Week -1: Before London, we visited North Carolina

On our way to London, we stopped in North Carolina for about a week to see Grandma and Grandpa, and my Aunt, Uncle and cousins. It was terrific!
It was warm, and sunny, and beautiful.
We did many distinctly American things, fun things, special things-
We all got to take a ride in Grandpa’s new Corvette. I don’t know the model, but it is very fancy and very fast. Grandpa can accelerate and do awesome maneuvers with his car!

This is Grandpa’s Corvettle…it is blue and fast and beautiful

Eva

Pearl sees a Corvette as an opportunity for some awesome poses…Grandpa is amused 🙂

Mac is ready to go fast!

I got to have some authentic NC BBQ with my cousin, Laura. It was terrific, she is wonderful, and unfortunately, I have no pictures to prove this to you. You’ll have to take my word for it 🙂

We also did something else distinctly American… visiting South of the Border (South Carolina). Have you been? I am at a loss for how to describe this place…according to one web-site, it is “America’s Favorite Highway Oasis.” Here is a link: http://www.thesouthoftheborder.com/

In Seattle (home town) it is illegal to light off fireworks, but in South Carolina, you can light them off (almost) anywhere, anytime. And if you’re in the market for fireworks, South of the Border is the place to be:

Notice that this package has the maximum Powder allowed by law…South Carolina doesn’t mess around

We found a parking lot nearby to ignite our goods!

But we are from Seattle, and we didn’t want and 3rd degree burns, so our “goods” involved smoke bombs and those weird worms 😉

We also had some great times with Grandma and Grandpa including a paving stone craft project:

And a super fun meal at a Benihana type place:

We also got to see my Uncle, Aunt and Cousin- good times, always 🙂 We tried to take a group photo…and if you have chidren, you will understand how futile it is to get all members of the family (read: children) cooperating for said photo. But I’ve included them anyway, because it is hilarious 🙂