Weekend getaway :: Snowy oasis in Blowing Rock.

For our anniversary every year, it's become a tradition to head to the mountains.  We rent a cabin and bring the dogs (which is nice because it's one of the only trips we make that allows us to bring our babies along).  For our first anniversary we headed to Boone.  Second was Asheville/Max Patch, third was Boone again, and this year was Blowing Rock.  We typically leave Thursday evening (after work for me) in order to enjoy a full three day weekend in the mountains.  In our previous three years of venturing to the mountains in March, we have never encountered snow.  Now that I think about it, we've had rain every single year.  Not this time...

The snow started coming down on Thursday night and did not stop until mid-day Friday.  D estimated it was about six to eight inches.  That's a lot for us.  Luckily D's car is four-wheel drive so we didn't have any problems getting to the cabin.



Nonetheless, we decided to stay in on Friday.  I was coming down with a bit of a cold, so it was nice to spend the day reading, playing in the snow, and downing tons of hot tea.  It was so great to have the dogs and let them play in the snow.  They had the best time.

















Our cabin was great!  They had everything we needed for cooking and living (although I couldn't find the hair dryer they were supposed to have).  Lucky for us, we even found a sled!





On Saturday, the sun was out and everything was gorgeous.  We spent the day visiting Beech Mountain (and the brewing company there),  gorging ourselves on Mexican food, taking naps, exploring the adorable tiny town of Blowing Rock, and finishing with an amazing dinner at Gamekeeper.

And anniversary weekend commences.

I guess I kind of left you hanging with our Boone trip.  I didn't want to overwhelm you with pictures, so I figured I'd save the other part of our weekend.  While we spent Friday lounging around and exploring the lands, we took Saturday to walk around downtown Boone.

Does this outfit look familiar? Add a chambray + different color sweater, and it's a new outfit!  It certainly kept me warm.  I'm still trying to break out of my photo-shy shell while being in public, so I didn't take many pictures in town and none that warrant display.

But we did have a pretty great dinner at Vidalia.

Since we were technically traveling (remember my vegetarian rules?), I got the smoked chicken & "dumplings."  The dumplings were gnocchi, and I can not pass up gnocchi!  D and I were both impressed with our meals and really enjoyed our meal there!

After exploring in Boone, we bundled up and came home to drink and lounge by the fire (and use up all the firewood).

Special beers and this guy were the perfect way to end our anniversary trip.  Of course we spent one last time in the hot tub too.

Travel Tuesday :: To the mountains.

We have a tradition of heading to the North Carolina mountains for our anniversary.  We've gradually upgraded every year.  For our first anniversary, we started in a teeny little "studio" cabin on the same road where we stayed this year.  Last year, we had a much busier weekend staying right outside of Asheville, NC in Max Patch.  This year, we headed back to Boone for a cabin with a lot of land and gorgeous weather.

On Thursday night, we drove in and enjoyed the fire and just being together in the cabin.  The decor definite reminded us of the cabin (of the same owners) from our first anniversary.  That fox freaked out the dogs (and myself) a bit.  We tested out the hot tub, which was off by quite a few degrees (cue burning of feet & toes), so we took a break from that to let it cool down.  In the meantime, beers were consumed and books were read.

I took advantage of all the downtime and used it to read and ice my pathetic leg.  Since my leg wasn't 100%, we didn't hike on Friday but took advantage of the beautiful weather nonetheless.

 [We welcomed our anniversary morning with breakfast & cards. Above is from the amazing, NC local, EmDash]

 [There was plenty of land for the dogs to explore. The above was just a tiny storage barn!]

[A dusty bottle from our visit here]

And over a bottle of wine, D killed me in Monopoly (oh, it's here and now style).  It was a good anniversary day.  Beautiful weather, great company.  In the meantime, I'll be brushing up on my Monopoly skills...

Weekend getaway :: Relaxation.

We spent our last full day of the getaway by not doing too much.  We started our day by heading up to Max Patch.  It's a super easy one and a half mile hike which allows for stunning views!

 [Part of the Appalachian Trail]

Of course we brought the pups along for the walk.  It was gorgeous up there.  The hike was a nice way to start our day of relaxation.

D and I pretty much spent the entire day eating, reading, and drinking.

 [Gorgeous views to grill to]

 [Finally made a dent in this one...probably the only way I finished in a legit amount of time]

[Kick ass homemade dinner + Argentinean wine]

It was such a perfect weekend.  I could not have asked for anything more.  It was my first time visiting Asheville as well as trying a vegan restaurant.  We did lots of drinking and hot tubbing.  Now, if I could just get away from the scary mountain roads, I'd be down for this monthly!

Weekend getaway :: Eating vegan.

After hitting up some super cool Asheville breweries on our weekend getaway, we had an early reservation at Plant.  It's a really cool, chic vegan restaurant in downtown Asheville.  Asheville is very "Portlandia"in that there is a lot of focus on sustainability and the environment.  You can check out Plant's full philosophy, but basically they are offering "offer flavor-sophisticated scratch-made food using only carefully chosen ingredients that come from the earth.  Each dish will reflect a multicultural influence of the best vegetables, spices, and techniques that inspire us to eat."  I've never eaten at a fully vegan restaurant, so I was pretty thrilled to try it.

[I love the open kitchen]

D and I were pleasantly surprised to see that our fav beer was on tap at Plant, so we promptly ordered a round.  Then we moved on to the important stuff...food.

Starting at the top left and going clockwise: 

• Our app, tofu "cheese" with bread and olives.  This was D's least favorite.  It was actually one of my favorites.  It totally tasted like cheese to me as well.
• D's main, peppercorn crusted seitan, truffled cauliflower, grilled broccolini, tomato & wine sauce, and shitake bacon.  We both loved this dish.  Neither of us had ever tried seitan (google it if you've never heard of it), but it was amazing.  Every component of that dish was perfect. 
• For dessert, we got the "black out pie" which is a chocolate peanut butter mousse with ice cream and a berry agave.  D felt it was super rich (probably because it was made vegan).  It was still a major hit.
• My main, smoked portabello steak, spinach and garlic, crisp loaded polenta, cherry tomato salad, and a v1 sauce (their housemade version of A1).  Overall, I was happy with my dish but didn't love it.  The waitress recommended it, and we heard it's their top seller.  The polenta was the best I've ever had, but I still would have gone with D's over mine.

I would definitely recommend checking out Plant if you're ever in Asheville.  They have a few other vegan/vegetarian spots (and most are vege-friendly nonetheless).  We headed back out on to the windy mountain road and ended our night in the perfect spot.

[Hot tub under the stars]