Good Morning Faithful Readers.

This weekend, oneandonlymatt and I went to Charlotte, North Carolina. We left early Saturday morning and arrived in town around noon. For some reason, before going, I had this strange feeling that I was going to like Charlotte a lot. The kind of like where I would want to live there.

As soon as we drove into town, I loved it. In some ways it was like Savannah, GA but with taller buildings. Matt said it reminded him a lot of Vancouver, BC.

We checked into our hotel and dropped off our things and then headed out for lunch. We ended up at Rock Bottom Brewery where I had some tasty Magnolia Brown Beer. I have been learning to drink beer and browns or porters are my favorites so far. I also had an incredible hummus and goat cheese salad with salmon.

Then we wandered around a little more, had a couple more beers and ended up at the Discovery Place - a local museum - to see "A day in Pompeii" - the exhibit was fantastic. They had all originals from the city.

We went back to the hotel for a while and rested before going out for dinner. We ended up at an Irish Pub called Blackfin. The food was great, the beer was great. Then we went to a little bar called Therapy and had another drink and watched some live music.

On Sunday, we ordered breakfast in and then got ready to go over to the Carolina Panthers stadium to watch the Lions game. The day was gorgeous and just a little chilly. The stadium was very nice. The game ended like we expected.

In the end, I did really love Charlotte. But I found myself spending a lot of time thinking about all the great things I love about Atlanta and it really cemented the fact that we are in the right place for us right now. Between Atlanta and Asheville, I couldn't imagine anything better.

On Saturday morning, I was questioning the wisdom in going to a beer festival only a couple of days after my trip to the ER. However, we had the plans and the tickets for a long time so I thought "Wisdom be damned" and we went anyway.

( And I am super glad that we did! )

Last weekend oneandonlymatt and I went to Oktoberfest in Helen GA. (Again, for my friends who are in or from Michigan - Helen is a crazy place that is a lot like Frankenmuth but in the mountains of Georgia with all the hillbillies. It is a crazy place!)

We had a great time. When we were there, we met a guy named Will who told us he was a PHD Candidate in the Computer Science Program at Clemson. He and his buddies were in Helen for the weekend and he met us at the Irish bar and we talked to him for several hours. We sat with him outside his hotel room for a while and listened to music. I gave him my card so he could get in touch with us, but I have not received any phone calls or emails.

My card also has a link to my blog. If you're out there, Will, please email. We enjoyed hanging out with you.