Journey to PinkAppleCorica, part one

As I mentioned, I spent part of my spring break visiting my dear blogger friend and pen pal Stephanie, the photographer behind PinkAppleCore. She was much more prompt about relating our adventures together and blogging some photographic documentation:

part one
part two
part three
part four

She lives in the Deep South, and I had never been anywhere in the South before. It was an experience to be sure. (The good kind.) Except for the common government and history, I could have been in another country. It's like this old Irish man told me in Iceland: there are really four or five Americas.

Although to be fair, there was the added difference of Stephanie's hometown being a leetle blue-collar town, while I'm used to traveling in cities.

If I had to itemize what makes it so different for me.. .

• The accents. Some soft and pretty and drawly (like my Steph's) and some more twangy.

• The food. Fried and hearty and homey with weird beasts like okra. Even the Chinese buffet had all these things incorporating fried potatoes. Teehee. Bottom line: so tasty. I've never been so continually full in my memory.

• Southern hospitality and graciousness? Um, YES.

• Not to mention more hello-ing with strangers.

• Fireworks and guns.

• Beautiful foreign-feeling (to me) trees and mountains.

• Abandoned buildings. Not something you see often in California.