Raleigh with the Besties

(Me, Erika, Nikki and Melissa)

Man, I’m exhausted! I just flew back from Raleigh on Tuesday. I was in Dallas previously as well for work from Sunday to Friday and then took a late afternoon flight to Raleigh to meet up with my BESTIES FOR LIFE!!!! I was so excited and I couldn’t wait for my work week to be DONE so I could be reunited with Nikki, Melissa and Erika :)

Nikki texted me back in early fall to let me know that John Butler Trio was coming to Raleigh and she wished I still lived in D.C. so that I could drive down for the weekend to finally see our favorite band. Well, I looked at the calendar and realized that I’d be half way to North Carolina and in Texas that previous week! So I excitedly texted her back that I may be able to swing it to take a personal trip after my work trip!  The stars aligned and I was able to make it work!

Melissa and Erika were next to tell! I was afraid that since Melissa was pregnant she wouldn’t feel like driving down and seeing a show (especially considering we would be drinking and she would not). But she proved me wrong and they both agreed to drive down that weekend. I was SO excited that I’d be able to see my besties!  Life in San Francisco was getting a bit sad since I have a total of one really good friend in San Francisco.  I needed something to look forward to!  

I suffered through my work week and then took off to head to Raleigh! I didn’t land until 9pm, and I was afraid Melissa (being pregnant) and Nikki (being the mom of twin 16-month olds) would be too exhausted. Thankfully they were not and we hung out catching up on Friday evening over a couple of bottles of wine (well, the 3 of us did while Melissa longingly watched us).  It’s such a weird concept to me to have 2 extra bedrooms for my friends to stay at (since I have a tiny 1 bedroom apartment), but I guess that’s what suburbia affords you….space. What a novel concept, but one I do not enjoy the thought of.

Anyways, so we woke up Saturday and had some bloody mary’s (and a tomato juice for Melissa) and hung out for the day. We headed to T. Mac Sports Grill to get lunch and have a few more cocktails and appetizers and then went home to get ready.  It’s quite weird that I left San Francisco and it was in the mid 70s and it was around the lower 40s when I arrived in Raleigh…brrr I have quickly gotten used to warmer weather.  Downtown was freezing, but we headed there anyways. We stopped at Busy Bee Cafe for dinner. They had an amazing cocktail list and I chose the Queen Bee. WOW! That was so yummy!  It had gin, St. Germaine elderflower, pineapple, sour and champagne. It would have been sickly sweet if I had had more than 1. We wrapped up there and headed to the venue.

I guess the original venue was under some construction so we got booted to another venue. However, this one was like an actual concert hall (with chairs) instead of a big open space so it was a bit weird.  We headed up stairs to sit but when JBT came on, we realized the acoustics upstairs totally sucked! So instead, we went downstairs amongst the crowds and it was MUCH better!

We rocked out for the show. But somehow we got stuck next to an older drunk cowboy who kept wanting to talk to us WHILE THE BAND WAS PLAYING. WTF?!?!  We played nice and took a selfie and then promptly set out to ignore us. We had such a good time watching the band! It was the first time I’ve seen them but Nikki and Melissa saw them at Bonnaroo one year.

Video of the band!

Hope this turned out

We headed home after the show and we headed to bed. Melissa and Erika headed home the next day and I stayed until Tuesday.

In the mean time, I got to hang out with the twins!  I can't believe they used to be this TINY:

And now they are 16 months and are SO BIG!

This is Sadie.

Summer is on the left.

I tried taking a selfie with them but I failed....oh well!

I had such a great time seeing my besties!  It was well worth the exhaustion and checked baggage to make it all work!