I feel so spoiled!
Kath picked me up at the airport just after 1pm for our afternoon date, and we headed straight to Earth Fare. I was excited to sample the most famous salad bar in the world of food blogging:
I got a little carried away (to the tune of $14.88, aka two pounds of salad) and filled my bowl to the brim. It involved a huge pile of spinach, mixed greens, and veggies on the bottom and several bites of exciting things on top: chickpea salad, wheatberry salad, marinated mushrooms, black beans, soy chicken salad, tropical tofu salad, tonnnnnnnnnns of feta, and probably way more that I can’t remember.
Clean plate club:
When we finished our salads, we wandered through the store collecting samples (including a cheese cube, a cracker, a vanilla cream wafer and maybe more?) and salad ingredients for Kath’s party tonight.
From Earth Fare, we headed to Great Harvest, Charlotte hotspot #2, where Matt was hard at work. Here’s the bread display in action:
I sampled two kinds of scuffin. Perhaps they were lemon poppyseed and chive? Flavor didn’t matter — they were delicious!
And then Matt hooked us up with some more excitement. We shared (as in, I ate most of) this piece of ambrosia bread:
(It tasted like an iced cinnamon bun, but better because it was packed with those bits of dried fruit, mmmm.)
And about half of this giant butterscotch cookie loaded with butterscotch chips (Kath had a couple bites, and I saved the last quarter to share with Wife later):
We were standing outside the bakery when Matt came running out to ask if we’d like to sample some of the pizza the staff had made earlier in the day for themselves just by throwing scraps together. I was not hungry, but I couldn’t resist!
They were deeeelicious — bursting with sundried tomato flavor and lots of spice. I had some right then and then saved the rest for later in the afternoon until I could polish them off completely (minus one bite for Kath and one for Wife).
After the feast, Kath and I took off for a lovely walk on the greenway. I want a greenway! All of the trees and grasses were vibrantly green and alive, especially against the clear sky — such a change from the dull greyness of New York! In a burst of spontaneity, we stopped by Kate and Nate‘s (who, incidentally, deemed my blog title porn-appropriate last week) house. Prep for Nate’s big SpongeBob birthday shindig was well underway so, after a quick visit, Kath and I ended up taking their adorable dog Gilbert for a walk further down the greenway. Gilbert definitely did not poop on the greenway while we were walking him, so there was no need for us to worry about cleaning up after him around mile 0.5. Ummmmmmmm …
After about an hour and a half of walking and chatting, we made our way back to Kath’s car and headed to her house to relax for a few minutes until Wife’s imminent arrival. Kelsey stopped by to work on a special project for Nate’s party, and I got to blog on Kath’s famous chair 🙂
And now, I must take a moment here to appreciate Kath appropriately. I sent her a message Thursday asking for suggestions about what I should do during my five hours of downtime in Charlotte before Wife arrived. The next thing I knew, she was offering to pick me up at the airport, take me for lunch, samples, and a walk, and let me relax at her house! On top of that, Kath, Kate, and Nate invited us all to Nate’s birthday party later. It sounded so fun and I would have loved to go, but we had other plans already. Not only was Kath completely generous with her time and hostessing abilities, she was great company, and we passed a lovely afternoon together. Thank you, Kath!
Wife came around to collect me a little after 5, and the southern hospitality just kept flowing. But now I’m tired and it’s late, so I’ll have to recap hospitality part 2 tomorrow!
What geographical personality characteristics have you noticed? That’s a confusing question. Let me try to clarify. I’ve always heard that people from the south are hospitable, and obviously I’ve found that to be true. Same thing with people in Ireland being gabby. Can you add others to the list?
Tales of Expansion: Baby Butternut Edition 
It looks like you had such a fun day with Kath-I’m so jealous!
Everything you girls ate today looks just perfect!!! Her hub’s leftover pizza, the ambrosia bread, poppyseed scuffins, the salad!!! Oh you girls know how to eat!! 😀
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It sounds like you two had a blast!!! I’ve never met Kath, but sounds like she is as super sweet as she seems on her blog!
I want to try EarthFare now!!!
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You’ve had some a warm welcome.. and so lucky to meet the famous Kath in person and spend a great afternoon with her doing what a foodie like doing!!! Such a great day! 😀
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I’m very jealous of all your eats and the Southern hospitality from THE Kath herself 🙂
Hmm…Russian people are really beautiful? hahah. I find that people in South America are all about enjoying time with their friends and family. When we went out to eat in restaurants there we were like “why is it taking so long for us get our dinner?” It’s because they’re all about enjoying your meal and spending time together!
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What a great hostess! so jealous you were able to meet kath!
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Great stuff!!
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So fun!!! It’s already a great trip and you are one day in! 🙂
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uhm jealous!
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What a great day! I am equally confused/intruiged by the lemon poppyseed and chive muffin. Is it sweet or savoury? Also, it sounds like Kath is an excellent friend! You’re a lucky girl…
Interesting question about geographical personality characteristics… I can add a few to the list about Australians:
– We are big on laughing and having a sense of humour – we make jokes at our own expense a lot.
– We don’t complain
– We call everyone ‘mate’ even if we don’t know them
It’s a hard question indeed!
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so much fun!
people in the “south” are definitely friendlier to strangers. I’m not technically in the “south” south, but everyone out here waves to everyone, whether you know them or not, says hi to strangers, etc.
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HOW FUN!!! I cant wait to go to an EarthFare… and I don’t even know where one is! I’m very jealous you got to meet Kath, but I’m jealous she got to meet YOU!! You have GOT to tell me if/when you come to Chicago!
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ive def noticed that all the sexiest
people are located in the midwest.
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Woo hoo! How fun! So jealous of your meet-up…I love me some southern hospitality too. I think one geographic trait I’ve noticed is just about everyone is nicer outside the tri-state area!
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Fun! Question – who is “Wife?” I’m confused.
It’s funny you talked about Ireland and the South together. I studied abroad in Ireland and my roots are in South Carolina and I noticed that the cultures are similar (warmth, hospitality, good food, give you the shirt off their backs) just the accents are different.
Enjoy your southern sojourn! Take lots of pics 🙂
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So, I cam across your blog & decided to add you to my blogroll. Hope you don’t mind! 🙂
Aw, that was very nice of hear to pick you up & show you around town. Sounds like you had fun! I’ve heard of Great Harvest, there’s one about 10 mins from my house. I’ve never been, but not I definitely have to go and buy some bread! lol
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Aw, what a fun day! I am always jeaous of Kath’s pics of the salad bar. And you got to experience it! So cool.
People from the NW are laid back & uber liberal. People from the NE are brainy, liberal. NYers are…NYers. Germans tend to be cold and austere. The Chinese LOVE Westerners. Umm…these are all the personal experiences I can think of.
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Great recap Sarah!! I loved “the most famous salad bar in the world of food blogging.” Haha.
I was happy to host you for the afternoon!
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Wow…what a fun afternoon! And you got to go to Great Harvest – that’s always yummy.
I’ve lived in Arizona and Minnesota. Minnesotans are known for being reserved, passive aggressive, somewhat liberal, and nice. Arizonans are actually quite similar, except for political leanings. I think it’s because so many Arizonans moved there from the Upper Midwest.
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Looks like you had a great time with Kath! She is such a sweetie!
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