Our first night in Asheville was a short one as we touched down just in time to pick up our rental car (Anthony was pretty pumped to find out our rental car was a little red Volkswagen Beetle [/sarcasm)]), drive to our AirBnB apartment, and drive the 5 minutes to downtown to drink some beers and eat some pizza at Barley’s Taproom.
Day 2, though, we were ready to take on as much as we could. We went to Sunny Point Cafe for breakfast, which was absolutely incredible, and had 20 bajillion options for vegetarian me.
We stuffed our faces and continued on to Trader Joe’s to grab a few groceries and wine for the week and then quickly left for downtown Asheville to walk around and explore. I was charmed. There were all sorts of restaurants, bars, shops, and a cute park. Tons of people were biking and walking around. I love a good downtown, but it’s even better when the city is surrounded by beautiful, colorful mountains.
Since Anthony has some family in Asheville, we met up with one of his cousins for lunch at Laughing Seed, a completely vegetarian restaurant in my now favorite part of Asheville. We had a great time catching up, enjoying the atmosphere, and eating some pretty tasty food, even though we were still full from breakfast.
Afterward, we ventured toward Tennessee, for our first hike of the trip- Max Patch. For the last half hour of the drive, we were on mountain roads in the middle of Pisgah National Forest, and the sunlight streaming through the yellow and red trees was mesmerizing, so we took our time, stopping for pictures here and there.
Finally, we arrived to the top and parked, just in time to see a couple llamas leaving. Because why not.
Max Patch is a bald mountain along the Appalachian Trail, right along the North Carolina/Tennessee border. During the hike, you get unbelievable 360 degree views.
We sat and enjoyed said views for quite awhile, but not before I had to show off a bit.
Eventually, we got restless and continued on, talking and walking and snapping pictures. Before we knew it, the 2.4 mile loop was over.
We hopped in the car to go back “home”, but took a different route due to rush-hour traffic and were happy we did as we were zipping along curvy roads through the valleys of the mountains, pointing out beautiful hill-top houses and daydreaming.
Since we are eating such an insane amount of food this week, we decided we better walk to dinner once we got back to the apartment. Ten minutes later, we were sitting at a Caribbean food restaurant called Nine Mile, surrounded by happy, laughing people. The food was nothing like anything I’ve had before, but it was absolutely delicious.
And now we’re here, sitting next to our fire, drinking some wine and winding down after a wonderful first day of vacation.