The last 8 days have been a bit of a whirlwind for me. I spent last week in MN for a big work training and dealing with Delta’s shenanigans with flights cancelling and changing. I had about 17 hours in NYC before I got on another plane for North Carolina. It was the bachelorette celebration of my friend, Meredith. As always, I was a little nervous to spend the weekend with a group of girls that has been friends for YEARS that I didn’t know too well (except the bride obviously) but it was absolutely wonderful.

I landed in Charlotte and rented a car to drive to Asheville. As soon as I started seeing mountains, my whole body relaxed. Some people are like that with the ocean, but my peace place is definitely the hills. I had a few hours to relax at the cabin before the party arrived. We cracked the champagne and got ready for dinner.

Really, our dinner deserves a post of its own, but I haven’t mastered my food porn skills yet, so I’ll just share a few pics. We ate at Night Bell in downtown Asheville. I’m not much of a foodie, but holy smokes, this place blew my mind. We let our server determine what we would eat so we ended up with a very eclectic variety. We stuck more to the seafood side of the menu so I could eat almost everything. My favorite were their “deviled egg” (bottom right) and the flounder that was so perfectly cooked, but seriously, everything I put in my mouth was amazing.

After our amazing dinner, we headed to Sovereign Remedies for a cocktail and then ended our night hopping around to a few other places downtown.
Sunday morning, we woke up to the sound of birds chirping and the creek outside the cabin. We enjoyed the sunshine and some fresh eggs courtesy of our VRBO host. He had ducks and chickens on his property and delivered us eggs upon our arrival. We spent the morning lounging and got ready to do some brewery hopping early afternoon.

Our first stop was New Belgium Brewery. It’s one of my favorites. We got the most amazing behind the scenes tour thanks to some connections with one of the ladies in our group. We tried lots of stuff and saw some really cool employees only sections of the brewery. They had a freaking slide as part of the tour. Their facility is awesome and worth visiting for anyone in Asheville. They had a food truck where we got some lunch and enjoyed a little more sunshine.

We left there and headed to Burial where we checked off most of the items on Meredith’s bachelorette checklist. It was all thanks to one man we met that was determined to help us. He recruited many of the other patrons to give lap dances, tell us their dirty little secrets and even give piggy back rides. My face hurt from laughing – plus the beer was really good.

Our last stop was Funkitorium which features mostly sour beers and some of the Wicked Weed brews. Turns out I was able to find a sour beer that I liked – imagine that. Also, if you ever find yourself in the presence of the Milk & Cookies Stout from Wicked Weed – drop everything and drink it.

We ended our evening with pizza delivery at the cabin, a meet & greet with our hosts’ farm animals, a bonfire and some card games (and a bedtime of 10:30.) Hello perfect Sunday Funday. I also feel like I should mention that our whole group split each flight… so I drank lots of sips of beer. Best case scenario.

Monday, we woke up and scrambled up the rest of the fresh eggs. We had some donuts and nitro coffee delivered from Vortex (definitely recommend this stop) and said goodbye to our lovely little cabin. I had 4 hours of solo time before I had to be at the airport, so I decided to turn on a playlist and cruise a few miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway and then head towards Chimney Rock to do a little hiking. We didn’t get to do the waterfall trail when we were there in the fall, so I took some alone time and avoided the crowds on the main trail and hiked to Hickory Nut Falls. Then I road tripped back to Charlotte and caught my flight back to New York City.

The weather was perfect. The beers and the food exceeded all expectations. The cabin was peaceful and comfy. Lots of laughs and a hashtag that proved to be a little difficult to remember. The group I was with was wonderful.

There were definitely moments in the last week that I was exhausted, but it was a perfect weekend and I’m so grateful to have friends that have awesome friends that welcome me into their squad no questions asked. Can’t wait to celebrate Meredith & Andy’s wedding in less than a month in the big apple!!