Sunday afternoon in Charlotte.

On Sunday afternoon, I headed to Charlotte to meet my girlfriends. 

We took a tour of Kristi's house.  She lives in Fourth Ward which is an old downtown neighborhood.  She and her husband, Matt, have spent a lot of time fixing it up and it is so very pretty and absolutely perfect for them.

I have always loved the idea of living downtown in a major city and of course, this visit left me a little wistful.  My suburban (oh, who am I kidding, we live in the suburbs of the suburbs!) life is a lot different from her downtown life.  That's not to say that I don't love my life, sometimes I just wonder how it would be to live downtown. 

However, trying to parallel park in front of her house, quickly brought me back to reality.  Although she assured me that she got used to it and doesn't think a thing about it any more.

After seeing her home, we strolled through a park on our way to dinner.  Kristi purchased a memorial stone for Rebecca and we got to see it. 

Isn't it just the sweetest thing?  (Please ignore the shadow of my hand!) There's a brick pathway that leads through this park and the memorial stones are placed all through it.  Rebecca's stone is placed right in front of the swing sets, which I think is absolutely perfect. 

After our stroll through the park we walked a few more blocks, we arrived at our dinner destination, 5 Church.  The food was really great.  I had the hanger steak with Bearnaise sauce while my friends had tofu, halibut, and salmon.  And yet, I'm still wondering why they are so thin and I am so....not thin!  (I love me some Bearnaise sauce!)

And here is our picture:

We may be middle aged, but I think we still look pretty good!  (And I think I've found my new favorite way to be photographed with a bunch of skinny minnies...sitting down, leaning forward, wearing black!)

I always have such a great time with these old friends and I can't wait to get together with them again!