After picking a couple pounds of strawberries in South Carolina Annie & I made our way up to Raleigh, NC to spend the weekend with the Lilly's. We always have great time hanging out with them. Annie made some amazing strawberry shortcake. Cassie & I dominated in karaoke. We have the best voices in the entire world. haha We went to this state fair and went to a food & wine expo to have a TASTE OF NORTH CAROLINA where we had about a hundred different types of barbeque sauces to try. Annie tried one that wasn't "that hot" that almost put her to tears. We took a break from all the boiled peanuts, bbq, hush puppies, etc. and went and checked out the North Carolina wine. We made sure we got our share of tastes. We didn't want to miss anything. We'd never had wine from muscadines before. It was the best $2 we ever spent.
The weather was beautiful that weekend and we got to spend a lot of time out at the pool. We even tried to play a couple games of basketball and reminisced about the "good ol days" playing at A-C Valley. Then that evening (we had to pull Annie & Ryan away from the Harry Potter marathon) we went and got milk shakes from Cook Out. They are definitely worth a stop if you ever come across a town with that fast food chain. 
Louisville "Talk Derby to Me"Stayed with Mo & Linda Smith. Grammy Gayle & Pop Larry's friends from Marco Island.
"Kentucky excels at what most people have negative views of... coal, tobacco, gambling & horse racing, and bourbon." This was in the local paper one morning of course we are going to come visit.
We spent the day driving from Raleigh to Louisville. This was one of our longest drives so far, but it was an interesting journey. We stopped in Winston-Salem and had breakfast with a family friend, Evan Sommers. Then we took some back roads through NC, Virginia and into eastern Kentucky. The interstate would've taken us up way north through West Virginia, plus we were in no huge hurry and the back roads are way more scenic and fun. Sometimes I even was traversing through dirt roads and over small cricks. During one of our excursions to spend a little while hiking in Kentucky near the red river gorge we stopped to ask this fisherman for directions. Vitor, didn't know where the road led either being from Cincinnati. He did however own a great restaurant and treated us to the best French toast ever a few days later when we passed through Ohio on our way back to PA.
We made it to Mo & Linda's that evening in time to watch Hines Ward do his final dance before he won Dancing with the Stars. We went through some wicked rain on the way there, and another night there were some serious storms and tornado watches. Annie & I spent the day walking around Louisville; checking out the Slugger museum, exploring the city, picking up some bourbon for dad, and then we got to meet up with Lynzee Alworth; I ran track with her back in high school, and she coached Annie in basketball. We had dinner and a couple drinks with her and caught up. The next day Mo took us to the backside of Churchill Downs, where they run the Kentucky Derby. He was able to get us in because he is a part owner in a horse that raced in the Oaks Derby. His horse, Suave Voir Faire, placed in the top 10 and is a beautiful work of nature. We spent the day in the museum and I am a new huge fan of the Derby racing. Someday we'll have to make it down. I also just really want to wear / own one of those amazing hats! 
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