West Virginia fun!

I headed to West Virginia this weekend. I can honestly say that I don't know the last time I was in WVa, maybe that random school field trip to Harper's Ferry? I realize how close our house in Leesburg is to the border, but that's about it. I recognize that I could see all that WVa has to offer, but the desire has never really been there. So when I heard that one of my best friends chose WVa as the location for her going away party (she's moving to Monterrey), I was a little surprised. Meghan, Kathryn, and Katie (the girls I lived with in college) go to WVa quite a bit to gamble at Charlestown and Katie's family even has a second home somewhere out there. I just never thought much of the place, probably because of all the jokes. You know the ones I'm talking about. On my big adventure we passed this gem of a house that made me think of all those jokes, and the creepy stories, and the reasons why I've never really cared to go to West Virginia:


The front yard was just covered in these purple decorations. Wicker furniture painted purple. A purple hiking boot with a fake purple flower coming out of it. Strange purple pillow creatures. A stone bust resting on a purple chair. An inflatable Santa Claus painted purple. Purple gazing balls, purple gnomes, a purple flamingo. Purple creepiness.

Our destination was past all of the standard stereotypical West Virginia sights (besides this purple house, we saw cars on cinder blocks, archery targets in front yards, "gentlemen clubs" every couple of miles, 711 selling liquor). We stopped for lunch at what we thought looked like a nice little restaurant named "Wild Women" or something like that. After ordering and while waiting for our food, we looked around only to find ourselves in the bar of a nice little lesbian diner. Interesting...and fantastic food.

Back on the road, we were headed to a gorgeous cabin, isolated deep in the woods, which I instantly noted that no one was around to hear us scream, if we needed to or wanted to. The weather matched the uneasy feeling I had--some distant thunder and a steady rain falling. But have no fear, it turned out to be a wonderful time of board games and a fire in the fireplace for roasting marshmallows!!

The night really was so much fun--one last "hoorah" with the girls as everyone is growing up and moving on. Meghan is moving out west (of course, following a boy) and I'm expecting her engagement news to be coming sometime this Christmas. Kathryn is busy planning her wedding for this coming April, and Katie just started her planning process after getting engaged just a few weeks ago. We don't have as much in common as we used to, but I love them all just the same. We've all moved on to the next phase of our lives, and they've chosen the marriage and family route. For me, it is all just a bit too early. I think I've got a few more adventures and plenty of things to do before I'm ready for that phase. But I think that is the best part of our friendship--it doesn't matter what phase we're in, we still adore each other!!

What is a girls night without prom/bridesmaid dresses from Goodwill?

Katie Grace and I at the local farmers market....clearly exhausted from staying up until almost 4am gossiping the night before!

Beautiful flowers from the market.