TV Shows (October 2015)

Lately I've been watching TV shows I normally wouldn't. Here are some of those shows:

1. Homeland While I haven't actually watched this in October, this was the first of the intense TV shows I ever really enjoyed. I really started watching it to further bond with my coworkers. One night I stayed in and binge watched almost half of the first season. I was hooked. Claire Danes is brilliant. The plot is full of so many twists I was always surprised. Granted, I am incredibly gullible and hardly ever see any surprises coming. But still. So well done!

The show is about a dedicated CIA agent who is trying to track down a soldier POW who she thinks has been turned into a terrorist. There's action. There's betrayal. There's some insanity. And all of it is done so well.

2. Quantico This show is so good. I love plots about someone going through training to better themselves. Since Homeland, I've started loving TV shows about espionage and tracking down terrorists. I am super into shows with different timelines.  This show has it all! And despite the bad CGI, I think it's got a lot of potential.

The first scene has a newly trained FBI agent waking up in a blast zone from a bomb that went off in the middle of New York City. She finds herself framed as the terrorist who set off the bomb. The show alternates between the "current" storyline, where she has to piece together what happened and flashbacks to her time at Quantico where FBI applicants learn to become agents.

3. How to Get Away with Murder I just finished the first season this Monday. And I also started it this weekend. This is maybe one of the best crime shows I've seen? It reminds me of a grown up, darker Veronica Mars. But without the sassy main character. Sounds awful, but it's done so well you don't miss Veronica. This show has some excellent actors that really carry the plot along.

The show is about law students, their intense professor, and her employees. Each year the law professor chooses first year students to work with her on her cases. This year's students, we quickly find out, happen to kill someone. So her class, "How to get away with murder" and the cases she takes on have prepare them to try to get away with their crime. Each episode has clips from the night of the murder as the four students try to figure out what to do, flashbacks starting from their first day of class, and another storyline arc about a student from the university that's gone missing. Over halfway into the season the timelines meet up and it is so good! All the while, the show has new mysteries as the formidable law professor/defense attorney works on defending a new client each episode.

So those are some intense dramas I've really gotten into. Watch at your own risk because these are all great shows to binge watch. I'm talking cliffhangers everywhere.

E and A Adventures Day 7

The last and final day of our trip together!

We got up early and went to visit the Stroud's local business, Magic Morning Bakery.

Esther had never been!

We then hit the road for approximately 12 hours of driving.

Indiana "steam."

Esther's shoe life for day 7.

I requested we stop at the Half Price Books outlet shop in Rockford, IL because it was about halfway and because I really like Half Price Books.

We both found some things we liked enough to purchase!

The water tower had a heart on it and I thought it was beautiful!

Esther being a boss and driving the last four hours.

We finished AnnE of Green Gables and got about an hour into the second book in the series. I really liked the first one and I'm probably going to read the second one really soon! Finally, after hours and hours we made it to MN!

Got just the right shot, despite Esther considerately slowing down for me.

We pulled into the Mach household and said our goodbyes. I truly enjoy traveling with Esther. She's someone who can keep me laughing in the middle of the night or at 7 am. She's incredibly flexible with her plans and is able to shake off the things that annoy her. I'm so thankful she was willing to drive around the South with me!

I wasn't quite ready to go home just yet. First I needed to say a different goodbye to another good friend.

My friend Brynn left for Madagascar for a year this morning (well, technically Chicago for a week, then Madagascar) and I knew I needed to see her off if possible.

Brynnertons! Off to go serve the Lord.

Her mom and I were pretty obnoxious. We stood in line watching her go through security.

Super obnoxious picture. Not Brynn, the fact I took it.

Anyway, Brynn had a 7:00 flight so we were there very early in the morning. I slept a few hours at Brynn's house after the airport. Then it was time to finally go home.

E and A Adventures Day 6

We started the morning early, of course, I was the last to get up, including the three children. It was nice to have breakfast with so many friendly faces. Not that I'm really good friends with everyone (save Esther), but because they are all such friendly people.

The night before Esther and Rick discussed stacking their hammocks and decided the next morning everyone was to bring their hammocks to a local park. Once the two Bubar girls were off to school we headed out to The Cove, as the locals call it.

I just used Kara's that she graciously offered because I don't usually run with the ritzy crowd that uses hammocks. 

After we said goodbye to Tim at the park we drove to the Bubar's for goodbyes with Kara. Then Esther and unintentionally (but intentionally) beat the Borners to REI. My main concern was getting a free TN sticker because I FORGOT TO GET ONE IN CHARLOTTE AND I'M SO SAD. But I got a state sticker, so mission accomplished. We then followed the Borners to the downtown Knoxville Mast General store because I'm slightly obsessed. I got some candy for a friend back in MN, and we parted ways with the Borners, knowing we'd see them soon back home.

We soon stopped at the furthest north Bojangles for lunch, but also so Esther  could have a Bo Berry Biscuit. I think she found it worth the stop! I didn't mind getting my last cup of sweet tea for a while.

Once we passed into Kentucky Esther requested a visit to Daniel Boone Forest. We would be driving through it so it seemed doable. We really wanted to try a short trail, but unfortunately we were behind our estimated schedule. Somehow we got it in our heads that Bedford, IN was four hours from Knoxville (I told Esther the wrong time). So we took a small scenic drive on the Kentucky Scenic Byway and just made a short stop in Berea, KY. A small town that appreciates art. Obviously, we both agreed on visiting the local bookstore. It had a surprising collection.

Bookstore haul.

After the bookstore Esther ran into their cute little coffee shop for a nice hot cup of tea! We hit the road for Bedford, IN and made it by 9:15, despite the traffic and road work! The Strouds were incredibly understanding with each text message announcing an hour delay. They also made scrumptious sloppy joes which we both devoured after our day of traveling. Of course, I gave Laura some stained laundry I had amassed over the summer and she willingly cleaned them in her lab.

She also willingly lent me some of her late mother's camera equipment from the 60s! I'm so excited to learn how to take awesome pictures with it!

The Polaroids are for HanMak's wedding. The other stuff is for me play with!

We watched a few episodes of Tiny House Hunters with the Stroud parental units and then headed for bed.

Today will be all day driving with the plan to get to Minnesota tonight!

E and A Adventures Day 5

We woke up to shower and go to church. It was so odd seeing Tim on the stage of a different church!

Tim hosting at "Trivers."

After church we had a delicious lunch provided by the Bubar's. Then we headed "the park." Which is apparently what the locals call the Great Smoky  Mountains National Park. We were IN the Smoky Mountains!

Actual signage!

What's great about the Park is that it's free! If I lived in the area I would go here every weekend! With so many different trails it would take days to hike them all! Esther and I chose to go up the Chimney Tops Trail.

A pretty steep path at points, not this point in particular.

Entire body sweat means you're working hard I guess...

The end of the trail ended in scaling this rock to get to the very top.

This is very much a staged picture.

By the time I made it up to the top to meet Esther (I had sent her ahead of me because I'm basically a sloth) it started raining. We assumed it would continue so we really only had time to take some pictures before starting down. Rocks get slippery when wet and we wanted to avoid any serious injuries.

A kind stranger took our picture. Made it to the top!

We very awkwardly slid down this to get to the bottom of the rock wall...

Once we were done it took us longer than anticipated (read: I was incredibly slow) so we didn't have time to check out any other trails. We did the drive back to Knoxville working out way through AnnE of Green Gables. I think we'll be on the second book today!

We had pizza and great company for dinner. The Bubar's and the Borners are great families! I'm so glad I got to see the former and truly meet the latter.

Maps are like, super cool, bro.

Today we'll head to Bedford, IN to see Jami's parents! Wahoo!

E and A Adventures Day 4

First thing we did was pack my car. Yikes. We wanted to leave around 9, but then Jane (our host mom) offered to make us breakfast. A hot breakfast sounded a lot better than PopTarts so we accepted her offer.

As my friend Hannah always hashtags, #homemadeisbestmade

There's a 24/7 prayer room in Charlotte and they have a partnership with Common Ground. About twenty minutes outside of "Uptown" Charlotte they set up a walking prayer/meditation trail. Esther and I were able to spend an hour walking the trail.

One of many entrances to the trails.

Out of focus picture of convicting sign in park.

After seeing that sign I dropped of my backpack and eventually took of my shoes. It was quite freeing walking in a field without a heavy bag to carry. And also without feeling like I needed to take pictures and capture the wildlife around me. Sometimes it's so relaxing to just enjoy nature.

After the trail we set off for Montreat College in Black Mountain, NC. The summer of 2012 Esther joined a team of like-minded young adults and served in Uganda. One of her teammates, Aimee, invited us to visit her since we were in the same state! She gave us a tour of the school.

Aimee and Esther, matching Kavu bags!

Aimee and her boyfriend took us to Asheville! I had been wanting to see it since I came to Charlotte and read about the city in a short story. It was pretty small, but very hippie and reminded me of San Francisco.

Really cool wall with a bucket of chalk!

Awesome shop full of unique things. Like socks that say "I have vague feelings about whatever."

Before we started the trek to Knoxville I made sure Esther and I got shakes at Cookout. I got my classic peanut butter fudge and she got blueberry. I'm going to miss those shakes, but not the aftermath.

Speaking of, we were about twenty minutes from our destination when we had to stop at an O'Reilly's auto parts to buy more oil for my car. And that's where I asked for a bathroom. I was then walked into their huge warehouse and maybe given access to a staff bathroom? The poor guy who worked their had to wait outside for me. V. awkward.

Here's some photos Esther felt she needed to capture on the drive!

This one was my request because mountains and clouds.

We FINALLY made it to Knoxville after what felt like forever, but was actually four hours. (pretty nervous for our 12 hour drive...)

We're staying with the old youth director at Five Oaks church. Tim, his wife Kara and their two daughters. They also have family friends staying with them so it's a big party! Kara made a DELICIOUS dinner for us all:

HOMEMADE CHICKEN POT PIES!!

It was great to spend time in the presence of people I knew from Minnesota. Even though I'm on my way back, it's been a while since interacting with people I've known for more than a summer.

Hope they're not mad I posted this...

After some quality time we went to bed ready for showers and church in the morning.

E and A Adventures Day 3

We had a late start to the morning. Mainly because I really needed to get my clothes washed before we started the road trip back to MN the next day.

My host sister for the past week kindly offered to make us breakfast.

I buttered the toast for everyone!

After a delicious breakfast and some showers we headed to Davidson college to visit Tanner, a new freshman that was involved in the Five Oaks youth group. He was really sweet giving us a tour even though he didn't know that much about the college. He had been there for a week and a half because he was on the soccer team. He did his best in telling us all that he could!

I swear he has both arms.

Largest wildcat statue in the US. (What team!?)

We spent an hour on campus and then headed to Ben & Jerry's for some ice cream. Sadly, they didn't have my favorite flavor, The Tonight Dough, but I've moved on. It was really fun seeing Davidson college and the town. While driving around we found this awesome bridge that leads to Antiquity, NC. Esther was obsessed.

We quickly dropped by the house we're staying at in Charlotte and headed down to Greenville, SC! Unfortunately, I forgot what time Tom's BBQ closes at and we weren't able to have a meal there. But if you're ever in Greenville there's a Groupon for Tom's and it's run by the sweetest old man. It has delicious food,

 and amazing hush puppies.

Anyway, it took us longer than anticipated, but we finally found parking and walked over to Falls Park on the Reedy. A river runs through the town and there's a 32-acre park alongside it.

A really cool suspension bridge that overlooks the waterfalls.

Terrible photo of the falls! Yayyy!

We had packed some food earlier so we sat down and had ourselves a picnic! The last time we went on a trip together we sat in our hotel room eating peanut butter bagels. Eating our peanut butter sammies felt like a throwback to our April trip.

Another throwback is that at one point on our trips I feel like we always end up rushing around somewhere. For instance, I wanted to buy a unique bottle of wine for our host family so we had to speed walk to the wine shop before it closed.

The wine shop was so fancy, I didn't even take a picture of it. They had $200 bottles of wine. Thankfully, they also had cheaper wines us peasants could afford. Esther and I felt so out of place in our shorts and t-shirts. Let me tell you, for some place so classy they had an oddly sub-par bathroom. You walk through feeling like "there's going to be a couch in there!" and then the bathroom's like, "since when am I in a Blimpie???"

Anyway, we made it out with a (hopefully) decent bottle of wine. And then it was time to say goodbye to Greenville and head back to Charlotte! I still needed to pack up all of my things that had spread out over the course of a week! I eventually finished around 1:15 am.

Unfortunately, we had an early start this morning so I'm running on half fuel today.

E and A Adventures Day 2

We got up early and went to the cute local coffee shop in "downtown" Hudson, NC. Which is basically six or seven storefronts. Esther had her necessary cup of coffee and we had a quiet morning journaling.

We then headed to Boone, NC and checked out the Mast General store per Kelsey's mom's recommendation. It's a chain of outfitter stores and it was awesome! The kind of store where you want to have a spending spree before hiking the AT or something.

While we were in the store we talked to some employees about places to go hiking (after getting our free stickers) and they recommended we go to Grandfather Mountain. But first I got some goodies!

We didn't actually know if we wanted to go to Grandfather Mountain, but I pulled up to the window to discover it was $20 per adult and then there were five cars behind me so we didn't have much of a choice... But that's okay! We went to their nature museum, saw split rock, and went up the mile high swinging bridge.

This is Split Rock. In case you couldn't tell.

I was a little nervous, but I kept it together.

See those tiny dots on the right? That's where you go after crossing the bridge!

Ominous clouds look ominous.

We decided that if we wanted to do a trail we needed to get a move on because it looked like it might rain. Our car was at a lower parking lot (we did a small hike up to the bridge) and Esther figured out there was a trail leading right to the parking lot.

I'm always a few steps behind, but that's okay!

We made it to the parking lot faster than anticipated so we decided to do the Black rock trail! We figured we'd have plenty of time before 6:00 hit. That was when you were meant to be by your car otherwise they would send search parties out.

There was a clearing of trees on the trail and this was the view!

Esther loved this small rock bridge.

We got to the end of the trail and had to climb up this huge boulder to get to the top. There was a ladder and then a rope line built into the Rock so you could get up it. I've never done anything like it!

Esther being a total boss at the outdoors.

We took a few minutes to enjoy the view.

That was probably my favorite part of Grandfather Mountain park. We were by ourselves and I had pushed myself to even get up to the top. I kept saying I didn't know if I could do it, but Esther was always quick to encourage me. And the gorgeous view that only a few see didn't hurt:

"The rain came pouring down..."

Yeah, we saw the rain and the fact that we only had an hour to get back to the car and booked it! We made it with time to spare, which I then used for a Nalgene photo shoot because my first Nalgene! In the mountains!

We headed back to Boone because I wanted Esther to try Cookout. We got some cheap sandwiches with the intention of getting milkshakes after we hit the local brewery. Esther found out that the Appalachian Mountain Brewery was a five minute walk from Cookout so we strolled over knowing everyone thought we were Appalachian State University freshman getting ready for move in weekend.

We got these delicious ciders. I got Cinnful Plum and Esther got the Green Dragon. Hers had strawberry, rhubarb, and green tea flavors. Hers was sweeter and mine tasted more like cinnamon so, of course, we happily switched. I really wanted to sit outside as the sun was starting to set. Esther willingly obliged.

Pretty nice views in Boone.

After we finished our ciders we weren't really up for milkshakes. It was time to head back to Charlotte. It was about a two hour drive. Through the mountains. In the dark. But we blasted music and made it around 10:00. We promptly got ready for bed ready to sleep in Friday morning.

I can't actually believe we did all of that in one day.