Tour de Eastern States

We escaped Virginia! Sam and I had not left the state (Maryland and D.C. do not count) since we moved here 5 months ago but a couple of weeks ago we headed to Baton Rouge to visit Sam's parents for our summer vacation!

On the way to Baton Rouge we drove through Tenessee, Georgia (for 5 minutes), Alabama, and Mississippi before getting to Louisiana. 

 The days following up to the trip I wholeheartedly committed to the first driving shift...Well, look who's driving by the time 6 a.m. Friday morning rolled around?

 The Blue Ridge Mountains! For some reason I expected most of the trees to disappear once we crossed the Tennessee state line...that did not happen. Turns out the whole eastern side of the U.S. is covered with trees. Who knew??

 We stopped at the first Sonic we came to! I have missed it so much!

18 hours later, at about 1 a.m. we made it to Sam's parents house! 

We spent most of our time in the pool, but when we weren't doing that we watched movies, visited plantations, shopped, ate, and just relaxed. It was amazing! We love going to Baton Rouge, it always feel like a vacation. 

 One of our Texas friends, Stephanie, just happened to be in Baton Rouge when we were there!

 This time we visited the Audubon plantation. It did not look like the typical stately plantation home with the spanish moss tree lined entrance but apparently it was one of the wealthiest in the state. 

(Sam loves these walking pictures)

The house

 We hosted a pool party while we were there and we all donned our Team USA t-shirts, courtesy of JC Penney

Sam with his parents

Me and the in-laws. I don't dread visits with my in-laws...I look forward to them! Not everyone can say that, so I feel extremely blessed to have great in-laws. 

Aren't the t-shirts just fab?

Turd Cat...yes, that is her real name.

We celebrated the one year anniversary of our engagement while we were there...meaning: Sam surprised me (I had no idea what day we got engaged) and bought ring pops for everyone. We then reenacted the proposal. 

 Frozen daiquiris delivered to us poolside! Now can you see why it always feels like a vacation? Just like our honeymoon in Mexico!

We had a great time in Baton Rouge and I can't wait to go back. Once leaving Baton Rouge we slowly made our trek back to D.C. with a few pit stops...