the adventures continue

We made it to the east coast, and have had the pleasure of visiting with so many friends and family. It's been really great. The wedding was fun, and it was nice to see so many old friends all in the same place together. Our stay in Luray with Abbey, George and Sam was wonderful. It was the longest uninterrupted time we'd had together in a while. Sam might actually remember who we are! We were introduced to his near 2 year old awesomeness, dancing to Paul Simon, playing drums during music time. So much fun. We played so much music! Abbey and George have a great collection of instruments and love playing music, so we got to play with George at an open stage in downtown Luray, and we even went to their friends' house for a Nome-inspired music time. Abbey enjoyed sharing in a music night in Nome so much, that she's trying to spread the music love in Luray. On the day they both had to work, Jeff and I went out searching for a climb close to town in the Blue Ridge. After hiking all the way up to the top of the mountain, trying to find the right cliffs, we came back down a ways, and found a path over to where we wanted to be. Jeff kept being alarmed by the acorns falling from trees, expecting to see a bear close by, but we never did. sneaky acorns. The climb was hard, and we weren't able to make it up...I guess not many people come out there. So our search for good climbing over here continues.
After hanging in Luray for a long weekend, we drove south to Asheville, NC. It's awesome here. We've been staying with my college friend Jessica and her lovely husband T.J. They live in a "tree-house," a house among many trees, just minutes from the Blue Ridge Parkway. We've been eating good food, enjoying good company, and went out for a night on the town on Friday. We were introduced to some great local beers and vegetarian bbq. yum! Yesterday was a rainy, lazy day, so our plans for boating morphed into napping and reading. Today we had an amazing brunch at one of my most favorite restaurants, the Laughing Seed; gourmet vegetarian food that makes meat eaters forget they wanted meat. mmmm...mmmmm.... After a little too much shopping, we came back to the house, and have burritos as the plan for dinner. What more could you want? Jeff has been weighing the pro's of moving here, although we've spent a lot of time talking about Alaska this weekend, and both miss it, a lot. The leaves are just thinking of changing colors here, and the weather is cooling off. I can imagine the tundra is looking beautiful in reds and golds.
Tomorrow we're heading to the coast, so I can introduce Jeff to the Outer Banks. I'm so excited to show him another of my favorite east coast spots. And he'll get his first dip in the warm Atlantic seas. woo hoo! for beach time. I'm sure we'll get some good photos up from there. More soon.