Charlotte, NC // Gadsden, AL

In January I took my last part of my board exams. This one required traveling to Charlotte to spend 2 hours showing observers and cameras that I can, indeed, perform an eye exam. It was a quick trip, but we tried to make the most of it. After my exam I picked a restaurant for us to enjoy: Futobuta - a homemade Ramen and Sake bar. It was one of my favorite meals to date. We has the Miso Ramen, Pork Belly Steam Buns, and Sesame ice cream for dessert. (I am excited to find a similar concept restaurant closer to home in Montgomery. We haven't tried it yet, but definitely will in the near future!)

The following day we went to the Billy Graham Library. We are senior citizens at heart. It was a really interesting place, though. Our generation did not grow up hearing much of Billy Graham, but he is truly an amazing man who lived to tell the true Gospel of God. It's incredible how many people he reached through his crusades, and he was so humble he never took credit for anything.

We had to catch one more hot restaurant on the way out of Charlotte. We chose Luna's Living Kitchen for lunch - a vegan restaurant and juice bar that serves mostly raw ingredient foods. Their dishes are so creative and delicious. I love when simple, fresh ingredients are used in non-traditional ways to get the most flavor out of each product. Luna's does this very well. I had the lasagna (zucchini noodles, topped with a pesto, cashew nut "cheese") and a side salad with hemp seed dressing. Jesse had a quinoa burger with a beet salad side. Everything was beautiful and amazingly delicious!

We took the long route home and stopped to visit with one of Jesse's coworkers. They have a lovely secluded cabin that has been featured in Country Living magazine. They were kind enough to invite us to stay and gave us the tour of the property the following morning. Look how charming!

On the drive back to Birmingham we drove through Little River Canyon, starting at the top and stopping to take a peek at the falls. LRC is on of the deepest and longest canyons in the southeast. It starts at Lookout Mountain near the triad of Georgia-Tennessee-Alabama and eventually empties into the Coosa River near Leesburg, AL. There is an 11 mile parkway that follows the canyon with lookout spots along the way. We started at the top, at Little River Canyon Falls.

We wound down, down, down - the end of the drive getting a little scary with steep hills and rocky roads.  We stopped in Gadsden to see Noccallula Falls at sunset.

There are so many beautiful places to explore in Alabama. We are looking forward to finding more gems like these now that Spring is finally here!