For Now

After 2.5 of fog, we traded San Fran for snow! We are back in the great state of Utah and have purchased our first home. We love living in SLC and we love being closer to our family, and we love having a car, and we love having more space, and we love toweling off with dry towels.

We don't like spending money on less exciting things like PLUMBING, but that's what you get when you buy a house built in 1950.

I feel that blogs are becoming the mustache theme of parties...they're getting old. If I Facebook about something, or post a pic on instagram, or Pin on Pinterest, I don't have the energy to be creative anymore and blog about it.

So, maybe when home projects are finished up, or maybe once we have a special announcement, or once Frankie does something funny, or maybe when we go on an awesome vacation, then I will post, but for now, come and find us somewhere else:

Send us an email: eastman.heather@gmail.com, jed.eastman@gmail.com

Follow us on Instagram: @heastman or @jedeastman

Friend us on Facebook: Heather Thompson Eastman or Jed Eastman

Pin me on Pinterest: Heather Eastman

We are both on Twitter, but rarely do anything on it.

So, no excuses, still many many virtual ways to stay in touch.

Much love from the Beehive State! See you on the interwebs.

Don't wait by the mailbox...Eastmans are going green this year

Trip to the South - New Orleans, LA

Beignets, Beignets, Beignets. Prior to our trip, everytime we mentioned that we were going to New Orleans, beignets and Cafe Dumonde always came up.

Beignets are deep-fried dough covered in powdered sugar. They come piping hot in your own little bag. We were silly to only order one our first stop, so we went again. Twice.





Ate:
Cafe Dumonde - Beignets.
Short Stop - PoBoy's - turkey for me, BBQ beef for Jed
Deanies Seasfood - Most disappointing meal of the trip. I tried their gumbo, but the rice was rock hard. Jed got a crab dish that was good at first, and then got real gross real quick.




Saw:
Bourbon street, Voodoo shops, French Quarter, trolley car down St. Charles street, ate a snow-cone called a "Sno-ball" (Sorry folks, no different that your run of the mill snow-cone), and got the all too familiar feeling of being sticky and hot in a muggy city. We were looking forward to a steamboat ride down the Mississippi, but after a morning SPRINT to get on the boat by 11, they informed us that the 11am boat ride had been cancelled. We continued to sweat the better part of the day.






We met up with Jed's brother Luke and made our way back to Atlanta. We made a stop in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and had our final lunch on the road. It was a rib joint called DreamLand. Plopped in the middle of nowhere, we enjoyed ribs, coleslaw, and banana pudding that knocked my socks off!

The last 4 hours of our drive was a downpour like I have never seen. White knuckles for 4 hours and as we pulled into the driveway, blue skies up ahead. Of course.

What a great trip we had. We are so lucky that we are able to visit new places, see new things, taste new food.

Trip to the South - Memphis and Driving

Once we left Nashville, it only made sense to go through Memphis, have some Memphis BBQ, visit Elvis "The King" Presley's homeland, before settling in for our long drive to New Orleans.



Ate:
Corky's BBQ - Ribs, mac and cheese, and spaghetti. After recalling what I ordered, I realize I don't make the best choices in food. But, luckily Jed does and we enjoyed a slab together.



Saw:
We approached Graceland and saw a line that could have circled the block. Who knew there were so many Elvis fans!!! We saw the "Lisa Marie"airplane, and thought that was good enough to pay our respects to a musician that we don't really even like. Hope you aren't all shook up. Ugh, that was bad. But, I am keeping it in there.

Onward to New Orleans. This was the longest leg of our trip, but with beignets in our future, we were excited to get to NoLa.

Trip to the South - Nashville, TN

We've been looking forward to visiting Nashville for a while now. It is such a cool city with such a fun vibe. Anyone musically inclined, you should make your way to Tennessee!!!



Ate:
Hog Heaven - pulled turkey sandwich with white BBQ sauce (one of my top 3 things we had) and a BBQ pulled pork sandwich. Jed knew I loved his turkey more than my pork, so he traded me. What a guy.
We may or may not have had sushi in Nashville. We thought it was a good idea at the time. Mostly we were looking for something a little lighter. Don't judge.



Saw:
Tour of Vanderbilt college. We LOVE college campuses, and VB did not disappoint. It was a cool campus, but felt a bit out of place in Nashville. Belonged in Hogwartz or something.
Walked around 2nd street. Saw a lot of Honky-Tonk, stopped in a boot store, bought us a Christmas ornament in the shape of a guitar. Listened to a lot of live music.



Nashville, thanks for being so good to us, but seriously, kick those sushi restaurants out of your town!!!

Trip to the South - Charleston, SC

Charleston was stop #2 on this little tour of ours. It is such a great city! Sits on the water, cute shops, LOTS of horse-drawn carriages.



Ate:
Jestine's Kitchen - gumbo for me, turkey sandwich for Jed (he was already feeling the sting of too much southern food)
Jack's Cosmic Dogs - blue cheese coleslaw hot dogs




Saw:
Toured the Boon Hall Plantation - this was such a neat experience. At one point, this was a full functioning brick, indigo, and cotton plantation. Today they have a large fruit and veggie garden, with a corresponding farmers market. And if there is anything that warms my heart, it's a farmers market and fresh fruit and veggies. Unfortunately, we were on the off season, so we didn't purchase any fresh fruits. At this point, I am not sure how our bodies would react to fresh fruit and veggies anyways.
Charleston Candy Kitchen - homemade taffy always wins a spot on my list.



We'd come back for more of that southern hospitality any day of the week!

One pit stop was seeing this tree, called the Angel Tree. This tree is 1500 years old, and said to be one of the oldest living things east of the Mississippi River. It's longest limb is 105 feet!!! Pretty cool thing to see in real life.

Trip to the South - Savannah, GA

Jed and I celebrated Thanksgiving in Atlanta this year (shout out to Sarah and Alex for being such generous hosts/hostesses) we had some time off at work, and neither of us have spent much time in the south, so we put together a plan to extend our vacation and tour the south. Of course, it was based on food. (whoever reads this (hmmm, not sure anyone reads this) knows that our lives sadly/gladly revolve around food)

Stop 1 - Savannah, Georgia



Stayed:
Adorable Bed and Breakfast just a block from Forsyth Park. PLEASE make sure you stay here when you go to Savannah. Jed had to hold me back from asking the homeowner to join us for the remainder of our trip.

Ate:
The Old Pink House - Fried Green Tomato salad, she-crab soup, red snapper
Lady and Sons (Paula Dean Y'all) - fried chicken, mac and cheese, black eyed peas, gooey butter cake
Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House - If this was my last supper, I would die a happy woman. This was our introduction to Southern Food at it's finest. Collard greens, rutabaga, fried chicken, biscuits, banana pudding, etc. etc. etc. We didn't get to order, but rather sat with eight other diners and the food comes to you family style. We sat with a group of North Carolinians that I also wanted to take with us the remainder of our trip. This will be a common theme.



Saw:
Toured Savannah with a hop on, hop off tour. Mark my words, if there is a hop on/hop off tour, take it. We never regret them and you get to see a lot of history from someone who usually knows what they're talking about (and if not, you don't know the difference)



Overall - Savannah was an amazing way to start our trip. The town is so old, so quaint, a little eerie, and everyone was SO polite!