Natalie's Visit!

Way back in December, my very best friend, Natalie, booked a ticket out to see me. On March 26th, she finally arrived! I drove up to Louisville to pick her up. Her flight didn't get in till 11 pm and Steve was worried about me driving back home and thought we should get a hotel for the night. I assured him that we would be so excited to see each other, we would be wide awake the entire way home. I was right! We talked and laughed hysterically the entire way home. I sure did miss my best friend!! 

The next day we drove to Charleston to visit Natalie's other best friend (and my friend too!), Kasadie.We had a long, very eventful drive to Charleston which included a three hour detour in Asheville (well, at least we now know what to do with a body!). We arrived in Charleston later than we planned, but luckily we got to see Kasadie's adorable, brand new baby before she went to bed.

The next day Kasadie took us to downtown Charleston. I fell in love right away! It is the most charming city I have ever been too. I could have spent days just walking the streets and staring at the buildings. It was amazing and so much fun.

We found this beautiful garden path in the middle of downtown that led to a beautiful cemetery.

Nat and Kas.

Spring actually had sprung in Charleston. It was beautiful.

After we walked around, Kasadie drove us around to save us some time. She drove us by some of her dream houses which quickly turned into my dream houses!

Besties in Charleston! Just a couple of crazy gal pals.

This house was right on the beach. I was so in love.

Then we went back to Kasadie's and played with her adorable baby and talked for the rest of the day.

The next day we went to see the Angel Oak Tree. It is the largest known tree this side of the Mississippi. We figured it was some spiritual place, guarded by angels. Then we found out it was called the Angel Oak because a family named the Angel's owned it. Oh well! We still made wishes while we touched it! Kasadie said it worked for her, so we might as well!

This thing is MASSIVE. It was really amazing.

Some of the branches had to have support beams.

We then went to Cypress Gardens. This is where The Notebook, The Patriot, and Save Haven were all filmed. It was incredible. I apologize for picture overload in advance!

We took a self guided canoe tour of the swamp where they filmed The Notebook! We even convinced Kasadie and her sweet baby to come along! We got about half a mile out, thought we saw an alligator, freaked out, then turned around. We are total losers.

But it sure was pretty!

Three dorks in a boat!

Once we returned safely to shore, we walked around the grounds. We went in the butterfly house and saw beautiful flowers and butterflies.

Weird flowers outside the butterfly house.

Alligators!

We then went and walked around the swamp. It was seriously what I imagine heaven to be like.

Kasadie and I planned Natalie's wedding here.

I guess she loves Kasadie more than me. Understandable.

Yes, more flower pictures. :)

This pineapple was tiny!

The next day we sadly left Kasadie. There was a huge part of me that rethought our entire trip and thought maybe we should stay in Charleston for a couple more days. But the next day was Easter, and I promised Steve we would be home.

We had a pretty uneventful Easter. We had a great lunch at Kevin's and then I made a big Easter dinner. After dinner, Natalie and I dyed Easter eggs and watched Homeland (my favorite show!). This is the only picture I took the entire day!

On Monday, we woke up early and headed to the Smoky Mountains. I told Natalie to come the end of March because it would be Spring and beautiful. Well, Spring came WAY late this year and it was still dead and ugly. I was hoping the Smoky's would be pretty, but no such luck. I still feel really bad that it was so ugly while she was here!

Dead trees.

We still had fun hiking!

We hiked to Laurel Falls.

Ugly Tennessee. YUCK!

Natalie assured me it was still pretty. I don't see it.

We did see some green!

The Smoky's were ridiculously busy that day. I have never seen so many people there! We decided to go back to Harrogate and hike the Pinnacle and Tri State.

Still brown and ugly!

Okay, some green.

Nat at the Pinnacle. Overlooking Harrogate.

Two states at once! Kentucky and Virginia.

Then onto Tri State.

Three states at once!

Spring??

We hiked over five miles that day. It was so much fun! We were exhausted by the end of the day and ended up going to bed early. We are getting too old.

The next day Natalie had to fly home. Despite my protest, she insisted she had to get back to Utah. We drove back to Louisville and had just enough time to tour the Jim Beam distillery.

Nat at the distillery.

That's A LOT of bourbon!

They completely changed the tour since Steve and I were there last summer. It was so much better. They broke open this barrel of bourbon which hadn't seen day light in nine years. They filled a glass and let everyone had a taste. It was amazing.

They save a couple of bottles from each barrel for quality purpose. This is where they store them.

HUGE bottles. You can only buy these in Europe.

We got to watch the entire bottling process. It was really cool.

Nat got a label!

Then they took us to where the barrels are stored.

I love the girl behind Natalie in this picture. She stood there and stared at me while I took the picture. Then she came up to me and asked if she ruined my picture. Odd.

Then we went to the tasting! They really improved the tasting. When Steve and I went, they only had two bourbons for us to taste. Now they have fountain machines! You can taste any two you like. It was super cool.

Warm Kentucky huge!

Top shelf, amazing stuff.

Then it was time to drop Nat off at the airport. It was tearful goodbye! Good thing I knew we only had one month till we saw each other again.

We had an amazing week. We drove over 2,000 miles, listened to Mirrors about a million times, laughed till we cried, and reminisced about the years we have known each other and everything we have been through.

Not having Natalie near by is one of the hardest parts of living outside of Utah. I just love this girl to death.

Thanks again for an amazing week, Nat! Come back soon!!