Happy Birthday to Me!

This past Saturday was my birthday and Ray made it a good one!  Since James was born over a year ago, we've been on dates, but we've limited them to about three hours at the most and we've stayed in Greensboro.  I just haven't wanted to be away from him for very long!  But on Saturday, Ray set up plans for a whole day outing.  I was nervous leading up to it, but James has become a pretty easy kid at this point, and I knew Ray's parents would enjoy spending the day with him, so by the time Saturday arrived, I was happy to let them spend the day with James and I was ready for our little adventure.  I wanted it to be a surprise, so Ray planned everything and he did a great job!

When we got in the car, I finally asked him where we were going.  He said, "If there is anything I know about you, it's that you like to go to new places and you like good food."  He knows me well... especially the food part!  So we headed to Raleigh to a little place called Oakwood Cafe - they serve Cuban and Argentine food - yum!  After spending a month in Argentina several years ago, I appreciate a real empanada when I can get one and this brunch did not disappoint.  Ray got the Cuban sandwich with plantains and it was very tasty too.  

After brunch, we visited the NC Museum of History.  My mama James took me to visit several parts of the capital when I was in middle school and I loved it then, but I had obviously forgotten a lot and I had not been back since then.  I'm not a huge history person in general, but I LOVE state history.  I think I like it so much because my dad always made a point to talk about history when we would travel around the state when I was a child.  I take pride in being a North Carolinian and this museum reminded me of some of the good and bad parts of our history.  Ray loved looking at all the coins from different times in our history.

How fun is this?  An ancient iPad!  This was used by a first grader around the year 1900. 

After the history museum, we went to the science museum.  I wasn't as impressed with this one, but I'm sure James will want to go one day to see all the dinosaurs. 

After visiting the museums, we went to Umstead State Park.  It's just outside of Raleigh and we went walking for about an hour or so.  It was nice to get out and have some fresh air.  Who would have thought that the weather would be so nice on my birthday?  70 degrees on the shortest day of the year?  Yes, please!

Ray picked a few restaurants in Raleigh to eat, but I decided that I wanted to come back to Greensboro to eat because I wanted to be home in time to put James to bed.  We wanted to go somewhere different and a little nicer than or regular places (we almost always eat Thai), so we decided to go to Green Valley Grill.  Oh my gosh.  Seriously some of the best food that I have ever eaten.  This is my new favorite restaurant in Greensboro.  Ray and I split two small plates and they were delicious!  We split the parmesean crusted tuna steak over polenta with red peppers and onions - Every single bite was amazing.  Then we also split the tapas sampler - it had pita bread, Greek yogurt, hummus (like the best hummus I've ever tasted), meatballs, and a few other goodies. So so good!  Ray was right - I love good food! We finished with cake.  The pictures don't do this place justice.  I'm already wondering when we could have an excuse to go another time :)

And then we came home to one happy baby!  He was posing for a selfie here.  I missed this sweet boy, but I don't think he missed me at all with all the attention he got from his grandparents. 

So there you have it - I'm one year older and I had a great time celebrating.  Nice job, Ray... very nice job ;)