Athens, GA - April 2009

Nathan and Katie flew Continental April 15 and April 19. Dave dropped us off at the MAX stop at the Fairgrounds after coming over to meet Peyton and Eli. We got to the airport just after pizzicato closed even though their website said they'd be open 2 more hours (apparently summer hours are posted and they're still operating under winter hours....blah) We met "Apple" at our gate. Apple, or "Manzanita" was an appleheaded chihuahua headed to Costa Rica for a 6 week vacation...with his owner. Such a sweet dog, 18 months old, had never flown before. He only whimpered a little when we took off and landed as he stayed in his under-seat crate the entire trip. We connected in Houston right as restuarants were opening for breakfast. This is the only Starbucks to still serve marble loaf (chocolate/vanilla marble pound cake). We learned to appreciate being "Elite" members as we got to board the plane second to only the first class customers. This proved beneficial on our first flight since the overhead bins filled too early and people had to check bags last minute...I hope they got them at their final destination! The second flight wasn't quite as crowded so we got to share 3 seats together and pretend to sleep on the 2 hr flight to Atlanta. Wayne and Kay were at Hartsfield to pick us up and we did our best to stay awake in the car. We stopped at the new Chick-Fil-A in Monroe and Katie got a stuffed cow for Nathan to take to work since the cows were for children and she is Kay's child =)

We flew down for Kim and Daniel's wedding which was on Saturday but had acouple of festivities to attend before it. First was the shindig at Dave and Buster's in Gwinnett. They serve LOTS of food as a "normal" amount. It wasn't our favorite spot to be but most of that was because of how tired we were after staying up 40 hours or so. Luckily, Carla drove us to and from dinner so we only had to drive to and from Carla's apartment in Athens.

Friday we got biscuits from AJ's where we saw the sweet lady who always works there. I think she remembered us too! Then we had Jason's Deli for lunch before meeting Ashlie and Derrick and Hosea and Levi at the park to play for a bit. Then Wayne and Kay decided we should squeeze in visits to Katie's grandmothers which was fine except for how hurried they were and that they were almost late to Kim and Daniel's rehearsal dinner. The dinner was at Blind Pig Tavern and Nathan tried fried pickles for the first time and liked them! We also got more sweet tea =)

Saturday we stopped by to see Ricky on the way to Kim and Daniel's wedding. Ricky had been in a near-fatal car accident a month before and since Katie had babysat him for 6 years, she really wanted to see him. He looked a lot better and has improved even more since then! We left their house and began our quest to Carlton...just past the middle of nowhere. The wedding was gorgeous and the food delicious. Katie did receive warning that there were ticks in the area (outdoor wedding/reception) so she decided to apply bugspray just in case. We rushed to Laura and Jeremy's reception (their wedding was also the 18th!) but were unable to see them because the bride and groom arrived 1.5 hours late. By that point we had to leave to have dinner with Katie's family in Braselton at the Cracker Barrell. Nathan had been wanting to try hush puppies ever since hearing Brad Paisley's song "Ain't Nothin' Like" where he says you should have "good hush puppies with some sweet iced tea" so he made sure to order some with his dinner.

Sunday Kay cooked breakfast as she and Katie had been trying to figure out Fran's homemade biscuit recipe. It's getting closer. Then it was time to go to the airport. We got drinks once we cleared security but opted to get food in Houston. Once again, Continental overbooked their flight and took forever to get people sorted out as there were three people who had all been given the same seat! Finally we landed in Portland and took the MAX to 170th where Casey picked us up and took us home.

Astoria, OR - Easter '09

Nathan and Katie drove to Astoria for Katie's birthday. Stayed at Cannery Pier Inn.