birthday weekend spectacular

it's been a busy two weeks since i last posted. the 13th marked my 23rd birthday. to help me celebrate, my parents came up for the weekend prior. it's actually been pretty great having parents that will travel to make that one day extra special for you. i only hope i do my children justice. on friday night we went out to Logan's steakhouse, because that's where they like to eat and i couldn't complain. then we drove around and i showed them some of town. not too exciting since we were all tired. ooh, but i did introduce them to the Harris Teeter. For those of you not familiar with the great land of the South, Harris Teeter is a higher bracket grocery ala Wegmans or Whole Foods. The shopping selections are not always varied, but the extras are great. they have a brick over pizzaria, and hoagie station, an olive bar, a sushi bar, an entree bar, a salad bar, and pretty much any other food you could possibly want to eat. We purchsed my lovely ice cream cake there. It was the one thing i really wanted, and it was delicious! Of course we had candles and my mom took pictures- natch.

Now the next day was the day for "fun". We didn't know what the "fun" would be so we started the day with a hearty breakfast from Bob Evans. After enjoying some yummy eggs benedict we were on our way. Still having no clue where we going, east on 40 was our decided direction. Heading toward Raleigh we decided that the Zoo in Asheboro would be the best option. It was a lovely day, probably 50ish and it was bright and sunny. Before we made it to the NC Zoo we detoured at the Richard Petty museum in Randleman. It was AMAZING!! I'm not even kidding.

Nope, still not kidding. I grew up on old school NASCAR. This stuff today is all about money and sooo not about racing. Needless to say it was one of the coolest things i've done here. and no, i'm not lame. Richard Petty is "as American as baseball, hotdogs, and mom's apple pie." The man helped build racing to what it is today and he is a fantastic man to boot. The museum was small, considering it was THE main attraction for Randleman, but it boasted an array of seemingly endless ...stuff. All great stuff by the way. Every championship-winning car was dispalyed, his final-race car (that totally burst into flames on the last lap), a large gun collection, every trophy, jacket, endorsemnt product, trinket, die-cast car, just EVERYTHING. He's won 7 championships and 200 races. This is a record that has yet to be touched. Only Dale Earnhardt tied the number of championship wins. His dad, Lee Petty was a racer, as is his son Kyle. Even Kyle's son, Adam, got into racing but tragically lost his life at the New Hampshire Interational Speedway in 2000. His #45 Sprint Chevy sits in the museum under a three generation picture as tribute.

They have some of the wildest stuff and I loved it...

after that delight we went to the zoo. it's actually a decent zoo. who knew it was only 25 miles away from where i live?! a lot of construction was being done, but we did get to see most of the animals. the polar bears were fun and there was a 16 point elk- yikes! i don't even want to talk about the baboons. (shudder)

for my actual birthday some of us gathered at the local Steak n' Shake. I actually got a free sundae- that hasn't happened for many years!

Katie got me tulips (my fav!) but delivered them in just her coat. It was a good birthday.