Halle's Visit

We had another visitor in town! My friend Halle flew in from Columbus on Sunday and stayed until Wednesday. Halle and I met when we worked together in the Development Department at the Wexner Center for the Arts. We both had Graduate Assistant positions that helped pay our tuition at Ohio State University while she was working on her masters degree in Music History and I was working on my doctorate. A strong friendship was inevitable at the Wex as we endured many crazy experiences together. I'll leave it at that. It also helped that we share a love of red wine and cheese, cats, and Russian music and literature. In fact, our cat Cora is the sister of Halle's cat, Lydia. 

Here they are as kittens.

I saw Halle back in December when I flew to Columbus to be a bridesmaid in her wedding. She currently lives in South Bend, Indiana with her husband Dan who teaches at Notre Dame. We're so glad she made the trip south to finally meet Abigail!

The first night Halle was here, Robert got Abby to bed while we went out for a girls night at Ciro's, a fun speakeasy and restaurant. When you knock at the door they ask you for a password and the inside is dark and curtained off with the tables hidden in little nooks. Very fun. We had cheese fondue and some delicious crab cakes.

Halle got this great video of Abby the next day. "YAY!" is a new word.

We've been having a lot more tea parties lately. Abby's "tea" is actually water but she gets a kick out of drinking it from the little teacup.

Cheers!

Sweet Abby hugs.

On the last night of Halle's visit we drove out to Clearwater Beach. A storm had passed through earlier that afternoon so the temperature had dropped a little and it was much less humid. Early evening is my favorite time at the beach because there's less sizzling sun to fry my pale skin and fewer people. Halle and I stopped for some pizza at Mellow Mushroom and then made it to the beach around 7:00 when storm clouds were already building back up for an evening rain storm. The Midwest girl in me will always love big storm clouds!

Happy girl at the beach.

Pirate ship? Ummm...

I kept turning around to watch the changing clouds.

Beautiful sunset. Never adequately captured on camera.

On that beachy note, I'll leave you to your relaxing daydreams. Thanks for coming to visit, Halle!