North Carolina!

Anthony and I just came home Tuesday from a week long vacation to North Carolina. We had an amazing time! Last Wednesday we left Fort Myers and drove until we made it to Georgia that night. We finished our journey to Charlotte on Thursday afternoon and checked into our hotel. Aunt Susan was awesome and let me trade my Christmas plane ticket in for some hotel time (she has a ton of free points for flying and hotels). We were able to get three nights in the Fairfield Inn in North Charlotte, it was really nice!

The weather was fantastic Thursday so when we finished unpacking we left to explore. A man in our hotel had told us where to find a great sushi restaurant so we headed in that direction. The shopping plaza where the restaurant was located was really pretty and while we were waiting on our table we were able to walk around and enjoy the cool weather and atmosphere. I didn't realize how much I missed trees and greenery until we were surrounded by trees in the mall! The sushi restaurant was fantastic, and was a great way to end our first night.

Friday we spent most of the day checking out potential job opportunities. We walked around all of downtown looking for different gyms and talked to several people about personal training while we were there. Anthony received a lot of positive feedback. I contacted the school board for Charlotte schools and found out the the job fair is in April.

Friday night we went to Dave and Busters. It was a lot of fun and I was really excited to play arcade games!! I had never been to a Dave and Busters before so it was a great first time experience for me, Anthony was excited to go back.

We spent most of our day Saturday exploring different areas of the town and even did a little apartment shopping. We went back to Dave and Busters that night. :-)

Sunday we left Charlotte and drove a couple hours into the Smokey mountains. The drive was very beautiful, the scenery is so amazing to me as I am use to a flat surface. We drove into Marion North Carolina and went to the Linville Caverns. I had never been to caverns before so it was a really special experience for me. We were able to see really awesome stalactites and there was a pond of water under the cave that no one knows the depth of. We were even able to see a small bat while we were in the cave. The only part of the experience I didn't enjoy was when our guide turned out all of the lights for us to truly appreciate total darkness. I wasn't a fan...at all.

We only drove a little while longer and stopped for the evening just outside of Asheville. Monday morning we woke up and drove to the Nantahalla River for our whitewater rafting trip. It was a lot of fun and the water wasn't as cold as I feared it would be. Anthony and I had a blast and it is definitely something we will do again! After the rafting we started on our journey back to Florida stopping off in St Augustine on the way home to see my friend Jessica.

Our vacation really was amazing and it was fun to spend so much time together without having to leave for work. I really can't wait to go back! If you are looking for a vacation spot, Charlotte is awesome!