A Sustainable Anniversary

(July 12, 2008)

Today marks 3 years of wedded bliss for the hubster and I.  I can't believe how much has happened these past 3 years!!  We moved to Charlotte, NC, then to Fort Mill, SC, then got our adorable little bulldog, then the hubby got a new job with Volvo/Mack Trucks, we found out I was pregnant, moved up to Greensboro, NC, had our beautiful baby girl, and here we are....1 apartment, 2 houses, 3 cities, 2 states, 1 dog, 1 baby and 3 years later.  Phew....

  

(Many thanks to our great wedding party and great friends...Ashley Levine, Veronica Burnett, Stephanie Moore, Heidi Stilwell, Adrienne Messier, Dave Richardson, Jason Elliott, Drew McDonald, John Onofrey and Jeff Smalarz)

(Also big thanks to our parents, Don & Venus Elliott and Mike & Vicki Richardson for setting such great examples throughout our lives of what a strong marriage is)

It really has been amazing and we have been so blessed.  I am so grateful everyday that I get to wake up next to the man that I love and the man that I have watched over the last 10 years grow from teenager to adult to husband to father.  Each roll he plays, he does it amazingly and I thank God everyday for bringing him into my life : )

So enough with the sappies and mushies...since our anniversary fell on a Tuesday, we celebrated the weekend before by getting a babysitter and spending the whole evening (GASP!) away.  We stayed at a local hotel here in Greensboro called Proximity.  I've always admired it and we have walked through it a few times but what is really appealing about it is that it is a sustainable hotel.  For those of you design buffs, it is a LEED Platinum building, which is the highest rating a building can receive from the U.S. Green Building Council and it is considered to be the "greenest hotel in America" (or at least it was in 2009 which is when the article I was reading was written).  I mean, this hotel has 100 solar panels on the roof that provide energy for the hotel, like heating the hot water for your shower.  The guest rooms have these crazy floor to ceiling windows that let in so much light you don't even need to turn the lights on during the day.  It uses all sustainable materials and uses 40% less energy and 30% less water than a comparable hotel.  And a super cool feature, the elevator is the first installation of the Otis Gen2 elevator which captures the elevator's energy while going down and then uses that saved energy to propel the elevator going up. 

We also dined at the hotels restaurant Printworks Bistro which uses only locally grown ingredients and is just as sustainable as the hotel.  It has floor to ceiling windows on 3 on the 4 exterior walls and there are NO interior walls, so no matter where you sit in the restaurant you have a view of the outside gardens.  Oh, and the food is amazing.  I absolutely LOVE this restaurant...probably my favorite in Greensboro.

Big thanks to our friends Adam and Elizabeth for coming to our house and staying with our babies so we could have a night away.  Thanks guys!! 

So anyways...on to the pictures.  I took 99 of them  : )  Enjoy!!

 Front of the hotel

The next set of pictures are of our room

The shower didn't have a door or a curtain, just half a glass wall and you just stepped into it, which was sort of cool but sort of intrusive.

the door into the bathroom was hung from a track so you slide it back and forth, kind of like a barn door

There was also a small transom window above the bathroom door which allowed natural light in

The artwork throughout the entire hotel was done by a local artist.  Each guestroom had different pieces displayed, so no room was the same.

The last time the hubby was in Sweden, he bought me my favorite champagne.  It's from France and when I visited there in 2003, I toured the Pommery wine caves, so he was thoughtful enough to bring home a bottle for us to celebrate with : )

The view from our room

All ready for a night out.  I would also like to point out that I wore this dress to our wedding shower and I here I am, 3 years and 1 baby later and I can still fit into it...thank you.

The following pictures are of the rest of the hotel

This was the hallway leading to our room.  It was exceptionally dark, had exposed pipes along the ceiling and concrete walls.

This was a little "business center" that was located on our floor by the elevators.  It had computers, a little sitting area, a recycling station, and a little refrigerator filled with soda, juice and water that was operated on the honor system, which we thought was cool.

This was the lower lobby, or what they like to call "the social lobby"

The hotel lobby

The giant light fixture hanging above the entrance outside

Hotel entrance

 This car and the next car are the hotel's shuttles to take you wherever you need to go

(It's a little blurry...I was trying to use my night mode on my camera)

These next pictures are from our dinner

The bar

more of the bar

delicious truffle fries

one of the hubby's favorite appetizers, moules frites

tomato risotto with shrimp and goat cheese

NC mountain trout with ratatouille and tomato bread pudding

outside of Printworks

yummy chocolate beignets

ending the evening with our champagne in our toasting flutes from our wedding