Fallen Souffle

I am sure you are all well aware that Evan and I met in Italy, if you are not well I am sure I have mentioned it in previous posts Anywho, when we visited we went during a heat wave; a heat ave unlike anything Italy had seen in quite some time. Italy, like many European countries, is not equipped with air conditioning as we are in the US-namely in the South. So went spent most of our free time finding big bottles of ice cold water and gelato. Gelato, is the Italian form of ice cream but is in my opinion it is better than any kind of traditional ice cream you would find in the US. The flavors are bold, the texture is super creamy and it is never too sweet.

Evan and I became expert gelato tasters and we knew what to look for in a good gelateria (hint: the banana flavor should never be yellow). When we came back to the US we found nothing to quench our desire for our favorite creamy, cold dessert. We found a few places here and there when we moved to Morrisville but either they didn’t make the cut or they went out of business. Until we found Henry’s Gelato.

Henry’s is located off of Cary Parkway in the Preston Walk Shopping Center (Biaggi’s and Stonewood Grill are in the same shopping center). The store is absolutely beautiful with stonework on the walls, beautiful photographs and uber cool flat screens TV’s that project the menu and other images. The flavors are beautifully displayed in front of you and customers are encouraged to try different flavors before deciding. I prefer fruit flavors so I gravitated to the blood orange gelato, which led to a taste of grapefruit and strawberry. All three were excellent but I ended up with the blood orange. Evan prefers the richer chocolate and caramel flavors. He chose a Creme Caramel that was absolutely to die for! Henry also concocts flavors such as Chili Chocolate and Mediterranean Lemon and carries desserts such a tiramisu and profiteroles.

I can’t say enough about this place, it is totally worth the drive if you don’t live in Cary. The staff is friendly, the product is top notch and it definitely deserves a 10!

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#79- Learn to ski-COMPLETED 02/24/07

I had anticipated completing this item in about a month when Evan and I take our anniversary trip to Park City, Utah but we decided to take a day trip to Sugar Mountain which is just outside Boone, NC. We snagged a few other friends and made the 3 hours drive up and arrived around lunchtime for an afternoon session. It was 53 degrees outside but there was still some man-made snow and a ton of people! The parking lots were full of cars and SUV’s and church buses. I was starting to get nervous as I saw the throngs of people waiting for me to bust my butt. Brent and I took a ski lesson (see I’m not the only one that didn’t know how to ski!) while Brew and Evan hit the slopes.

Our instructor was Chris and I think he was from Switzerland. There were 8 of us total, including a family of 4 whose 5 year old daughter put us all to shame. The class was really basic, but I have concluded that skiing is pretty basic; slide, turn, and stop…that’s all you really need to know. Oh and how to get up when you fall, which is a chore in and of itself. I went down the bunny slope a few times and felt pretty confident, I only fell once but that’s only because I wanted to practice getting up

So we were off, 40 minutes of instruction later and Chris said we could take on any mountain, ok I will start with the easiest one. We had to wait about 10 minutes or so to get on the lift, which was a nice ride considering I had been on my feet for a couple of hours. The view was nice and I chatted with Evan about how excited I was to start skiing and I felt good about my lesson. We dismount the lift and I am staring at the trail, it doesn’t look too bad but I take my time down. Nice and smooth no problem…until I see quite a dip in front of me. Not the site I wanted to see, an icey slope below and everyone was sliding on the way down. I really don’t like falling, that’s why I didn’t like snowboard that much. I stood at the top for what seemed like an hour, Evan trying to coax me down, me shaking my head like a little kid that doesn’t want to jump in the water. Finally I do it, I ski down, lose control and fall quite ungracefully. As I am trying to pick myself up while not falling again, some chic plows into me which makes me even more pissed off. I am not liking this and am contemplating the return policy on out Utah trip. But I finally get up and am determined to make it down the rest of the hill, which I do and even stop at the bottom before hitting a bunch of people in line.

I was not happy with the first run but know I had to keep at it…so we got back in line. The second run was much better, I figured out a way down without falling and even kinda enjoyed myself. By the third time, I was pumped! Ok so I’m not ready for a Black Diamond yet but I am certainly excited about our trip now!

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