It’s been a while since I posted (newsflash, right?), but this time I actually have a good reason — I got married! What?! Crazy, huh? Yep. I kinda stopped working so much on the blog since I planned a wedding in 6 months. It was a pretty quick turnaround time, especially considering we were both working full-time. But from here on out, it’s official… I will now call him my BF. What? What’s that you say? That’s what I’ve always been calling him? Well, yes. But it no longer stands for “Boyfriend.” Now it stands for my “Boo Forever.” FOREVER.
Sooo… I have a backlog of posts from the past few months. I have some food pics to share with you, of course. And I’d also like to start posting about travel, crafts/DIYing, and (drumroll, please)… wedding, of course! In addition to random stuff I think up, I’m going to start back at the beginning and share my tips, tricks, and DIY instructions for various elements of planning a wedding. But I’m not promising anything because especially when it comes to blogs, I seem to have trouble keeping promises. Besides, I’ve made enough of a big promise in my life lately.
So I propose I start at the beginning with the proposal. (See what I did there?) Back in March, we had a certificate to stay at the Hotel Floyd that was going to expire soon, so we took a couple days off work and headed out for a road trip to Floyd, Virginia.
On our way up north, we stopped at Fairy Stone State Park for an afternoon hike, so named for these weird stones they have there that form in the shape of crosses. They have some legend about fairies crying or something, but mostly it was just a beautiful place to hike that we’d never been to before.
I pretty much knew something was up, and I had decided to get the BF a gift — a pair of hiking boots. When we arrived and get ready for our hike, I pulled them out of the trunk and jokingly asked him, “Will you do me the honor of wearing these boots?” He asked me if I had really just proposed to him with a boot, and I was like, “No no no, I was joking. Joke.” And I started to turn away and he said, “Well, do you want yours?” I was all confused thinking he was going to hand me my hiking boots, when he reached into his bag, got down on one knee right there, and proposed! It was silly and sweet and perfect. The perfect balance for us of romance and humor, planned spontaneity. He gave me my ring, we laced up our respective boots, and we hiked around a park we pretty much had to ourselves.
The park was really beautiful, even for the gray-brown bleh that is March. There isn’t a big mountain anywhere or anything like that, but there is a lake. We hiked around for a while, explored the lake, and then found a nice bench to read on. A lovely day.
We headed on to Floyd, eager for a shower and dinner. Floyd is an amazing little mountain country town. They have about one city block containing a couple restaurants, a book store, a general store, and a hotel. They are well-known for their music, particularly Floyd Fest, which brings thousands to town every summer. Their 2012 line-up included Alison Krauss, Punch Brothers, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Brandi Carlisle, and dozens of other awesome artists. And even outside of this awesome annual weekend, Floyd hosts a small outdoor music concert every Friday night — just head downtown and follow the music, you’ll find it.
We had dinner at Oddfellas Cantina, a downtown restaurant that serves “conscious comfort food with an Appalachian Latino twist.” It was delicious. And after a day of travel and hiking, we headed back to the Hotel Floyd to hit the hay in the Bell Gallery Suite. Very roomy, very comfy.
The next morning we stopped at the local bookstore/coffee shop before heading out to the Chateau Morrisette Winery. We had a delicious and fancy lunch (I had champagne!) in their restaurant and then headed next door for a tour and tasting. Just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, it was a beautiful drive and just as beautiful relaxing on the grounds after the tour. We even brought home a couple bottles of wine.
On the drive home, we spotted this guy…
We headed back to enjoy a quiet weekend at home. All vacations should end with two more days off at home. That’s the best way to do it.
Wine & Plum 
Leave a Reply