Visiting An Old Friend

I don’t keep in contact with many friends from college, high school, junior high, and especially grade school, but I do have one friend who I’ve kept in contact with the longest.  I’m not exactly sure when we became friends, but I do know we were best friends in Kindergarten.  Her name is Christina.  When we finished 2nd grade, she had to move to Texas, but we still kept in contact.  She’d visit Illinois occasionally and I’d get to see her.  She even stood up in my wedding back in 1997 and that was the last time I saw her, although we continued to stay in contact.

Last week I got an email from her letting me know that she’d be near Charlotte, NC and wondered if I’d have time to see her while she was in town.  She was staying with a friend in the small town of Salisbury, NC (about 2.5 hours away from Raleigh).  My husband and I had been wanting to plan a trip to the new IKEA in Charlotte, but just hadn’t done so yet.  We thought this past weekend would be a perfect time to see Christina and check out the new IKEA in Charlotte.  What a great day we had!

It started with seeing Christina and meeting her friend Dawn in Salisbury, NC.  We had lunch at a quaint restaurant called Sidewalk Deli in downtown Salisbury.  Their food and service was incredible!  We spent a couple of hours with them before we got on the road to IKEA and they went for a trolley tour of Salisbury.  I had such a great time with Christina (catching up on the past years).  It was so much fun!  Here’s a picture of the last time I saw Christina before my wedding and one of us from this past weekend.

We spent 4.5 hours at IKEA shopping around, then spent another 3 hours shopping at the Concord Mills Mall in Concord, NC.  We got some great stuff at both places, so both long shopping trips were well worth it (although my feet and ankles would have to disagree).

We’ve had a wonderful weekend.  Very last minute planning, but oh so much fun!