Recently, my friend Kathie and I decided to take a road trip to North Carolina.  We were taking a glass beadmaking class with Shari Slonski and I didn’t want to fly so we ended up driving the 11 hours.  Originally we had planned to do it in two days but decided to drive straight through instead because we were excited to get there.  We drove through Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and North Carolina…some beautiful countryside and rolling hills.

We arrived late and checked in at the Quality Inn in Fuquay (pronounced FWA-QWA not FU) Varina.  Once we were in our room we quickly gave it the once over and immediately we both decided we needed to check in somewhere else.  Our room was disgusting…dead bugs smashed on the back of the bathroom door, perspiration stains on the sheets like they hadn’t been cleaned, dust layers on the floor thick enough so you couldn’t see the carpet—YUCK!!  I could go on but you get the picture…

So, for the next 45 minutes we tried to find another hotel in the nearby area that had 2 double beds but they were all sold out due to some conferences in town.  We finally lucked out and found a vacancy at an Embassy Suites (owned by Hilton) about 30 minutes away.  We didn’t really care about the drive just as long as it was clean.  And we lucked out because my husband had racked up some Hilton Honors Points so we ended up getting our 3 night stay for FREE–can you belive it?!?!?  That was a huge savings because the room rate was $139 before tax–WOOHOO!  We immediately checked out of our reservation but decided to stay the night since we couldn’t get our money back for that night.  Needless to say, that I didn’t sleep well in the filth.  Next morning we get up early and decided to do some shopping until we could check in at the Embassy Suites. 

We found some quilting stores (Kathie creates some amazing quilts) and a knitting store.  We both recently started to knit so that was fun looking for neat patterns and luxurious yarns.  Of course, we spent way too much but that never stopped us before–lol!!  Each night we ate at the restaurant located in the Embassy Suites. It had the best food.  I even ate grits for the first time EVAH!!!  They were cheddar and garlic grits and I was very surprised that I liked them, I mean LOVED them.  I never thought I would like grits but Kathie told me to trust her and try them and she was right.  They kind of tasted like risotto to me.  I’ll probably never eat them again but those were delicous!

Saturday and Sunday we spent learning Shari Slonskis’ glass beadmaking techniques from Canada.  Our class was held at Marilyn Perazas’ nice, quaint studio.  There were a total of 6 students and it was so much fun.  Shari shared some wonderful tips and tricks with us.  We blew shards and made some cool beads, lots of off mandrel pieces and even an arrowhead.  I can’t wait for the temperature here to go down so I can play with all the new techniques I learned.

After the class was over, we went back to our hotel and decided to go see the new Harry Potter movie in 3D.  It was so cool!!  Go see it if you haven’t yet.  It’s awesome!!

We checked out of the Embassy Suites the next day and decided to drive straight through again.,,it was an easy drive and the time flew by as we discussed what we learned and reminisced over our trip and shopping excursions.  It was a great road trip and I can’t wait until the next one.  Kathie and I usually take a trip each year but this year we might even take another one.  I had a wonderful time and really enjoy traveling with my good friend.