Chops & Hops - Yum & YUM!

I haven't even been in Athens for 12 hours and I've already found my favorite restaurant. Not only was it super swanky inside, the food was to die!

Chops & Hops is actually located in Watkinsville, right outside of Athens.

The most amazing spinach salad, with goat cheese and vidalia onion vinaigrette. Oh and a delicious glass of Pinot Noir. 

My main course was the Parmesan Risotto with roasted mushrooms, with garlic spinach, grilled asparagus and balsamic glaze. Oh. My. Gaaaah. So good. I can't get over it. 

I've got a lot to explore in Athens and in Atlanta so stay tuned!

The Maine Event

When I told people I was going to Maine, I got a plethora of responses. They ranged from "That sucks, you're going to freeze your ass off" to "Sweet, get some lobster". While it is cold and Maine is known for its amazingly fresh and actually affordable lobster, there's soooo much more to Portland, Maine. This is a FOOD town. If you're looking for amazing food, look no further.

I first realized how big of a "foodie" town Portland is when I was online searching for restaurants. There are a million to choose from and reviews are extensive. I finally decided to ask around and go to some of my local friend's favorite restaurants. Trust me, these locals know what they're talking about.

 Kon Asian Bistro was seriously amazing. The atmosphere was super swanky and the food was so good!

 AHHH Blackened Tuna with Wasabi Mayo. I am in LOVE and I will go back just for this.

 California Roll... AMAZEBALLS

Miss Portland Diner is so stinkin' cute and it's right beside our property, Bayside Village, so yeaaaah, I've been three times.

Their Clam Chowder is to DIE... I'm a repeat offender.

I also got their Eggs Benny this weekend but of course, I ate it before I could take a picture. Looked like your standard Eggs Benny. Paintchur self a mental picture.

Everyone told me to get a Lobster Roll so I did! I wasn't impressed so I won't mention where I was. I haven't given up though, I'll be back in Maine for two more weeks and I'll give it another shot :)

And here's a picture of a beautiful lighthouse in South Portland. Not only was the setting so calm and beautiful, it was such an amazing drive to get here.

MAINE = AWESOME. I'm heading to Nashville on Friday and then I'll be back to Portland for 2 weeks. Then I'm off to see mah maaan in Florida!

Champaign/Champagne

If you blink, you might miss my trip to Champaign.

While I'm only here for 2 and a half days, I think it's important to clarify something. Champaign is a city in Illinois. Champagne is sparkling wine produced exclusively within the Champagne region of France. I think some of my friends think I'm just hanging around drinking "champaign" all day while I'm here. Okay, by friends, I mean Chris Steger. A direct quote from Steg, "Champaign? Where's that?! OMG, that's like your dream city! J.Roget, Andre and Cook's on the REG!"

Hope I've cleared up the confusion so I can move on to how cool Champaign is! I'll admit, it's quite drab when you first drive in. However, they have the cutest little downtown area. If it weren't so damn cold, I'd grab a latte and stroll around. But instead, I will drive straight to my hotel and change into sweats. Here are some pictures I found online. It's honestly too cold and gross out to run around taking pictures.

I obviously didn't take this shot because there's like 5 feet of snow on the ground right now. This looks nice though, gotta love cute little lights and patio seating.

I took this picture on our way to the housing fair on campus. They have a Pitaya here!

I went to Ko Fusion on Monday for $1 sushi and it was amazing. I don't have a picture.. because I ate it all before I thought of taking a picture. Typical.

Next adventure: Portland, Maine on Thursday. Stay tuned :)

Reading Rainbow

I've been saying for a while now that I feel like I'm getting old. I don't go out like I used to and to be quite frank, I thoroughly enjoy staying in on the weekends. However, I'm about to partake in the ultimate "old lady" activity. Yep, read it here first kids: I'm in a book club.

I am the type of person who makes fun of book clubs. I got the email about the idea of starting a book club and you would have thought it was the best news I'd gotten all week. That's embarrassing. Our first book to read in about 6 weeks is 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'.

Not sure if I can get through this book in 6 weeks. The last book I started reading was in September and I'm still on the second chapter. And everrrrryone said those stupid Twilight books were so easy to zip right through... yeah, it took me a year to finish the first one.

I'm actually excited to read this book and then discuss it over wine and cheese with my girlfriends. Although, if this book club thing is just a gateway drug to needle point and watching Murder She Wrote, I'm out.

Back in Action

OK PARTY PEOPLE --- I'M BACK!

It's been a long time since I've blogged and I'm not going to pretend that I had nothing to blog about. I've done a lot in the past two months, so much that I'm not sure I can cover all the bases. Well, I'll give it a shot. Since my last blog post....

• Ali and I hosted a Christmas Party.. if you haven't heard what happened on that fateful night, please call me. We need to catch up.
• I went to California for the first time to spend Christmas with Gregg's family! It was an amazing 2 weeks filled with wine tasting in Napa, skiing in Tahoe and exploring in a little city called San Francisco. Yaaaaever heard of it??
• My first assignment of the year was in Irvine, California and it was great. Lots of plastic looking people, it was awesome.
• I was able to work from home for a week so I've gotten to see a lot of people in Nashville, including my family... I miss everyone so much.
• Thennnn, my super sweet boyfriend drove up to spend the weekend with me in Nashville and then we drove to his place in Florida and spent a week there. We're officially comfortable with each other. We sat around, drank wine and watched tv all week. But by comfortable, I'm really just referring to the farting. You could point to Gregg and tell him to fart and he could do it on command. Boys are gross.
• While Gregg is gross, he's also pretty sweeeet. He took me FLYING on Saturday! It was so cool to see him doing what he loves to do.
• I have had a very active past two months and a great start to the new year. I've traveled, seen a bunch of movies, met new people, caught up with old friends, have eaten some AMAZING food (pictures below) and have checked quite a few things off my bucket list. I have to say that it's going to be hard to beat 2010 as it was one of the best years of my life, but I'm ready for even better. Bring it 2011.

Here's some pictures of some of the stuff I've been up to in the past two months (warning: mainly pictures of food). No clue where I actually was when I ordered most of this food, I just know it was amaze-balls. On an unrelated note, I need to lose weight.

 Ali and I at our Christmas Party. Third year in a row in those spandex pants. Got our $12 worth for sure!

 In-N-Out Burger. Those fries are done animal style. Pretty gross looking now that I'm taking a second look.

 Hmm? A yummy looking salad that I deemed picture worthy at the time. I'm sure I took a bite first and then rearranged it so it looked pretty.

 The sushi in Irvine was amazing! I was there with a coworker and we literally ate sushi every night.

I'm on an eggs benny kick. Got this at Mad Donna's in East Nashville. 2 for 1 Mimosas on Saturday and Sunday! Get it.

 Ali's BLT at Mad Donna's. I asked her how it was and she said "Ehh"... well at least it looks good.

Welp, believe it when I say that I MADE THIS!! Gregg was super impressed with my skills. We got fresh Mahi Mahi and baked it up reaaal nice.

 This is Gregg's fried crab. He wasn't sure how to eat it. We had two dinners that night.

TUNA!!! I am on a huge tuna kick these days. This was Tuna Steak from McGruber's in Destin. OKAY, it's called McGuire's.

The beautiful view from when Gregg took me flying!

Well, that's it kiddos. You are my amazing and relentless followers. You have been there from the beginning and you never stopped believing in me. So I am going to vow to keep my blog up to date and keep you in the know from here on out.

 Unless I'm tired or out at a local bar.

ALERT! I found another swanky place to eat in Harrisonburg!

Helllloooo, this is very important! I found another super cute restaurant in downtown Harrisonburg! It truly is a miracle! It's right near my other favorite restaurant, Clementine's!

They have a great happy hour with $4 wines, so you know I was there. I got the Tuna Tartare and it was delicious! Their happy hour is from 4 - 7 and there are some great deals.

Check out Beyond!

Where to Shop in Harrisonburg...

If you read my last post, you saw how awful my shopping experience was at the local mall. However, I went back downtown and passed the cutest little boutique! Again, I don't recommend coming to Harrisonburg for fun, but if you're here you should DEFINITELY check out The Yellow Button! Right now they're promoting their purses and they are super cute...

This is the Lucky Brand patchwork bag. Suuuper cute.

This is the Lucky clutch. Loves it.

Here is the Hobo Trinity Bag. Apparently T-Swift has been seen carrying this bad boy. This bag is bigger than her.

Definitely check out the store and their blog! All pictures are from their blog. :)