In my mind I'm STILL in Carolina...

Steve and I have been at my family's cabin in the mountains of North Carolina. It was cool & breezy and the blackberries were ripe! Steve's parents, sister, and brother-in-law were there as well, so it was nice to visit with them. On Thursday Riley took a swim in the pond and then we did some shopping in Asheville. On Friday everybody else went hiking nearby on the AT, and I spent the day in Winston-Salem with my college buddies Valerie and Casey (and Coulson who is 2 1/2 and prefers not to wear clothes). Val is 2 weeks away from Boy #2 and looks great! Casey (Boy Wonder) is in Year 3 of his ER residency at Wake Forest. This fall he'll be applying for ultrasound fellowships including Christiana Hospital (right here in Delaware). I'm trying not to think about how great it would be to have Val live nearby.

On Saturday Steve and I went back to Asheville to see crafters at Bele Chere and get some chicken-on-a-stick. One artist was selling beads and jewelry made from paper clay, which is regular clay plus paper mixed in. The paper burns off during firing, rendering the object more lightweight than if it were made from regular clay. Very cool. (As if I had time to learn a new medium!) After that we drove to Brevard to visit my aunt Suzy and my 3 grown cousins who were also in town. I can't believe how big their kids are! It was fun reminiscing about all 10 cousins (in my generation)being together at Grandma's house in the summer. Crab feasts, summer sledding (on cardboard), kick the can...

Now we are back in Delaware, waiting for the A/C to cool off the house. Ugh. We're dreaming up how we can spend our summers in the mountains now!