Brenna Abroad

After staying up way too late last night watching the Royals clinch a spot in the World Series (#ForeverRoyal #TaketheCrown), we decided not to set an alarm this morning, but I woke up just at sunrise anyway and caught some pictures of the morning fog blanketing the valleys below.

After enjoying some coffee on the deck, we decided to leave for Dupont State Forest to try and beat the crowds. We arrived around 8:30am, and there were two other cars in the parking lot. I had a whole itinerary planned out for Dupont, and it started off with small, but pretty, Hooker Falls.

The water was clear and reflected the colors of the trees around it.

No one else was in the area, so we took our time playing around and exploring.

Afterward, we backtracked a bit to a bridge that would take us to Triple Falls,

On the way to Triple Falls, we maneuvered our way through the trees to get to the stony river, which was super peaceful. We climbed rocks and waded through shallow water.

Triple Falls came soon after, offering views of, as the name implies, three waterfalls flowing together.

We walked down to the base of one of them, since I always like to get as close as possible to waterfalls. The views weren’t as pretty down there, but it was very meditative just being next to them, listening to the water falling.

We made our way back up to the top and continued our hike up to High Falls. At one point the trail split, one way going to the base, and the other to the top. This time we decided to visit the base of the waterfall first. The view from the start was phenomenal, but we decided to climb over the slippery rocks to get closer, and there, it was perfect.

The waterfall was tall and wide and powerful, and I was able to get right up next to it and feel its spray on my face.

We spent quite a bit of time there, but then ventured on up to the trail to the top of it. Still beautiful, but not as impressive as up close.

Our next stop was the covered bridge over the river, but we didn’t spend much time there before moving on.

We hiked another .8 miles in the forest to get to Grassy Creek Falls, where we sat on a rock to eat a few snacks.

At this point, there were two more stops we had planned on making, but I had a headache and was ready for a full lunch, so we turned back.

On the way back to the car, we were amazed at how many people had shown up. When we had arrived, there were maybe a few other people there beside us, but now, we could barely walk at our own pace due to the vast numbers of people milling around.

When we finally got back to the parking lot, we were shocked to see that both parking lots were completely packed full and overflowing. Cars were parked along the main road for as long as we could see.

Long story short: If you are doing Dupont, especially on a weekend day, get there as early as you can!

We drove on to the town of Brevard after this, enjoying the scenery along the way. The trees seem to be getting even prettier the longer we stay here. We had lunch in a cute little restaurant called The Phoenix in Brevard, and then decided to explore the downtown area, stopping and buying some bread from the bakery, and shopping at a few little stores on the main street through downtown.

That evening we went back into Asheville, which was so lively on a Saturday night. We got a few more groceries at Trader Joe’s and then headed downtown where we had quite the time finding anywhere to park. We met up with another of Anthony’s cousins and his girlfriend for dinner at Mela, a nice Indian restaurant that was delicious. We ate until we were full, had a couple drinks, talked about travel and afterward, ventured on to the Chocolate Lounge where we met up with a few more people.

I seemed to have forgotten I had a camera with me, which was unfortunate seeing as we were surrounded by interesting people and sights while waiting to get inside, and the Chocolate Lounge itself was cute as can be.

They had a million different chocolate options, be it various ice cream floats, or cold drinks, or cakes, or brownies, or even liquid truffles which is what Anthony and I got to share. We had a small mug-shaped cup filled with salted caramel melted chocolate, and a tiny spoon to eat it with. The decor was charming, and it was obviously a popular place.

At this point it was 9pm, and I was exhausted after a long, busy day, so we ended our evening driving back to our house in the mountains.

We were invited on a sunrise hike this morning by Anthony’s cousin, but it would have required her picking us up at 4 am. That was just too early for us on vacation, but I was attached to the idea, so we decided to do our own but make it closer to our home base and a shorter hike so that we could get a bit more sleep.

So, come 5:30 am, my alarm went off, and we got ready and ventured about half an hour away on the Blue Ridge Parkway, to Craggy Pinnacle. As soon as we parked, I was regretting it. I have this habit of thinking things sound awesome, and then realizing that I am a giant scaredy-cat. Luckily, however, I have Anthony around to force me to go through with my indeed awesome plans, so after I assured him I was not brave enough to hike through a forest in the dark, where bears were surely hiding and waiting to attack me, he assured me that I was going to do it anyway. And off we went. We practically ran uphill the whole way while my heart pounded frantically.

Eventually we made it, while it was still dark, but the sun was just starting to come up over the horizon. At last, I was happy I had gone through with it. I was alive and at the overlook on a perfectly clear morning, surrounded by the Smokies and a beautiful orange sunrise.

On the other side of the stone barrier, there was a rock jutting out that was just begging me to come sit on it. Thus came another one of my brilliant ideas, and I voiced it to Anthony.

 

Me: I want to sit on that rock.
Him: Do it.
Me, looking at the fall that would certainly lead to my death: …
Me: …
Me: …
Me: Ok… I guess…
I climbed the wall and walked over to the rock, barely shuffling my feet as I did so. And I sat. I couldn’t bring myself to dangle my legs over the edge, but I got close enough.

The views from there were beautiful. Nothing in the way whatsoever.

Once the sun had officially come up, we hiked back down, me feeling much safer in the daylight. We stopped here and there along the Blue Ridge Parkway to take in the views now that we were able to see them, and then we went to Sunny Point Cafe again for breakfast… but this time we were at least smart enough to split a meal.

We stopped by our apartment for a brief nap and to pack up our stuff and check out, and then we went right back to downtown Asheville to walk around, stop in a few stores and have a couple beers at the Thirsty Monk.

We then went on to Chai Pani to eat some Indian food, since I am obsessed with Indian food. On our way back to our car, I noticed cat statues wearing knitted sweaters, so I of course had to take pictures of them.

And then off we went to our new home base. We drove up Pinnacle Mountain near Hendersonville, our GPS quitting on us after our phones lost service. Fortunately I remembered the directions well enough to get close, and a couple nice strangers helped us figure it out from there. We walked in the door and were blown away.

The house itself is immaculate, comfortable, and well-stocked.  A bottle of wine awaited us with a note welcoming us.

The real selling point, though, is the wraparound deck, part of it screened in, with 180 degree views of the mountains.

There were a couple yoga mats in the living room, so I grabbed one, happy to have a free evening to work on my neglected yoga practice.

Afterward, we poured ourselves a glass of wine, brought out some bread, cheese, and grapes, and enjoyed the views, just hanging out, for the majority of the evening.

I couldn’t put the camera down because, at every stage of the sun setting, the colors of the trees kept changing.

Eventually the sun set, and we came inside.  Now, we’ve got the fireplace going, and are cheering on our Royals to a victory (hopefully).

#TaketheCrown

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.