Our first "REAL" trip to the Bergens

Jason and I just got back from our first REAL roadtrip to visit Maggie and Charlie at their home in North Carolina!! I am updating this because it was a wonderful weekend with amazing weather and stunning scenery and, although I took many pictures from today, I do not want to forget the wonderful memories that were made. Jason and I left earlyish Saturday morning, after Starbucks and Chik-fil-a (the guilt-ridden essentials), and arrived (after taking the SCENIC route past the Cherokee Casino and through Maggie Valley) at the Bergens a little after 12:30. We were greated with eager, open arms for a day filled with activity!!! Maggie, being the most amazing hostest that she is, presented Jason and I with a wonderful candle that looked just like wood to remind us of our first trip to the mountains!!! We drove to downtown Waynesville to eat at Nick & Nate's and ran smack dab into the middle of a festival! We ate and spent the entire afternoon browsing all the little shops downtown. The boys smoked their cigars while we shopped and drank coffee. :)
We returned to their home to unwind and spent the rest of the evening watching FRIENDS (which made me laugh uncontrollably, forgot how wonderful that show is!!!), eating dinner (and Maggie's fantastic, HOMEMADE apple cobbler), and playing Texas Hold' em! We all settled in to watch a movie and/or get some much needed sleep!!
Today, we woke up and ate breakfast and then headed off to go "church hunting"!!! We ended up at "Vine of the Mountain" a community church just outside where we had spent our time the day before. It was quite an experience, it actually reminded me alot of my church at home in Rome. Having attended 12Stone pretty regularly for the past year now it was nice to hear familiar hymnals being sung with the contemporary twist of a guitarist leading worship. They had plenty of praise and worship and a guest speaker with several good points! All in all a unique and lovely experience! Afterwards we headed back downtown to eat lunch and finally ended up at this little Patio diner place we'd seen the day before on our endevour. After lunch we debated on what to do and ended up visiting a very quant antique shop (something they have a lot of there which i LOVED!!!) and then headed into Maggie Valley (I think...) to visit the shops there. After some browsing we drove around until, I think, Charlie spotted the mini-golf place and we all agreed that was the best idea!!! Apparently some of my golf skills from my lessons as a child stuck around, Charlie and I ended up tying :) much to the dismay of Jason and Maggie ;)
The mini golf range ends up in an arcade area where we used several of our quarters left from poker the night before to test grip strengths and play JACKPOT!! Now, here's where things really got interesting, I'm not sure if any of you have ever played or even know what that game is but growing up...it was always my secret obsession. Sure, you play ski ball and air hockey and free throw but when it really gets down to it...I would spend half of my coins trying to get that roaming light to land square on the JACKPOT! All of us decided to divey up the quarters and play just that. Charlie went first, then Maggie, then Jason and finally...I did.
The first two quarters I got round abouts the Jackpot, 8 and then 10, on the third though..I decided to count how much time it was in between each time it hit the Jackpot and try it that way....needless to say, third times the charm. IT WORKED!!! I stood there stunned. I had just fullfilled my childhood dream and all we could do was just stare. We laughed and cheered as the tickets rolled out of the machine. Seriously though, those things never happen to me. We were such little kids as we gathered up our earning and headed to the counter. We ended up with the water ballon sling shot, 4 sets of vampire teeth (the only thing Jason wanted), 4 tattoos, 4 parachute men, and a slinky for maggie. Afterwards we celebrated with milkshakes from the Dairy Bar and a series of viscious vampire toothed pictures!!
We sadly left a little after six and spent the entire ride home enjoying the view and discussing the rest of our life together!!!!
The Bergens are such an amazing couple to be around and I am so thankful for their LIFE, energy, enthusiasm and family that they are!! Thank you for sharing your city & lives with us!!