Holy Cluck!

I decided early last week I wanted to do something over the weekend that was specific to life in North Carolina. Shawn and I put our heads together and decided: What's more southern than eating chicken and waffles?

I went online and began searching for the best chicken and waffles in our area. My search didn't take long. The first few hits showcased a place in downtown Durham, Dames Chicken and Waffles, and everyone had only good things to say. We knew that was the place, so I spent Thursday and Friday last week looking forward to chicken and waffles on Saturday with great anticipation.

The first big decison we had to make was what meal we wanted to go for. I still am not sure when the appropriate time to eat chicken and waffles is (um...any time?!) but we decided we would go around lunch. Neither of us had eaten breakfast, and we got to the restaurant around 11. It was already packed, so after a 45 minute wait, we were seated (and hungry!).

Waiting, but happy because of the excitement.

First came our sides. Shawn went with the spicy greens, while I settled on the mac and cheese (one of the best I have ever had!).  We also really liked that the tables were covered in paper and they offered crayons. (Can you spot my lovely picture of chicken and waffles?)

Shawn ordered the Quilted Buttercup, which was two petite sweet potato waffles with a chicken cutlet.

I ordered What a Classy Hen, which was the original waffle with a chicken cutlet. The different dishes also come with different shmears, which are flavored whipped butter. Mine came with an almond hazelnut shmear--Shawn's had a blueberry shmear. 

It was AMAZING! The most amazing part, they (the chicken and waffles) taste good separate, they taste good together, they taste good with syrup, they taste good with hot sauce, and they taste good with both. I don't know how it works, but it does. Chicken and waffles is one of my new favorite things!

I had some leftovers that I took home (including my shmear) but they only lasted until the afternoon. Just so you know, they were also tasty then. Dames Chicken and Waffles is one of our new stops when people come to visit (that means you all should be excited and start planning a trip!).

Camping and back to blogging

It's been awhile since the last post (July--yikes!). Here is an attempt to begin blogging, yet again.

This weekend, we went and did some hiking and camping in the North Carolina mountains. We headed out early Saturday morning (Shawn and our neighbor wanted to try for a 6 a.m. departure initially, but I fought back for a 7 a.m. start time--of course, this means we really left around 7:30).

Our first stop (excluding a breakfast stop along the way) was to do some hiking near Boone. We went down the Blue Ridge Parkway for a bit and came to a park that had a number of trails. We took one of our neighbor's favorites, the Boone Fork Trail, which is a 5 mile long hike that goes along a creek (and sometimes through the creek), and has areas where you climb over boulders and down ladders.

All in all, it was a fun hike, and Bella thoroughly enjoyed herself.

Then it was off to set up camp. We found a campground outside of Boone that also had trails and included a pond. We didn't explore the site much, but we spent time sitting around a campfire, eating s'mores, and just having a good time (Did I mention the s'mores?!).

Although we had a great time, Bella did not enjoy the camping portion of the evening. She mostly sat in Shawn's or my lap and jumped at every little sound. I don't think she slept at all that evening. One thing that should be noted about North Carolina camping is how loud the bugs are!

The next morning, we made breakfast over the campfire and headed down the mountain to get set for the week. I love camping, but one thing I do not love is the smell of campfire the next day, so we of course had a lot of laundry to do. And Bella had a lot of sleep to catch up on!