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Annual Oyster Roast on the Cape Fear River at the Chamber of Commerce. All you can eat fresh oysters and shrimp, open bar, and live music. Great time with new co-workers, community entrepreneurs, and the hubby 🙂

Weekend shot with friend (and photo bomber!) at Trailer Bar.

It’s quite blurry and I’m way over-tanned (ha), but I’m starting to really like my new hair color. I think I’m going to go darker next time… but keep some dramatic highlights too 🙂

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Lovely Virginia

           

This past weekend, Chuck and I went to Charlottesville – home of Monticello and the University of Virginia – to join some friends and family for Top of the Hops Beer Festival. Although the festival was a great time, I am not particularly a fan of beer, so we made it a point to go apple picking as well.

      

It turned out to be the most beautiful weekend, and we got to roam apple orchards and farmer’s markets in warm golden sunshine. We were able to picnic alongside old Virginian architecture and browse the orchard’s country shop. It’s fun to go back to my “home state” and get a taste of mountains and hills in comparison to the endless flat land of Coastal Carolina!

       

As I type, I’m actually enjoying one of the crisp, juicy apples that I hand-picked myself. We got so many – I’ll have to make a cinnamon apple crisp this weekend! Yummm. 🙂

       

Every morning when I open my eyes, there’s Annie sharing my pillow with me. I mostly get the back of her head or even her butt, but this morning we were practically face to face. This was moments before I pulled her under the covers with me! Such a warm and cozy lil’ fluff ball ❤

(Taken with Instagram)

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Dream Come True!

Today I filled a life long dream of holding a baby tiger, and I did it without having to travel to some far, exotic land. Months and months ago, I pinned a photo of baby tigers to my Bucket List board on Pinterest, including a caption that explained how someday I needed to hold one. A random stranger commented and told me there was in fact a place that I could do it right here in Coastal Carolina.

Myrtle Beach Safari is pretty much the coolest thing ever.  They have a 50-acre plot of land where you can personally interact with tigers, wolves, falcons, a variety of monkeys, an elephant, and even a liger! At $240 per ticket, we decided to wait on that, but the photo session with the cubs was more reasonable, if not cheap… and totally worth the few moments we got to play with the little tykes!

All the proceeds go to sustaining the wildlife and funding efforts to conserve and protect endangered species, so I feel like every penny was well spent. I DO plan to go on a full safari tour next season, once I can (hopefully) relax our new budget. But seriously – I was just so excited!! You can totally tell what a crazy person I am in the photo – not that most flattering shot, with my crazy eyes and tensed-excited body langauge and bulging forehead vein!! Chuck, on the other hand, looks suave and chill as a cucumber… and the tiger cubs… well… they truly just steal the show 🙂

Of course, I couldn’t wait to get back to my very own little cublet back at home. I may be crazy for wildcats, but Miss Bean will always be my one and only ❤