What an amazing first weekend of March myself and Kristen had in Asheville, visiting our beautiful friends Vanessa and Andy. First and foremost, they were incredible hosts. There was not a moment of boredom, we kept busy (and buzzed ha!).
Friday
We arrived on Friday night around 10, and headed out to a couple of bars. First bar was Jack of the Wood. I really liked this bar. Only complaint I had was the band spent more time warming up than playing and it was very crowded, so hard to get a drink. The band playing was “OK”, a little too country for our tastes. After a couple of drinks we headed out to the Thirsty Monk. It was just across the street. This was a cool little joint, but the most expensive by far out of all the places we visited in Asheville. If you have cash to spare and love trying beers from all over the place, this is the spot to go. I don’t drink a lot of beer, but they had what seemed to be a 100 different types. After leaving the Thirsty Monk, we all decided we were hungry and they took us to a vegetarian/vegan joint called Rosetta’s Kitchen. It was fantastic. I got a portabella mushroom BBQ sandwich that came with sweet slaw, Vanessa got tacos, Kristen got a grilled cheese and Andy got mashed potatoes and kale that was smothered in some of the best gravy I’ve ever eaten. Seriously, I regretted not getting what Andy has the entire weekend. It was so good. A must visit for anyone!
That was it for Friday night, but before hitting the sack, we did this to Andy’s car. Oh yeah, it was snowing!! 🙂
Saturday
I woke up Saturday not feeling very well. I don’t know what was wrong with me. I felt congested and stuffy, then nauseous. I tried to not let this get me down, but it did ruin the first half of my day. Vanessa took us to this giant goodwill I’d been wanting to go to. They sell everything by the pound and you just dig through shit until you find something. After touching a lot of used nasty things, I decided that this type of shopping was not for me. I did however walk away with a sweet ass batman pillowcase and two jean shirts that Vanessa is going to make into tanks and stud for me! yay! After shopping Vanessa drove us around to see a few things and we ate lunch at the house. After eating I felt much better. We sat around talking for a little while before getting ready to go out for the night. While getting ready I decided to try on a couple of Vanessa’s accessories. Including this awesome hat, which I should have stolen.
We left the apartment on a mission to find cupcakes. Everything was closed, so we ended up a grocery store bakery. It’s a chain that is owned by whole foods, so this was not a bad decision. We found what we were looking for and headed out into the night.
I had mentioned I wanted pizza, so we ended up at Barley’s Taproom & Pizzeria, located right downtown. Asheville has these cool things called “flights” which is a cheap way to try the variety of beers they have. Vanessa and Kristen were splitting them, so I decided to get in on the action. Sure, I’m not much of a beer drinking but if I’m going to find something I might like, this was the way to do it. I order a slice, it was yum. I also discovered while drinking the flights that I liked original sin, so I ordered one and drank that shit.
Alright, after drinking a few beers and eating that amazing pizza, we decided to bar hop a little bit. It was pretty cold outside and flurried most of the weekend.
We went to this new brewery in town called the Wicked Weed. This was a cool little joint, but a little to crowded for me. They did not have beer flights but their prices were super cheap. So we just kind of created our own flights ha.
I didn’t find a beer there I fancied to much. Good thing this wasn’t our last stop. The night was young, we were going to keep going! Honorable mention goes to the beautiful man by the fire, to which loudly I said, “did it hurt when you feel from heaven?” I think it did. Tons of cute dudes in Asheville ladies.
Moving on…
So we ended the night at a little pub called Hannah Flanagan’s. I LOVED this place! Not only did I discover a new cider beer that I’m in-love with here, but the bartender played some amazing jams while we were there. Their prices were insanely cheap and it wasn’t over crowded like some of the other joints. I feel like this place in a little forgotten gem in Asheville that the locals should flock to more often. If you ever visit Asheville, you have to go here. Order the waffle fries. This is where we ended our Saturday night, but it was a wonderful ending to our last night there. I had a blast with my ladies.
Sunday
We were a bit slow getting started, but knew we had time. We were told we had to eat at this little place called Sunny Point Cafe‘. On Sunday’s they serve breakfast until 2:30 in the afternoon. Which was perfect, we all wanted it. Let me tell you that, eating at this cafe’ was the best decision of the entire trip. It was quite simply the best breakfast I’ve ever eaten! They have options for meat eaters or vegetarians. Actually, everywhere in Asheville does. Andy and Vanessa got the MGB which was the eggs, veggie sausage, this awesome fucking biscuit and awesome fucking potatoes. Myself and Kristen ordered the breakfast sandwich, she got veggie sausage and I got tofu bacon, both came with the potatoes. The tofu bacon was actually REALLY good. I’ve never had a “fake” bacon that I liked. Andy ordered a Bloody Mary and Kristen and Vanessa both got Mimosas, I drank water.
When we left Sonny Point, we all mentioned throughout the day how good our food was and how great of a decision it was to go there. So thank you Jeff for suggesting it! Good call bro!
Now we all want coffee and had discussed driving through the river arts district. So we stopped for coffee at a little cafe there before heading into the city. After getting coffee, Vanessa asked us if we wanted to go into the mountains. HELL YES I WANT TO GO INTO THE MOUNTAINS. So we skipped river arts sight seeing and headed for the sky.
The ride up the mountain was incredibly beautiful. As we got higher the green mountains turned into white mountains and snow was everywhere. We had not seen any snow really stick, so it was nice to be around. Felt like a real winter to me. We had read about this pit stop called Buzzard’s Rock. There was a murder there in the 1950s and apparently people go there to party and spray paint rocks. I just thought the history behind that little spot was interesting but also felt a bit eerie being there. After all, I was standing on a location that two people were murdered at. We tried not to think about that to much, but being the asshole in the group I brought it up every chance I could. So Kristen and Vanessa climb the rock, while myself and Andy are looking for somewhere safer to stand.
I had no intentions on climbing the rock. I hate heights, hate them. Something however, told me to do it. Just get up there Amber, stop being such a chicken. Yes you are high up, yes the nearest hospital is miles away down a big mountain you can’t go faster than 15 on, but honestly, if anything was going to happen, you were with good friends. So I felt safe. When no one was looking, I climbed that rock and announced my victory.
Kristen and Vanessa were shocked. They videoed me the entire time, because why I may look calm in this photo, I was not calm at all. I was shaking and screaming about how bad I wish I hadn’t done that. But it was done. For the sake of memories, I toughed it out longer on that rock than I’d like, but the view was incredible. The pictures were worth the struggle.
We leave murder rock and head back into town. I’m not ready for the day to end. It was getting late, but we were having so much fun. It was unspoken between myself and Kristen, but we both secretly agreed we wanted a little more time. So I suggest beer and pizza. It wins everyone over and we turn around and head to the Asheville Pizza and Brewing Company. This was a neat place. It was huge! Everything is movie related there. All the tiles on the walls had scenes from movies or movie stars, even the bathrooms ha! They also had flights here, yay! We sat ordered some food, flights and beer. We enjoyed a lot of conversation and reminiscing about the weekend.
We left the pizza company and headed back to the apartment to finish packing and hit the road. We were all a little bit sad it was coming to an end! It was seriously a wonderful weekend. I got to see Keri before leaving, Foley wasn’t feeling well, but this won’t be our last visit. I hope to see EVERYONE again soon. We can all meet for breakfast at sunny point. 🙂
-Amber
A Pirates Adventure 