Breakfast at the Hotel

Zelda is having a hard time sleeping in the pack n' play. I think it's more-so because the AC decided to kick on full blast in the middle of the night than uncomfortable sleeping conditions. At some point in the early hours of the morning before the sun is awake, I lift her out of the pack n' play as she yells into the darkness of the room, and lay her on my chest in our bed. We get a few more hours of sleep this way before she wakes up again, hungry. She sips on her bottle for a bit, lays on her dad's chest, and gets a bit more rest.

My alarm goes off at 08:00, and the three of us get dressed to head down to the main floor of the hotel for breakfast. I have pancakes, pork sausage patties, and scrambled eggs, all of which I share with my daughter. Jeremy has oatmeal with brown sugar, cinnamon, and chocolate chips. He also gets sausage and eggs.

Cary

We head back up to our room, pack up, and load everything up in the car. We drive out to Cary to check out Ashworth Village. It's about 09:30am and all of the shops are still closed except a bakery and cafe called Once in a Blue Moon. We go in and have coffee to kill the time - plus, coffee is just yummy. It really is a full-on bakery who just happens to also serve coffee. They do wedding cakes! I get my vanilla cappuccino, and Jeremy orders himself an iced mocha. The cafe is full o coastal small town charm with shipboard covering the bottom half of the walls, twinkle lights are draped across windows and the main wall, and moon-shaped trinkets adorning the door frames, ceiling, and walls. Jeremy notices a cat sticker in the kitchen window that makes it look like the feline is peeking out. It's cute and makes us laugh.

It's about 10:00 now, so we venture back outside to see if any of the shops in the village are open now. The little paper clock hanging from the door of Vintage Vogue says "11:00" for their opening time, despite the fact that Google says they open at 10:00. We walk the perimeter of the shopping village, but it appears that only the knitting shop is open. Neither of us knit, so we end up sitting in the shade in front of a ReMax trying to determine what we should do next. Jeremy starts to look up places on his phone, and I'm realizing that the shade is only making the heat of the day slightly less miserable. I feel a drop of sweat slowly make its way down my spine, and I can feel the roots of my hair getting moist.

"Can we please do this in the car with the AC on?" I snap at him, the heat of the day getting to me. I instantly regret it and apologize. "Yes, let's go," he says, picking up Zelda. I sit with her in the backseat and Jeremy finds a thrift store for us to check out.

We arrive at Thrift to Gift and park at the end of the lot. We walk inside and are surprised at what we see.

"Christmas?!" I exclaim.

"They must be starting early," Jeremy says as he starts perusing the Christmas items whilst holding Zelda. "Hey, maybe we should grab something 'snowman' for Mama G." We decide against cookie jars, figurines, and platters. I spot a small container in the shape of a snowman on the top shelf which contains a complete deck of playing cards, which are also cut into the shape of a snowman. It's only $1.

"What about this? I'm willing to bed that she doesn't have something snowman like this!" I say to Jeremy, handing him my find.

"No! I bet she does not." He takes the cards from me. We continue thrifting for a bit. We end up leaving the store with the cards for Mama G., a knit succulent for our sister, and a trente Starbucks cup for Jeremiah.

It's not quite 11:00 yet, so we stop by a little store called Cary's Littles. Zelda has fallen asleep in the car seat in the short drive over, so Jeremy offers to stay in the car and let me venture inside. I walk in and there are so many different outfits to look at. I start browsing, but then realize that one short sleeved, standard onesie is $60. I won't be buying any clothes. There are two back rooms to shop, and I go into the one that is "girl" themed first. There's a clear, plastic "beach doll" that you're apparently supposed to fill up with sand for $150. I find it to be creepy due to the paint they put on the doll's face. There's a silicone beach toy set that I consider getting, but it's $40 and it's silicone. I hate silicone toys. I go into the other room, the "boy" themed one, and I find an adorable wooden toy shaving set for $80. I consider it getting it for my nephew, but I genuinely don't think he'd use it or find it interesting, so I leave it behind, thus leaving the shop empty handed.

We return to Ashford Village, but Vintage Vogue still isn't open even though it should be according to their own sign. What the heck?

"Want more coffee?" Jeremy asks me, as if the answer to that question is ever 'no'. We go into a place called Esteamed. Esteamed Coffee is a non-profit coffee shop in Cary, North Carolina, dedicated to employing and training adults with disabilities in a supportive environment. Their mission is to lower the rate of homelessness among the disabled. Jeremy and I each order a dark chocolate frappé. We purchase a knit bunny for Zelda, a sticker, and a few keychains, all of which were crafted by employees of Esteamed. Honestly, we LOVE their mission, and everything about the place is wonderful - the crafted items, the merch, the service, and most importantly, the coffee was good.

We walk back to the car and notice that the Vintage Vogue sign now says "OPEN". Bless! It turns out, much to our disappointment, that the antique shop is mostly tea cups and jewelry, neither of which we are in the market for.

Sanford

We load back up in the car and drive out to Sanford. We park in the historic downtown area and go into Sanford Antique Mall. I find one French Countryside style plate for $2 that I think my mom would like, but I find out that I have to spend at least $5 to make a purchase. How strange! The plate gets left behind. We go around the block and find another antique store called "A Few Nice Things". They sell a bunch of art and furniture, neither of which we can really fly with back home easily, so we leave empty handed.

We go into Raven Forge Games, thankful that each store we walk into has air conditioning. It is seriously incredibly hot outside. After perusing a bit, Zelda and I go sit in the lounging area, where she walks around a bit. She just started walking this month at eleven months old. Jeremy finds a game for our friends Justin and Emelia called Bananya which features a banana cat on the box. Perfect. Jeremiah also buys Azul Duel for us to play.

Zelda is very tired. Between the heat, humidity, and the fact that her two top teeth started cutting through, she is over it. We are hungry, but with her wanting to sleep, we decide to drive-thru somewhere so she can just sleep in the carseat. There is a restaurant called Cook-Out that is only in North Carolina, so we try it out. It's okay. Jeremy orders the chicken strip with cajun fries, hush puppies, and an iced tea. I get chicken strips, regular fries, cheese curds, and a cappuccino shake. We park to eat as the baby sleeps.

We have plenty of time before Mama and Papa G. are expecting us, so we look up another place to go. We go to a thrift store called CUOCLC, which ends up being an acronym for Christians United Outreach Center (of) Lee County. Jeremy stays in the car with Zelda, and I head inside. I find a vinyl record of kids' songs for $1, a plastic bucket and shovel for 50¢, a tea set that matches the one that my Grammie gave me as a kid for $10, and a collectible Starbucks mug for $2. I go back out to the car to send Jeremy inside to shop and buy everything that I found plus his finds. I find him sitting in the backseat holding our daughter.

"She was inconsolable," he says as he hands her to me. "She needed cuddles." I get into the car with our daughter as he goes into the thrift store. He doesn't find anything additional to what I already found, and he brings our new treasures out to the vehicle. I buckle Zelda back into her seat, and we drive to Mama and Papa G.'s house.

It's so nice seeing them both and catching up. Papa G. cooks us dinner - chicken marsala with rice, fried green beans, and peach cobbler for dessert. Everything is delicious, and Zelda must have felt at home because she slept for almost the whole visit. We depart their house late in the evening and drive out to our hotel in Wilmington. We check into our room and promptly go to sleep.