The Week in Review

This week has pretty much flown by!  I have been working from about 8-5:30 each day.  It's a little busier than I expected an Infectious Diseases service to be, but on the other hand I think being busy has been good for me so I don't miss my sweet husband so much!  I've gotten settled into the Evans' home and they are so welcoming and have just made me feel like a part of their family!

This weekend I got to have my real first taste of the area.  We started out by going out to eat Friday night downtown at a restaurant called Rana Loca.  We sat outside to enjoy the fun and artsy downtown scene and I personally pigged out on mole-braised pork.  Yum!  I would guess that Winston-Salem is somewhere around the size of Mobile.  In contrast, the downtown area is actually SAFE, and there are more restaurants and museums than there are bars!  Most of the restaurants offer outdoor seating close to the street which gives everything kind of a relaxed and quaint feel.

After dinner we went for a little walk downtown where I spotted a local artists' gallery with fun (and cheap!) paintings, as well as an Indie theater and a Mediterranean restaurant!  It was almost too much to handle!

Saturday we decided to work off all those calories and head out of the city a little ways to Boone, NC.  This is the home of Appalachian State University, and has some really nice hiking trails.  We decided to head out on a 5 mile trail a little outside of the city.  Some of the leaves had just started to change and it was just gorgeous!  We even saw some wildlife!

Start of the trail

Wild turkeys!  My dad would have been excited.

Made it to the top AND climbed the fire tower for the view!

After the hike we had worked up our appetites and headed into downtown.  We first followed heavenly smells into a homemade ice cream and fudge shop.  I sampled their pumpkin walnut fudge which was probably as delicious as it sounds!  We left quickly to avoid buying lots of treats and low and behold what was outside the door but a makeshift farmers' market!  Apparently North Carolina is where all great apples come from, and there were a bounty to pick from .  There were kinds of apples I had never heard of before!

We got half a peck of apples and headed on down to a little restaurant called Our Daily Bread for dinner.  As the name might imply, this is a sandwich shop that makes their own bread daily.  I had a BLT with apples and brie which I will be recreating for my husband when I go back home!

Our trip turned out to be a day-long adventure and we all had a great time!  This morning we all have some sore muscles from the hike but it was well worth it for those apples and the lovely mountain views!