USA trip 2008

Greetings from North Carolina! We are at the 2/3 mark of our US summer trip, and having a great time! We flew into Atlanta first, and spent the night out on the town with my aunt and uncle. We only had a short time there, but it was great for Elvis to get to see another city and to spend time with them. Then we came to NC, and we have definitely toured pretty much all of the state...this past week we drove over 1000 miles just in NC! We started off in Gastonia, for my college roommate/best friend's wedding to her long-time sweetheart. Congrats Tyler and Chris! The wedding was beautiful and Tyler was absolutely stunning. We had a great time hanging out with them and other friends that came up for the wedding...especially had a good time playing Wii for the first time! I was sore for days after a very animated boxing match. Another fun moment from the wedding was the rehearsal...all of us bridesmaids showed up wearing '80s prom dresses, poofy sleeves and all to surprise Tyler. You should have seen her face! Also, Lester made a guest appearance in the rehearsal. =) here are some pictures of the pre-wedding festivities:

And a few of the wedding day...

One funny anecdote from the wedding day was at the rehearsal, they were anouncing all of the bridal party. When they got to my name, I was wondering if the DJ was going to be able to pronouce it, and sure enough, he said..."Ashley.....Ashley........Ashley de Janeiro"!!!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently the "de" threw him off and made him think of a city in Brazil. I mean, Henriquez and janeiro really do look alike. Ha!

Anyways, after the wedding, Elvis and I and my parents made our way up to Lake Lure in the mountains of NC. We spent a week there at a great resort, taking day trips to nearby towns, waterfalls, rivers, caverns, etc. We did a lot of fishing (but with no luck!) and I think our favorite stop was Sliding Rock, where we slid down a 30 foot rock that a river runs over into a freeeeezing cold natural pool at the bottom! It was great and especially Elvis wanted to do it again and again. We also fell in love with Asheville and all the quirky shops. Elvis really loved the mountains and says he would love to hike the Appalachain Trail someday. I think i prefer the resort...

Another fun anecdote was that we randomly stopped in a thrift store outside of Hendersonville, and it turns out that the owners started the thrift store to help out an orphanage that they started in El Salvador!! All the money goes there. So that was a great time of encouragement for us as well as them I think as we shared stories. here are some pics from the mountains:

We finished our mountain tour by driving down the Blue Ridge Parkway to Blowing Rock, then heading up to the town I grew up in, King. We didn't get to stay long there, but we met with the mission team that will be going down to El Salvador with us in July, and had a great reunion with my former piano teacher and a great lunch at Mi Pueblo (of course) with some friends from our old church. Then we moved onto High Point, where my other BFF Brooke hosted a fun cookout with lots of college friends, and Elvis got to go to his first US minor league baseball game. I don't think we really watched the game, but rather just enjoyed catching up with friends that have been living all over the world the past few years. It was also fun to see how Aaron, the first baby of our group of friends has grown up! Sunday, we went to church with the newlyweds, Kelly and Brian, and had a great time worshipping with them and eating Indian food with them and their parents. We are trying to eat all the exotic food we can while we are here! Then we stopped through Burlington to spend the afternoon with our friend Jessica...it's always fun for us to be with her because we get to speak in spanish! That's always a relief for Elvis even though he is doing awesome with all this Southern English.

So, now we are back in Wallace for the week...i've got a sinus infection but i hope that wont keep me down for long. I wish i could mention all the special people and places that we saw this week, but it's impossible! just let me say though that it was so good to spend time with friends from here. And so good to spend time together and with my parents and be amazed at the beauty of this state which i lived in for so long but am seeing again with new eyes as i show it to Elvis. We will update you later on the rest of the trip!