Week at the Lake

Our week at Lake Norman was both fun and relaxing. On days when we didn't venture out, we spent our time laying out on the dock, reading, swimming, riding on the boat, and just generally being lazy. We did find a cool little restaurant joint on the lake where we could drive up with the boat and have lunch and some beers. It was called River City Grill and Dad and Lee loved it. We had to go there two different days, and Dad would have gone every day if we had let  them.

Here's Dad and Lee enjoying some Thirsty Thursday dollar drafts on the deck:

And here's a shot of Lee, full and happy as we drove away from the restaurant:

On Tuesday, we went to Concord Mills and, my favorite, IKEA! Our main stop at Concord Mills was Bass Pro Shops for Dad and Lee. They spent hours browsing around in there. Then we had fun with the little shooting range they have set up in the store:

And Erin tested out some ATV/Mule type things. She would LOVE to take one of these bad boys home to park under her new carport:

I was excited to take Lee to Ikea. I think he was a little overwhelmed. I didn't take any pictures, since we were too busy shopping like crazy. We saw lots of things we wanted but didn't buy because of either indecision or space constraints in the truck, but we ended up with lots of little accessories and some pictures for a living room project we're excited about.

After shopping, we had dinner at the Talley House restaurant in Troutman. We had driven by it a few times on the way to our house and knew we wanted to try it out. The restaurant was in this big beautiful old house:

The "family style" southern food was right up our alley. We had: fried chicken, country style steak, biscuits, mashed potatoes and gravy, turnip greens, black-eyed peas, beets, baked apples, corn and green beans. It was DELICIOUS! Dessert was the most delicious peach cobbler I had ever eaten and the most delicious banana pudding that Lee and Erin say they have ever eaten. I loved this place so much that I even bought a T-shirt.

On Wednesday, we went to Carowinds. Lee convinced me to ride two of the big coasters -- the Carolina Cobra and Afterburn. Once I got over my terrible nerves, they were both awesome! It was REALLY hot that day, so we made our way over to the water park. But it was crowded and after two turns on the lazy river and a bit of the wave pool, we were ready to call it a day.

This was the only pic I got at Carowinds, taken from the Carolina Skytower:

Be sure to tune back in tomorrow for my bizarre Lake Norman sighting!