Weekend Trip to Asheville and Grandfather Mountain

I love/miss the mountains already!

We drove in the morning on Thursday to Asheville and made it into town just in time for lunch.  We stopped by Tupelo Honey Cafe, after hearing raves about it from friends. And rightfully so! It was delicious! The wait wasn't too bad, and we waited for our food for less time than the wait for the seats.

I ordered their Rosemary Peach Lemonade- it was spicy and unique. Not what I expected, but good. Jonathan just got sweet tea. Then, our waiter brought us some of their biscuits and black raspberry biscuits. To die for.

Then the main event: 

I got the Cheesy Grill and side salad. The cool thing is that you can choose your own cheeses for the grilled cheese. I chose Brie and Swiss. So creamy and wonderful.

Jonathan's Charleston Chicken Sandwich. Not just any chicken sandwich, possibly the best chicken sandwich I have ever tasted. So delicious. Oh, that's cranberry mayo on the side, which he didn't want on his sandwich. It was just as good without it.

After being thoroughly stuffed, we walked around and ended up at Spice and Tea Exchange.

I was mesmerized by the assortment of spices, tea blends and spice blends. But I was good and only bought 2 tea blends and 1 spice blend.

After the spice shop, we stumbled upon an antique shop with a huge table full of depression glass (perfect because I collect pink and yellow depression glass) and I found the yellow teacup and saucer and the platter for a steal- about $25 for all of it!

The next day, we drove back into Asheville from the hotel and hit up a quaint little hot dog shop called Cats and Dogs for lunch. Not great, but not bad either. My favorite part was their "suggested toppings" that had names like Carolina Blend (BBQ and coleslaw, among other toppings).

I got my first-ever veggie dog because I wasn't really in the mood for a big hot dog.

We did some more shopping and found some awesome stuff at import stores and a cute little bead store. I picked up some henna hand beads, but I found these adorable little beads. I didn't buy them because I didn't know what I would do with them, but aren't they cute?!

Then, Jonathan was hungry again (we didn't get sides at Cats and Dogs to leave room for a snack later) and we stopped by Cafe Ello. 

I just got an iced Chai latte, but Jonathan got the turkey club sandwich.

We kept walking around and looking for cool places to stop in, and we walked into this indoor shopping complex and found the Fresh Quarter, an amazing fresh produce stand.

Isn't it adorable?

I didn't buy much, but just a couple of the Golden Echo plums to taste them because we were driving to Grandfather Mountain right after this stop. 

Then, we just got on the road and drove up to the mountains and through some pretty heavy rain to the hotel to meet my parents and my brother.

Before the hotel and in between the heavy rains, we stopped in at a gem store and an antique store. Both were so quaint and had great prices. It was fun stopping at places along the mountain road. I picked up the berry colored depression glass punch cups for my mom because she has been looking for them for a while.

Saturday,  we went to the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games because my brother plays the bagpipes and competed. He actually walked away with 1st place in the march competition! It was a very hot day, but so much fun to be around the atmosphere and the constant music. You should definitely find a Highland Games near you and visit! 

It was a great day at the games, but Jonathan and I left in the early afternoon to get to the antique store one more time before going home (we stopped in 15 minutes before they closed and got the berry cups, but I wanted to check it out more thoroughly) and I got the pink depression glass teacup and saucer (seen in a picture above!) before hitting the road to go home. 

It was a great trip! I hope you had a great weekend too!