My new favorite place

Greenville! Who knew it was such a cute town, and only two hours away?! I can't believe I've never been there before. When I was little we used to drive through on our way to Spartanburg, S.C. to see my three great aunts, two of which never married and lived together all of their lives. They ate bacon every single day, drank black coffee, put baby oil on their faces and had hardly a wrinkle when they died around 100 years old.

 Anyway, I'm sure we stopped at a gas station or for lunch but I didn't remember Greenville at all.  I got to see two friends while I was there. First stop, my sorority sister from college, Stacey and her family, who live in a darling house downtown, which they have done some very fun renovations to. I had to get the tour, and didn't take pictures everywhere while I was there, but wish I had! Maybe I'll get her to send me some. I loved her amazing craft/project/fun room! It was converted from their original garage, so a really good size, with laundry area on one half, hooks, cubbies and the works for all the kiddos plus really beautiful granite or some other natural stone counter tops and custom built-ins and cabinetry all around. A fantastic, massive island sits in the middle of it all with stools to go around. Stacey said she had Ava's birthday party there and they were all able to sit around and do crafts together.

I had a short, but great visit catching up with them! Love her three girls, two of which are definite red heads and the third, well...you just can't tell yet, she was asleep during this photo.

We had fun showing the girls Stacey and Gray's wedding album, and Kate had fun showing me her best frog and horsey.

It was such a fun morning and I could have stayed all day! It really made me miss my friends from college.

As I was saying good-byes, thinking I needed 45 minutes to get to the next place I was headed, my next reason for loving Greenville became apparent....it was only three minutes away! I am so programmed to the Atlanta mantra, "30-45 minutes to everywhere" that I had no idea it could be different. I know I"m a city girl with very little time in any small town or place. The main places I have lived are Atlanta and Chengdu China, which happens to be on the world's list of most populous cities. So, I headed three minutes away to pick up my next friend for lunch.

Had some amazing She-Crab soup at a fun little restaurant on the river, Larkins.

Walked around the downtown area on the river where there is a huge park, a massive suspension bridge that used to be a highway with a dammed river underneath. They opened the dam and now the river runs through. It's charming and quaint, lots of fun things to do including a symphony, a minor league baseball team with restaurants close by so you can walk to the stadium after dinner easily, shops and restaurants, the best CAKE in the world at a place I can't remember but the slices take two days to eat. Please look and know that I took the other half home in a take out box and ate it while driving back to Atlanta with no utensils. It was a mess, but worth it.

Cool brick structure is a venue for lots of events and sits on the river.

 Historic Westin Downtown

The streets of Downtown

The highlight of my visit with my next friends, Greg and Tricia Baney was by far their company as well as their cooking! I must say, every meal that I had was amazing and the presentation was too! For each meal Tricia would change the place mats, plates and other serving pieces. I really think she did it to match the actual food itself. I told them that they had given me a new appreciation for setting the atmosphere for a meal and I promised I wouldn't stand over the kitchen sink any more with a paper plate and a rolled up pancake for breakfast!

We also had a fabulous time sitting around taking, sleeping in on Saturday and waking up to amazing blueberry pancakes. I loved my time with them as well and honestly would consider a move to Greenville in the near future.

Last but not least, their cute home in Greenville that was recently purchased. It has a fantastic screened porch off the back and looks out onto the most beautiful, thick canopy of wooded green. I hope their old owner stops drive by stalking them, so they can start to enjoy their new home, alone!

Thanks friends!