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Thursday

Props to Courtyard by Marriott in Statesville, NC, my new fave dog-friendly pit stop!  It cost a little more but hey, no bedbugs, no mold, no cooking smells, no screaming or gunshots.  Yes!  (Although Sophie did come in from her walk with a tick on her.) And, though the temps were in the 80’s again, the humidity was much less.

Had kind of a white knuckle day with some really thick fog around the Blue Ridge. Scary, but I knew it was a possibility when I decided to take this route. Still beats 95. Also, had some back-ups because of bad accidents. Awful accidents. I started to tell you the details but well, why? I’ll tell you what though: it made me hyper vigilant and I haven’t needed to call my mum or Sue to keep me awake, not even once.

I loved watching the lush green of Georgia turn into an earlier and earlier spring as I headed thru the Carolinas. The redbuds, the dogwoods, the forsythia, just gorgeous.

And, now we’ve landed here in Sabillasville, Maryland, at the little log cabin from last year. It is early spring here, the trees just budding, only a hint of green in the garden, the daffodils in bloom. Sophie and Lucy are like puppies, with the cool weather and being liberated from the car. Woohoo!

Friday

The girls and I had a long walk in the woods and then I left them in the cabin for a nap while I drove to Frederick to meet up with my BFF, Stacy. We had breakfast at Café Nola – split the Bella Benedict, two eggs on a portabella mushroom with wilted spinach and gruyere. Fabulous. The art on the walls is ever so glorious. A few examples: 

These were 3-dimensional in that the dresses were actual dresses and then painted over so pleats and buttons sort of stuck out and the girls were painted. I thought they were so amazing.

After breakfast, a little shopping in old town,

including a stop at Zoe’s Chocolates where this totally creepy giant chocolate hen was left over from Easter. (I thought it was a turkey.)

Anyhoo, back to the cabin where we were treated to a fabulous torrential rainstorm complete with tornado warnings and ate a dinner of Lu’s Famous Pesto while we watched the breaking news on TV ad nauseum. I worked on my rug in front of the fire. V. cozy with the rain and in spite of the TV.

Saturday

And this morning, we're back at Cafe Nola and looking forward to seeing the sights and doing a little more shopping in Frederick. No wifi at the cabin so I'm playing catch up here.  Ciao for now!