Thanksgiving

We have had a wonderful week with family in Atlanta, Montgomery, and Tuscaloosa (WAR EAGLE!). Unfortunately I only documented one day of our week. Our families did Thanksgiving together this year in Montgomery, and although we missed those who couldn't be with us, we had a blast (and of course ate too much)!

Hope you all had a relaxing and enjoyable few days with family and friends!

Too soon?

This December will be especially crazy for us, so Wednesday night (that's right, November 17th) we donned our most Christmas-y pajamas, cranked up the CocoMotion (only the most amazing hot chocolate maker ever), put on the iTunes Christmas play list, and got started with our decorations...

Overeager? Maybe. But we love it.

Have a nice weekend!

Charleston

It is, in a word, charming.

Walker and I spent a long weekend in this beautiful and unique city. It was the first visit for both of us, and we had the best time.

A good time for us typically involves eating delicious food, and oh man is Charleston the place for amazing dining. We had fantastic weather, and loved walking around downtown looking at all of the beautiful buildings.

Battery Row is beautiful. Don't you wish your bedroom opened to this balcony and hammock and this was your 100% unobstructed view of Charleston Harbor? 

Secondary to the fact that we are about 3/4 through with our 1/2 marathon training, we thought we were in good enough shape to incorporate the Cooper River Bridge as part of our long weekend run.

The run across and back is about 5 miles. We certainly underestimated the long incline that we would have to run twice. Granted, we had run a couple of miles before we actually got to the bridge, but YIKES. As Walker so adequately summarized, Charleston 1, Fain's 0. The view from the bridge was quite beautiful, although I would have certainly enjoyed it much more on a leisurely walk.

Sunday afternoon we drove to a couple of the barrier islands just outside Charleston (15 minutes from downtown, doesn't get much better than that!).

More charm. Any Pat Conroy fans out there? Charleston and its islands are precisely as peaceful and charming as I imagined them to be from his books.

As a Gulf Coast girl, I'll be the first to say that the beaches of the Atlantic have nothing on the Florida panhandle, but what they lack in bleached white sand and crystal water they make up for in sheer volume.

Thanks Charleston, you were certainly good to us!

A dancing husband

I've mentioned before how much Walker loves to dance.
Since I have no pictures to post from our weekend (if it had been photographed, it would have included us in pajamas wrapped in our down comforter on the couch reading books or watching football, and we likely would have been unshowered), I decided to go a different direction.

I was recently made aware of some of Walker's moves caught in action (thanks Laura!). These photos were taken at the fantastic wedding of our great friends Ryan & Laura Burton. (All photos taken by Amelia Strauss Photography)

Walker's favorite dance partners are as follows:
1. me (self-named, I've never actually asked to confirm)
2. John Phelps (husband of Leigh)

That's right. We not only look forward to reuniting with these two for friendship purposes, but also b/c Walker & John are perfect dance partners. Here is a picture of what dancing at wedding receptions typically entails...

(Shout out to Erin Tumlin who without consent also stars on this blog post.)

Have a great Monday!

Halloween & travels...

Halloween on our street is intense. We were warned by neighbors when we moved in, but for various reasons have not been at home Halloween night for the past two years. This year Walker was in Orlando for business and left me to fend for myself. WHOA. I have never seen anything like it. I had 500+ pieces of candy, and ran out in less than 90 minutes (giving one piece of candy/trick-or-treater, except for the occasional super cute small child that earned two). There was literally a line from our front door out to the street. I snapped this picture during one very quick hiatus, but didn't even have time to adjust the settings and get a clear one before going back to man the candy bowl. I was also taking care of two dogs (Bella plus my brother Matt's weimaraner Lacey) who were NOT pleased with the situation. It was a delicate balance of manning the door and calming the pups, the latter of which was eventually controlled with some doggy-dosed Benadryl. Unfortunately my lack of candy caused us to shut down early, but it certainly seemed like a good time was had by all.

 

In other news, interview season has officially begun! As a disclaimer, I do not plan on mentioning anything regarding the interviews themselves or my impression of various institutions, nor will I necessarily be photographing every city I go to. I debated even mentioning interviews, but since it will be all I am doing until late January, the blog would certainly go silent if I chose to completely ignore them.

On that note, my first trip started out here...

I have been looking forward to interview season for a long time. One, I LOVE to travel. I vividly remember my first trip out west to San Francisco when I was younger. I will never forget the first time I saw the Pacific Ocean and the subsequent drive down Highway 1. Two years ago I got to relive that vacation with Walker, and next spring we plan on doing it again to celebrate my finishing medical school. I digress. Two, I love airplanes, airports, and everything having to do with flying. Walker isn't on board with that yet, but he is slowly coming around. Three, I love new cities and have no problem exploring them by myself (cautiously and safely of course).

Look where I found to eat lunch? How convenient. Table for one please.

Granted, I was only there for approximately 35 hours, but from what I gathered Louisville has a great downtown area.

This weekend we are... drumroll... doing NOTHING, and it is going to be fantastic. On another note, hurrah for finally having some cold weather!

Until next time...