so worth comfy shoes!

  My favorite part is everywhere you turned there was something cool to see, a fountain on every corner, Jazz musicians standing out front, street magicians, people playing hacky sack, singing in the park, playing instruments, belly dancing……we even saw a play, on the front steps of a large museum. 

  We walked around until we got hungry and decided to try the Cheesecake Factory. We have never eaten there before, so we figured we better try it!  We shared nachos and then each got a piece of cheesecake, of course. Dale picked Tirimasu, and I picked Mango Lime something or other with Coconut crust. YUMO!

  After that we went to get the car, this was a working trip after all, and spent the next few hours scoping out spots for the Senior shoot and doing some test shots.

  Unfortunately, Map Quest is a liar, and we ended up driving around for a total of 5 hours with all the one way streets we turned down, and wrong directions we were given.  According to Dale, we never got lost since he always knew what street we were on and how to get back to the hotel.  YEAH, ok, whatever helps you sleep at night, buddy.

And yikes about those winding roads, pass the Car Sickness homeopathics!!!!! 
We found our final destination with no problems, and decided to get out and walk around its HUGE gorgeous lawn and steps area.

   It was an Art Museum, which isn’t something we would necessarily seek out, but decided to head in for a break before getting BACK in the car again.  Barfo.

It was a really impressive museum, it went on and on.  Right away we got the giggles as we each started re-enacting the art work on the walls:  Giggles aside, it was a VERY interesting museum with INCREDIBLE pieces of art and furniture and carvings.  We had such a nice time.  We decided everything in life is more fun when we are together.

  Being the Foodies that we are, we had a list of food places we wanted to try over the Weekend.  By accident, we found the little pizza place from our list, on the way home.  It was 9:00 by that time, so we grabbed a Basil Tomato one, to go, with a big salad.  We decided to have a bed picnic, and watch some of our favorite house shows that we never see, because we don’t do cable.

  When we got to our room, the gal that upgraded us to the King suite had a surprise waiting for us…..
A beautiful cheese, cracker and berry platter!  Awww! Have I mentioned I LOVE this place?!?!?!  Check out our view.

Next morning we went to breakfast upstairs in the Lounge (smoked salmon with capers, OH MY WORD) and then headed out to walk around some more…..

Until it started POURING!

  UH OH!  Can’t really reschedule an out of state shoot, can ya?!
We prayed that it’d be clear and sunny by shoot time, and it was….Thanks, Lord! 

  Grabbed a quick lunch at Season 52, all fresh food seasonally, all under 500 calories. These little flat breads were amazzzzing!

  Sun came out just in time for this: Meet Ramey, Senior Class of 2015

   We had so much fun with Ramey’s amazing family.  The shoot lasted a couple of hours, and then we parted ways and decided to celebrate our fun work weekend away with one fancy dinner out.

  We selected Fogo De Chao, where you try 16 different cuts of meat, as the waiters bring them by your table throughout the meal.  Best gourmet salad bar too! FUN and a perfect end to a perfect weekend!

  The morning we headed back to our Home Sweet Home, thanking God for allowing us to get away, and funding this extravagance with a photo shoot to help pay for it.  

~T

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