What a great week. Not only was it my first week of being fully vaccinated, but we are starting to see the country move towards normalcy as more and more people get vaccinated. It feels good to be optimistic, and I am so looking forward to this summer.
From a personal standpoint, we ended up eating out a couple of times, and actually sat inside a restaurant for the first time in over a year. It was an amazing combination of feeling great and weird all at the same time. Tuesday night we hit up our favorite Thai Restaurant – Basil Thai, and it was definitely an odd feeling. There were only a handful of people in the place, but that first time of taking off the mask in an indoor setting did feel a little surreal. Thankfully we quickly settled into some great conversation and some even greater food. I went with my go-to of Chicken Pad Prik after some egg rolls to start. And I went full Thai hot which I love. I will admit to being a bit out of shape in terms of that heat level, but the flavors and taste made the burn more than worthwhile. We couldn’t have asked for a better meal of our return to normalcy.
The rest of the week was the usually busyness, but we were able to head over to Uptown Charlotte late Saturday afternoon in preparation for the Knights baseball game that night. This was just after all of the mask and capacity limitations were removed in the state for vaccinated people, and you could almost feel the level of uncertainty in the air. We brought masks with us, as we were still unsure of which place might still require masks and which would not. We spent a nice hour just walking around Uptown and enjoying the most hustle and bustle we had been around in some time. It was still far from as busy as things normally would be, but it was great seeing lots of people enjoying meals on patios and bringing life to the city. We looked at a few options for dinner, but settled on Mellow Mushroom as we did not have time to wait for a table at places like Tupelo Honey Cafe. It felt slightly more “normal” to be sitting indoors without a mask on and enjoying a meal, but it will probably take a couple of weeks to truly stop thinking about it.
After some pizza and salad it was time to head over to Truist Field for the 7:04 first pitch. The game was fantastic, with 20 hits, 4 home runs, 13 strikeouts and some amazing defence at times. Everything you could possible want in a baseball game. We had great seats down the first base line, and had an amazing line of sight when the pitchers warmed up in the bullpen. Just watching the movement that those guys could generate on the ball was something to behold. The Knights took the game 8-3 so the crowd went home happy, and we certainly enjoyed the salty popcorn, cold drinks, and the great milkshake concoction my daughter got from the Night and Day Cereal Bar stand. We will definitely be hitting their regular location, as what they had to offer was amazing.
Of course, our friend Haze made it to the game with us – in book form at least. I’m telling you she is going to be well traveled this year as she follows us around. Make sure to check out the book when you can, and to truly see what Haze is all about head over to growmygrit.com by clicking here.
All in all, a great week, and we are already planning on some options for our next free weekend, as we get back to exploring and eating our way around Charlotte. I’m sure there will still be some bumps in the road when it comes to Covid, but this certainly felt like a big step forward this week. Hope you have had the opportunity to get vaccinated at this point and are able to get out and explore your own local haunts.
The Free Range Viking
The Free Range Viking 