my weekend in photos {part 3}

This past week has been a blur. In my normal day job, our secretary has been out sick with the flu while Dallas has been on vacation. So in a company of 4, things have been hectic. Meanwhile I have been preparing for fall shows (one in particular was on Saturday). Needless to say, my blogs have been not so great and very behind, so I apologize. I know you all have been dying to hear more about my birthday!

So today's blog is the last in the series about my birthday weekend. And I promise...after today I'll be done blogging about my birthday. Maybe...

The main festivity for my birthday was for 3 of my girlfriends and I to head to Dahlonega in north GA to do a tour de winery and stay in a bed and breakfast.

We started out the day with lunch and our first wine tasting at Wolf Mountain. This place was gorgeous and the food and wine were delicious. But all we could talk about was how amazing a wedding would be here.
For safety precautions we hired a transportation service to take us around to the different wineries. No drinking and driving in this bunch! This was our ride...
Our second stop was Frogtown Winery. It's a cute house in the midst of a gorgeous vineyard. Unfortunately, there was a wedding being held in the house so we weren't able to go inside. However, the tasting was outside overlooking the vineyard. So we were cool with that.
Our ride, then picked us up and drove us to the neighboring winery: Three Sisters. This winery might have been our favorite. Maybe it was because the gave us a complimentary wine glass, or they gave us chocolate with not just one but two wines, or maybe it was the Cheetos they gave us with a wine pairing, or it was our 3rd wine tasting and we were really feeling happy.
After purchasing our bottles of wine and snacks, we realized we had a missed call from our safe ride. She said she had another booking and had to get us another form of transportation. So we walk outside and we find a black limo waiting for us! Talk about traveling in style! {unfortunately, the photo the limo driver took of us was actually a video and try as I might my computer wouldn't let me reformat it into a photo, so all I have are photos from inside the limo}
Last but not least, we hit our 4th winery on our tour de winery; Blackstock. This last tasting was probably the most fun. We had two great guys serving us and were clearly used to dealing with 4 silly girls giving them a hard time. One of the coolest parts of this tasting was a desert wine that was served in a miniature chocolate cup, it tasted just like a chocolate covered cherry! Yum!
We hopped into our limo and ended the evening with dinner...which is a little blurry. We then headed to Lilly Creek, the bed & breakfast, to drink more wine and hang out in the hot tub. I have to say this was probably the best birthday celebration thus far! Thank you to my girls!

my weekend in photos {part 2}

On Friday, Dan and I took Betsy to Zoo Atlanta. She LOVES the zoo, and especially the pandas. {she even has a widget on her computer with the pandacam} So, it was necessary to go. I was a little apprehensive because I have heard some pretty terrible things about our zoo...but I was REALLY impressed!

The meerkats were sleeping when we walked over but as soon as we started taking pictures they got VERY playful {read scary}. I have to say we are much cuter meerkats!

We really enjoyed the Gorilla exhibit. We got to it right as one of the trainers was feeding them a snack. There was one Gorilla that was sitting under the rock and wasn't getting any food. He kept huffing and puffing... like "why are you ignoring me?!"
The babies were on the other side and were rolling and tumbling in the grass. If it wasn't for all the fur the would have looked like little children playing.

When we got to the pandas, of course they were sleeping. But when we came back momma was feeding her baby. And when she had enough she would get up and try to walk away and he would just follow. So she would sit down and let him feed a little longer and then push him off. This continued for about 30 minutes. It was rather entertaining. Poppa was on the otherside climbing and sliding down his tree trying to get attention.

Here are a few more of the animals we saw at the zoo. {from top left; clouded leopard, the hungry african elephants, the elegant crane, the chubby bird, the sleeping hog, rhinocerous, kangaroos, tiger, the unhappy giant tortise, the lion who thought we were lunch, the frozen zebra, and the manequin goat}

We finished off the night with friends, margaritas, and cheese dip at Panchos. {and a surprise sombrero and shot of tequila to finish me off}

my weekend in photos {part 1}

This weekend has been a whirlwind. I was hoping to make at least one post...obviously it's tuesday and here I am.

My weekend began on Thursday night. My good friend, Betsy, flew in from OH...IO. We kicked the weekend off with the Clemson/Georgia Tech Football Game. Although Clemson lost, we had a great time tailgating.

the traffic was insane...even the foot traffic.

Clemson was being represented all over the place...even on beer cans!

up next: Zoo Atlanta & Sombraroes