On the road. The snowy, cupcake-filled road.

I've been back from vacation for a few days but haven't really had the energy to write this up until now, so forgive me for lateness, but . . . I had an awesome time!

Well, except for this.

Snow. On the car with Florida plates.

Seeing snow was pretty cool, but freezing in it and getting stuck in it was not. I am SO not a winter person. I am ESPECIALLY not a winter person when I'm NOT IN FLORIDA.

UGH.

That is probably bewilderment, not happiness, on my face.

So Meggie and I went on a road trip. This trip was to celebrate not only our birthday but our twentieth anniversary of being friends. I mean really, how many of you have a friend you've been close to for twenty years? Not many, I'd wager! YEAH!

Because of the birthday nature of this trip, we determined that we must have cupcakes every day. Unfortunately, that was destroyed the very first day and we had to settle for just plain cake. At Olive Garden. After driving hours and hours from Tampa to Charleston.

We were very excited about the lemon cake.

Following a full day of driving and singing at top volume to Weird Al songs, we spent the night in a Charleston hotel and ventured forth to visit Meg's dad after that. He took us into town for shopping, lunch, and architecture gazing. Quite fun, and we definitely got some tasty cupcakes there too.

Myrtle Beach followed Charleston. We went shopping at Broadway on the Beach and went around being silly, buying candy, and laughing at things. We got very tired and then in the morning we ate cupcakes for breakfast.

Have you figured out what Meg's favorite color is yet?

Then we drove from Myrtle Beach to the DC area and ended up at our friend Jessie's house. Jessie was kind enough to host us for that night and the next, and she happens to be neighbors with our other friend Cara. We all know each other through the Internet and that is just so awesome. That night we also reconnected with Meg's and my old pal Liz and my high school and college pal/roommate Ammy, and all went out for Thai food. It was amazing!

Meg, me, Liz

Cara, Jessie, Ammy

After foooood, we took a chilly tour of the DC monuments at night. It was not good for me. I turned into a tiny blonde popsicle. There aren't any pictures, but see if you can visualize this: I got cold very quickly, the other girls took pity on me and put the coat Meg had been wearing on top of me (on top of my existing coat), and I walked around with the arms unfilled and the hood flopping over my face. And I still froze to death. Talk about talent.

But I did get to see the Martin Luther King, Jr. monument ON Martin Luther King Day so that's something.

The next day it snowed and our friends' work day was canceled, which also meant we could not go to any museums because everything closed. So we just stayed home and ate sandwiches, candy, and homemade enchiladas.

Candy necklaces for all!

Cara couldn't get enough of Meg's guacamole.

We spent the night watching The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) by the Reduced Shakespeare Company, and laughing our butts off. And there were, of course, cupcakes.

Don't worry! We shared!

The next morning was cold and snowy, and Jessie had to help Meggie and me get the car out of the ice. She saved us! Yay! Then we drove to Charlotte. Seeing some pretty cool scenery along the way and going like "whoaaaa" a lot because we are not used to trees that look like they are from Christmas cards. We listened to a bunch of Welcome to Night Vale and musicals. We hate and love when our favorite songs make us cry.

Charlotte was also way colder than I like (well, let's face it, anything below 80ºF is colder than I like), but we braved it to go to a cool Restaurant Week event and the Japanese food we had was fantastic. And we got pretty slap-happy over our cupcakes. Yes, more cupcakes.

And then finally we had to go back to Tampa. It was a LONG drive--punctuated by more music and Welcome to Night Vale radio--and when we got in we went to Moe's with our friends Steve and Jessica. Meggie stayed over my place for the night so she wouldn't have to drive back to Jacksonville that night.

I bet you can't guess what we did.

Yeah you can.