one and two.

Yesterday, my darling celebrated his 26th birthday. Really, we celebrated for the five days leading up to it. We decided a little trip to Carolina would do the trick. As mentioned before, we consider Asheville our second home, and as bad as I'd like to just pack up and move today, darling is the voice of reason that says we should wait just a little bit longer. I can't say I'm so sure what we're waiting on, but his reasoning has never let me down before. So you win again, dear.

Our arrival at 10:45 pm was celebrated with crispy chicken sandwiches from Wendy's. We were a little too late to enjoy a real, Ashvillian style dinner that I had been so looking forward to, but alas, we had four more days of fantastic dinners ahead of us. The next morning started with brunch and mimosas at our favorite breakfast spot, Mayfels.

The rest of the morning was spent at the Western North Carolina Farmers Market. There, we stocked up on local honey, apple butter, barbecue sauce, and dried silver dollar plants with other various nick-knacks. Hopefully, it will be enough to get us through until our return in October (I'm pretty confident it should, since I got the biggest jars of everything I could find). Then we made our way to the Old Tobacco Barn, an antique store that turned out to be more of a warehouse heaven than a store, and the rows upon rows of old dusty things was intoxicating. We were a little overwhelmed after first walking in and didn't even know where to start digging. We made it through in about two hours, and we were both pretty sure we didn't even see half of what was in there. I've already added a second visit to our October return list. Afterwards we hit the downtown shops and eateries and stocked up on all the local favorites we could get our hands on. We ended the evening with a visit to the Battery Park Book Exchange and Champagne Bar. Hands down my favorite place on the planet. Rows on rows on rows of books, all for sale, and an amazing wine and champagne bar with a ridiculously huge selection. I felt like it was my birthday instead.

Darling patiently followed me between every row, with my large stack of purchases in tow. I don't know how I got so lucky to have such a fine fella. But I vowed to make the rest of our trip birthday worthy for him, and it turned out to be quite a success. We ended with dinner at our favorite place, and went home full and happy and late and ready for the next day.

The next morning started with Brunch at Early Girl Eatery, Rachael Ray's $40 a day and a wonderful sister suggested it, and we couldn't help ourselves. The gigantic strips of bacon that came on both our plates were the cherry on top of our breakfast cake. Shout out to all Asheville bacon. We're big fans. We then made reservations for a canoe adventure on Sunday, and decided we needed to stock up on some new outdoor gear before the expedition. So we hit REI pretty hard and got all the unnecessary-but-really-wanted things that we just couldn't go without. Then we headed to Mast General Store and got babe all the birthday things he dreamed of, and I loved spoiling him more than I love spoiling myself. We finished up with another awesome dinner and a haunted tour of Asheville. True tourist style, but it was fun and informative and I think I actually got a paranormal picture just like our guide promised us.

Sunday found us up early and ready for a day of playing outside to beat all others. The hurricane roaring down the coast a few hundred miles east of us didn't show even a cloud in our direction. Things got a little windy, but nothing too serious, and, gratefully, the sun shone on us all weekend. We got a canoe and paddled the French Broad through the Biltmore Estate. We've been there and done that, so we passed up dropping $120.00 on tickets and spending the day there. Instead, we sneaked in riverside, and saw everything for free. Sort of.

We got in early and had a dinner of Scottish Barbeque, and got invited to the Oyster festival in October by a few locals. Of course we'll be there. We ended the night with the best pizza and beer in Asheville and my new favorite, Tutti Fruiti, a fantastic self-serve frozen yogurt paradise.

Monday was sad but inevitable: our last day. We had brunch at Over Easy and it made it even harder to leave. But we made it home safe and sound. I had a happy darling in tow to make things even better. Happy Birthday love of mine. Here's to a bigger and badder bash next year.

the old dusty trail.

I've been taking extreme advantage of my new weekends off with everything from sleeping in to long mimosa brunches with darling. Last weekend was spent on a 6 hour 8.5 mile trek through Virgin Falls in Sparta Tennessee. I continue to be amazed at the number of places within this lovely state of mine that I have yet to explore. One down. I had to have a pretty serious talk with myself with 2 miles to go. I suppose I should have paid more attention to the sign warning me of the "strenuous terrain". A very true statement that I decided was just posted to scare off the wimps who were used to state park strolling trails. But none the less, I finished, and was pretty proud of myself. We took the pup (naturally) who left us in his dust most of the way. I'm not sure where he finds the energy, but he kept me going. Him, and darling giving me small pep talks every few miles.

We stumbled on a small trail that led to a river about 4 miles in and decided to have a swim. Truly, I was just in desperate need of a rest from all that strenuous terrain, so finding this cool, shady oasis was more than just welcoming. There were huge trees on all sides, and babe found a rope swing that seemed like it was left there just for us, and he took full advantage. Bailey decided that he didn't like the idea of us going too far out in the water, and swam out to guide us back in EVERY time. The water was littered with small fish that took an immediate liking to my legs, and I couldn't seem to stop laughing from all the nibbling taking place beneath the surface.

We meet quite a few people on the trail, and in turn quite a few other dogs. Our first encounter was with a golden labradoodle, and she and Bailey knew right away that they were two of a kind. They literally left us behind and started walking side by side down the trail together. Which was a bit of a problem as the gentleman whom she belonged to was heading in the opposite direction. We managed to separate the lovebirds to continue, and quickly came across another dog. Lela was much less friendly. She was with a group of campers who were taking the trail in chapters and staying the night. We had to pass through their campsite to continue on our way, and this dog didn't like Bailey from the moment she met him. She snapped at him 3 times, each time, Bailey calmly sitting back and taking it in stride letting her get it out of her system. After the 3rd time, being the mama bear that I am when it comes to my pup, I'd had finally had enough of this snotty little dog that thought she owned the place. I wrapped up the encounter pretty quickly and we moved on.

We finally made it all the way to Virgin Falls, and even after our mild altercation with the snippy Lela and being nearly devoured by a tiny pack of small piranhas, we'd made it. And it was worth the aching legs, the battle I would fight with poison ivy the following week, and the overpowering smell of bug spray that lingered for days. More than worth it. Bailey, on the other hand, is still recovering.