I managed to sleep until 7:30 this morning – woo hoo! And surprisingly, I don’t have any side effects from multiple alcoholic indulgences yesterday. Must have been all that water I chugged around 5:00. But I’m very, very happy about that.

We came out to the porch for another lovely breakfast. I really, really want a nice big porch on my house when I grow up!

Coffee in the garden

Breakfast started with fruit paired with a dollop of (what I think was) plain thick yogurt with a sprig of rosemary. I ate my rosemary sprig and it was REALLY good with the fruit!!

I noticed there was some granola and berries out in the other dining room for some other guests and I asked if I could have a bit on the side as well. They presented me with this beautiful presentation. The granola was DELICOUS!!

How cute is this bowl!?

Today’s main course was a Summer Veggie Frittata with Parmesan, a Tomato + Basil salad and cornbread.

The frittata was delicious!!! I loved the texture and must figure out how it was prepared. The veggies were also so fresh. I didn’t eat my cornbread because I got my carbs in the form of granola

We really enjoyed talking to a couple from Arizona over breakfast both days. And now I’m sipping tea on the porch and enjoying this perfect weather while blogging.

Annnnddddd…..WE JUST GOT AN OFFER ON OUR HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We shall see where this goes. The offer requests closing on June 30th – before my internship is over. Crazy!! I also found an adorable cottage to rent in Charlottesville. Things are changing fast.

The eye of the hurricane has almost passed…

I don’t want it to end!!! We had the same problem on our honeymoon – we just kept going and going because we didn’t want it to end.

That’s sort of what happened with the consumption tonight

Beautiful cheese on the porch of our B&B

And some delicious California wines!

Couldn’t decide if I wanted red or white

We had a taste of everything and relaxed a bit on the rocking chairs –

And then set out for downtown. We had originally booked reservations at Biltmore Village, but we decided walking back downtown (and back) would be better given we were drinking …again. So we changed our reservations. Glad we did.

We ran into a kitty like Lillis Bilis!

Upon arriving downtown (we walked + ran 11 miles today!), we headed up to a rooftop bar we’d heard about. You take a hidden elevator and it opens up to a beautiful mountain view!

We totally didn’t need a drink, but we had an hour to kill and ordered a Manhattan – to keep the neverending fun going. It wasn’t the best drink we’d had (a bit watery)

We coincidentally ran into a friend from Davidson, Nat, and his girlfriend, Mimi!! Love it when that happens. Great conversation ensued for a good hour till dinnertime.

As we were paying our bill….look who dropped his credit card over the edge!

LUCKILY he was able to easily retrieve it. We were all quite shocked to see him down there so quickly and easily!

We said farewell to our friends and made our way to our restaurant – Market Place. It’s one we have always eyed but never gone to. The menu looked incredible!!

I was eyeing the ravioli in particular …

Good bread was delivered. Ate it all!

And like we needed more, we ordered wine with dinner. A Sonoma Zin.

For an appetizer, the oysters caught our eye. Fried with a bleu cheese sauce with an apple slaw. They were delicious, but I wish the portion had been bigger!

Check out the size of the potato chips that came with it!

The ravioli..

which unfortunately was not good at all. Very, very bland But lucky for us, we had great service and the dish ended up being comped by our server when I mentioned how lackluster it was. That made all the difference.

Matt ordered the sunburst trout (a favorite of ours) and while the portion was small, the flavor was spot on. That lemony eggy stack on the side was incredible!!

We debated dessert but wanted to get back out walking around..and ended up at Kilwins!

With ice cream cones!! Perfect summer evening treat for walking around a vibrant city

Mine was Rum Raisin and Peanut Butter Chocolate!! So perfect.

These bears say they don’t want us to leave Asheville! Wish this trip was Neverending.

xoxo

After my anxious morning, things brightened up! We had a great run, a fabulous lunch, and a really fun afternoon! And GREAT weather!!!

We set out on a run around 11AM and headed for the mountaintops! We ran up to the Grove Park Inn (elevation – mile high!) and back down. The first 2 miles were ALL up hill. The second 3 were much better

Post-run lawn yoga

Sportin’ KERF!

Tide-me-over snack of almonds from home

A 20 minute walk later….we made it for the Annual Wall Street Photo Shoot!!

2005 + 2006

2008 + 2009

2010!

And finally, a chance to try Early Girl Eatery. It’s been recommended 1,000 times but we had never been. Soul food just wasn’t what we were craving. But today it was!!

Other Asheville Favorites:

• The Laughing Seed
• Rosetta’s Kitchen
• Cucina 24
• The Chocolate Fetish
• The Laughing Seed again!
• Bouchon
• Tupelo Honey
• Tressa’s (for drinks + dancing)

Mom & Dad – my favorite blue glasses!!! I grew up drinking out of these. LOVE water in lightweight big plastic glasses!

Annnnndddd now we know what the hype is all about. Early Girl was AWESOME!

Lunch!

For lunch I ordered the Black Bean + Sweet Potato Cakes, which came with sour cream and avocado relish. I didn’t realize they were deep fried (that always seems to sneak up on me – I’m so naive!) but they were still realllly good. Matt proclaimed them the best thing he’s had all weekend!

I gave Matt one of my cakes in exchange for bites of his tempeh

I proclaimed this cornbread the best I’ve ever had!!! It was brown and crusty with thick grit-like cornmeal nuggets. LOVEEEEE

I got sides of beet and sauteed spinach. Both were amazing!

Matt got the famous Tempeh Reuben

HEAVENLY! I cannot even describe what was so good about this. Caramelized cabbage? Special sauce? The tempeh? And I don’t even like reubens!

Clearly we hated it all.

After lunch we went shopping!!

Amazing hand-made oatmeal bowl with handle!?!?! Yes please!! Matt bought it for me as an anniversary gift!! It came from Kim’s Clay Pots. Kim eats oatmeal out of them too!

After walking back to the B&B (Matt wore the Garmin and we covered EIGHT miles today!) we drove out to Black Mountain to try out Pisgah Brewery. The homebrewer’s only request on the anniversary trip was to try a few local brews!

MORE LOVE!

Brewing was happening!

We tried 8 of Pisgah’s beers (BTW, all day I’ve been calling it PIGsah!!) and they were ALL fabulous!! I can’t remember the last time I loved a microbrewery so much!

And get this – all the beers are ORGANIC! This place was definitely worth the drive.

Endless Summer, Leaf Amber, Doppel Bock (my fav) and a Schwarz

Hops!

Round II was Vortex I (double IPA), Vortex II (Russian Imperial Stout), Cosmos (a Belgian strong dark) and the Hellbender Barleywine.

LOOOOOVVVVVED all of these!! My fav. was the Imperial Stout.

For his anniversary present, I got him a Pisgah Organic glass! He collects pint glasses, I heart oatmeal bowls

More Mountain Mamas

Back in Aville, we stopped into French Broad Brewing

Learning about beer

These were a big disappointment after Pisgah I didn’t really like any of them.

We’re back at the B&B now and are gearing up for cocktail hour (wine + cheese) on the big porch. Not sure I need more alcohol right now, but we brought a bottle of wine from our honeymoon and I have to have at least a little. And I live for cheese

See ya tonight!

Snack-a-roos after rushing back outta the house after work: Voskos Honey (Loved it!) and a GH Raisin Bran muffin (ate about 1/3 of it – crumbled on top!)

Mmmmm…brannnnn…

We hit some beastly traffic

But tried to keep our spirits up

But when this happened for about 1/2 of the drive, we got a little sad

And then we made it! 3 hours later instead of 2

Our B&B is really cute. I highly recommend staying in B&Bs across the country! I like hotels in big cities, but in smaller towns, B&Bs are the way to go. You can find some that are really reasonably priced and most of them have evening wine + cheese, cookie jars and of course, free gourmet breakfasts. We love them!

The bathroom is cute + quaint

Matt pretending he’s an old man in his armchair. He’s currently reading a book on physics in it while I blog!

After settling in, we headed back out. We’re less than a mile from downtown, but given the rain, we decided to drive. Two hungry, hypoglycemic kids finding parking on a Friday night was NOT fun. Esp. after we realized we had no cash and had to go to an ATM to pay for said parking.

But we survived. Better than getting the swine flu I supposed.

Thank goodness the weather cleared up!! Asheville is SUCH a cute town. You all should come to visit. It’s just big enough for many weekend getaways but small enough to have uber charm.

Being hungry and all, we quickly settled on a restaurant I had found online – Posana.

We were seated outside right away! Sweet!

I had a hard time deciding between a cocktail and a glass of wine. I didn’t know what I wanted!! But upon seeing Lavender-Infused Cocktails, I decided to get something extraordinary

A cosmopolitan made with lavender tea!

Note the tea bag! It was excellent!

Matt got a brew. Per usual.

Mmmm! It was a little overcarbonated though

We were quite hangry and got a tempura appetizer to share – all veggies in tempura batter. They were fantastic – esp. the red peppers. I don’t really like fried food all that much, but I love tempura! Matt was annoyed that 1/3 of the plate was onions (and they didn’t say onions on the menu) so we wasted those, but I didn’t need more than a few pieces and the veggies I did eat were awesome.

For dinner I ordered the Open-Faced Lasagna (which came recommended x2) with Scallops, Wild Mushrooms, Leeks and Ricotta

I only ate about half of this – it was SO RICH with all the ricotta underneath. I can honestly say I stopped eating tonight because of how I felt and for no other reason. It was maybe a first to eat so intuitively!?

I also got a $5 side of swiss chard. Not worth FIVE whole bones TINY! But good.

He got Quail over Mushroom Risotto. The quail was amazzzzing but the risotto a bit undercooked.

After dinner we walked around a bit – and found an outdoor concert just ending! They just built up this downtown park and it’s beautifully done as an outdoor venue.

We debated going out to more bars, dancing, etc, but we’ve both been up since 2:25 and 5:00 AM so we decided to save our partying for tomorrow night.

Upon our return, we found a suspicious dome…

Full of peanut butter bars!!

Annnnnnddd….I almost missed it but I found an OLD FASHIONED COOKIE JAR! (Mom, you’d love it!)

We shared one of each. They were delish!

***

1) This post took my computer 30 minutes to gear up for and 15 to write. Gruf!

2) I can’t WAIT to sleep in and not use an alarm tomorrow! First time in a while!

3) When we normally visit cities/towns, we have the urge to see all we can see AFAP. But tomorrow we’re just going to hang out. Do some reading. Walk downtown. Visit a brewery. And go to a nice dinner. Nothing has to be done on time.

Can’t. Wait.

We’re here! Long day. Sorry for the delay! We’ve been busy

The car ride was…. long. We hit some traffic and it was uncomfortable, but we made it eventually.

I rode beside a ton of bread – literally!

Karen and I had a few bites of banana around 11AM

And then luckily I packed snacks because we hit traffic and didn’t know when we would arrive for lunch. My stomach was about to fold in on itself at noon!

These probiotic bars came from OpenSky to sample for my shop -

We split the Apricot Coconut. The ingredient list wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t ideal either…..

The flavor was good though, and I like date-based bars

When we finally arrived we hit up BellAir Market – a sandwich place in a GAS STATION that has been highly recommended by a number of people.

That’s why I love Cville – gourmet food in gas stations!

Karen and I split a baguette of brie + red peppers with sprouts and honey mustard. I heart brie but this would been better warmed..

On the side we got fruit salad and broccoli salad to share

Drink

Matt got turkey, avocado, bacon on sourdough. The sandwich was good, but the bread was just meh.

Dessert was chocolate candied almonds!! So good!

After lunch we went downtown to check out a few location possibilities

Love the atmosphere! Lots of shopping, people watching, restaurants and more

We went to our hotel to find QUINOA shampoo and AMRANTH conditioner! We’re eating at a Courtyard by Marriot – but I guess these might be local?

After a quick refresher, I went down to meet a handful of blog readers for a walk! We walked for about 45 minutes all around the UVA campus. Fun way to get to know these fun ladies!!

Karen, me, Jessie, Cara, Jess, Sarah.

After working up a sweat, we headed over to Arch’s for frozen yogurt! They have all kinds of blizzard-like combinations with mix-ins galore. And a few simple flavors to add toppings to.

You see that? That’s “Gooey Brownie” topping. Basically just straight brownie batter. HEAVEN!

I got a side of brownie batter plus a side of heath bar to share with Karen

And 3.5 oz vanilla to act as the base. Great snack to tide us to dinner! Kind of wish I’d gotten a lighter, fruitier version because this kind of threw me off for dinner, but it tasted great.

Sarah thought I needed to start supporting the university in our new town and brought me a nice back sack!! I love these things.

And she also brought some of her homemade Chai Granola. I took a nibble – SPOT ON chai flavors!! Can’t wait to have this on yogurt and oats! HERE IS THE RECIPE. She also brought me a sample of her Nutty Butter, only after we discussed it at our meet-up and she decided I needed to try it. So far I have only smelled it, but I cannot WAIT to dig in!!! RECIPE HERE!

After the blog walk, I took a quick shower. Felt so good to get all cleaned up. Then Matt and I went to Beer Run, which he has deemed the “best beer store ever” to check out some specialty beers.

We sipped on the Bluegrass Jefferson’s Reserve Bourbon Barrel Stout while we browsed. I had about 1/3

Canned beer is coming into style!

I liked this one recently!

Made just for me!

After leaving Beer Run it was about 8PM and time to head to dinner at Maya. Featuring Southern, local food!

We rejoined Karen

And the patio ambiance

And met up with Zeb, our Great Harvest advisor.

I didn’t know what to get to drink: club soda, water, beer, wine, cocktails. Matt decided to order me a beer he thought I’d like, but I didn’t really like it. It was too bitter. I hate bitter beers! I still drank about half of it though.

For dinner, after the sun set, I settled on the local trout (I love trout!) with collard greens and roasted cauliflower. I asked for “light on the brown butter sauce” and it was pretty light. I ate most of my plate – it was all very fresh!

Matt got soft shell crab and shared

Karen and I had picked out a dessert and were about to order when at the last minute we decided we’d already had one dessert that day and we were both full. A good decision in hindsight because I’m still pretty full, but I would still like a bite of something sweet! Sometimes you just gotta get over the craving.

Tomorrow we’ve got a busy day that starts at 6:10 AM. So I gotta get to sleep! I haven’t had more than 8 hours of sleep in so long. Hoping this week I can catch up.

Still very excited to move here!!!

Nite!

We’re here! Family of four hanging out in a Best Western in the middle of New Jersey

What’s hard to believe is I don’t think I have ever FLOWN to my grandma’s. We always drove! We used to visit every Christmas – like clockwork – splitting our time between both sets of grandparents.  6 hours to Baltimore, 3 more to Lakewood. 2.5 if we didn’t stop for lunch! We often would stop for lunch though – to get bagels on Christmas Day near this big old place with a giant sign that read "Olga’s Diner." A famous family landmark!

My day went as smoothly as expected. Work went well, and I got to the airport right on time.

Just in time for a snack!!

I was on my way to Jamba when I noticed…Yovana. A TCBY spin-off. I’ve never gotten it before because I’m always at the airport early in the morning. But today I took a closer look and realized Yovana is actually really cool! Before we talk about frozen yogurt, they had actual real yogurt in a big vat. They let me taste it and it was vanilla – but almost a tart vanilla!? Really good. Also you had choice of berries and FOUR DIFFRENT GRANOLAS!!! I thought about getting the regular yogurt until I spotted the Tart Blackberry. I got a swirl of that with granola – sunflower by Nature’s Pride, I believe – and a bonus raspberry pile because I was nice to the employees

Soooo good!! And the perfect snack. It tided me well through my flight – from about 4:30 to 9pm?! But that’s also because I was busy talking!

I listened to piano music on the free wireless at our airport. Charlotte airport rocks!

For dinner tonight I packed a selection from home.

As Scar says in the Lion King…. beee preeeeepared!

I could have easily just bought a salad at the airport for dinner , but I decided:

     1) My food tastes better than old iceburg lettuce in an expensive plastic container

and

      2) I might be running late and not have time!

So I decided to pack my lunch and dinner yesterday (and I made my overnight oats at the same time! 3 meals in advance!)

I debated what kind of sandwich to pack – turkey, hummus, cheese, PB&J?

Ultimately I went with PB&J because it’s the most shelf stable and didn’t require strict refrigeration (I don’t worry about turkey from breakfast –> lunch but from breakfast –> dinner the time was too long, even with ice packs).

Great Harvest Apple Cherry Pecan bread (I’ve been saying it wrong!) with TJ’s Valencia and Lingonberry

Proof that you can get veggies in a every meal if you just plan a little. I packed an easy-to-munch bag of veg.

I nibbled on my veggies during my flight while I talked to TOM! HI Tom! We discussed the blog and nutrition and healthy things

I ended up not eating my sandwich until we were in our shuttle on the way to NJ. I never got that hungry? But it sure tasted good when I ate it.

My flight was EARLY! Mom’s flight was EARLY! Larbs was right on time!

Can’t believe I was just in New York City!!! We drove right through!

Here’s what it looks like from a moving vehicle. The green blob is the Empire State!

1.5 hours later….we found dad!

Larbs came from Boston via train and spend the afternoon in the city. She brought us a late night surprise!

A Vanilla + a Hummingbird cupcake. We split them both 4 ways!

We’re catching up on extended family news and I’m ready to lay my head down on this nice pillow…

See you tomorrow

Morning!

I slept well at my hotel – although I kept waking up and thinking it was morning at all hours of the night!

I was wide awake at 7 and had an hour before I met Caronae for a run! We ran together in January and she was the only one on my NYC email list who wanted to run with me again! Made it simple though

I went down to get a swig of OJ from the breakfast area (score for a hotel with free breakfast!) and had a little of that with some water while I got dressed for my run. I pretended I live in a super swanky NYC apt full time!

We set out to run up to Central Park and around at 8 and ran roughly 6 miles (maybe 5.5?) through the park and up and down 5th and 6th ave. So much fun!

When I returned to the hotel I was totally ready for breakfast but I did not want to eat instant oats when I have a whole city of foods and better atmosphere to see!

I snacked on half an Alliebar to tide me over while I showered and checked out of the hotel.

Plus a few swigs of my coconut elixir

I set out on foot at 10AM in search of a quintessential NYC cozy coffee shop to get some coffee and breakfast and blog.

I totally felt like a local walking around this city by myself!

My bites held me over till breakfast really well – but I was getting hungry! I also had to lug my computer with me. So I didn’t get very far without finding anything that fit the bill. I settled on a Pret A Manger, which wasn’t a bad choice!  I can’t believe how healthy-friendly this city is! Organic, whole foods on every corner! Also, wifi! SCORE!

I’ve also noticed the calorie counts on the menus!!!! At first I was totally taken by surprise when I saw them in some of the fancy cafes. They just seemed out of place. But I have to say, they are totally, totally helpful and I think for a world that doesn’t understand calorie density, they will probably help more than they might harm. A loaded issue for sure though.

I almost got a scone. And I also almost got oatmeal. But I settled on a yogurt + granola parfait when I saw the yogurt was low-fat, plain and LOCAL!

I chose the banana honey and left most of the goo on the bottom. The granola (which was likely homemade) was awesome!!! The portion was also just right too.

Plus a cappuccino. I just love steamed milk! [Also noticed that they have Organic Valley butter here!!!]

Hunger is now gone!

About to pack up and set out by foot to do some SHOPPING before the KERF lunch at 12:30. My experience in NYC is always in 24 hour increments and I never have time for shopping or just leisure so I was thrilled to be able to "live" NYC this morning

Not sure if I’ll be able to blog at the airport, but I’ll see you soon!

What a totally awesome day I have had!!!!!!

I had more Open Sky meetings and convinced the team you guys needed another coupon off anything in the store! Enter an authentic KERF promotion – all about 10.26!

Click here for an entry form to get a 10% OFF coupon delivered to your mailbox. And one person will win $26 OFF! Such pretty, pretty numbers!!

After finishing up at Open Sky (for now! I hope to be back in July for a longer trip!!!), I made my way uptown to my hotel, threw my stuff in the room and turned around and hiked back downtown to pick up Gena for dinner. Did you know Gena works in the SAME BUILDING as Open Sky!? What are the chances?!!?!?

Gena and I have been friends for a long time now – I helped her quit smoking a while back and we’ve done a few lunches together in New Orleans and NYC! And I will always be her friend for inventing banana soft serve! We seem to click well together, and we have the same palate!

After MUCH debate, we decided to set our dinner date for Angelica Kitchen! Go look at the menu. You will faint.

I am determined to eat my way through New York’s fabulous healthy Real Food restaurants. I can get Cod with Brown Butter anywhere – but you can’t get vegan, raw, interesting foods where I come from! (Or at least not like you can here!)

We had a 20 minute wait at Angelica’s so we decided to hit up Liquiteria, a juice bar around the corner, for a BOYB to dinner!

We settled on the Grasshopper, which seemed like it would go well with some fizzy mocktails: pineapple, pear, apple, wheatgrass & mint. It was divine – fruity with that green stink and just a slight bit of mint.

I was so bad and spent lots of moolah on these Vega Vibrancy bars. I just love them and the Vega store finder suggests they are not available in Charlotte. I should have just ordered them from the Vega site though, because they were much more $$ in NYC than online! Oops!

We bought a club soda and headed back to Angelica’s where the staff was happy to seat us – and wanted to be on the blog!

Mocktail creation

I can’t wait to re-create this at home with my own juicer!

Gena and I shared the Walnut-Lentil Pate with crudites for an appetizer while we perused the menu (it took forever to decide what to get!). The dill sauce on top was out of this world!

I decided on a tasting plate of specialties -

Roasted root veggie salad with dill

Smoked marinated tempeh (in the back!)

Kimchi! And totally different than the one I had at the farmer’s market, but so good too!

Plus a side of millet, which was cooked in carrot juice and SO GOOD!! Emily, you must try this!

Gena‘s plate was gorgeous! Salad, tempeh, cauliflower and hummus. (She shared some hummus + pita with me!)

I cleared my plate!! (Minus a little millet)

After dinner we hot-tailed it in a cab to meet a few blog readers at the Flatiron Lounge. All I wanted was a Manhattan!! This drink was stra-ong! I only finished about 2/3 of it, but it hit the spot.

I don’t have a group photo because the lighting was SO very dim, but I had a great time talking to Shane and Maggie.

Maggie writes for the DailyLit, which is a website that sends good reads to your email inbox or RSS reader each day. I’ve got to get on that bandwagon! She gave me a fun cookbook to check out!

We called it a night around 10:00 and Gena and I shared a cab back to my hotel. Instead of breaking out some drugs in the back of the cab, we broke out young coconut drink from Bonobo’s!!

*** Permission to Squeal ***

WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW. The most incredible drink!!!!!! Like egg nog and melted ice cream together plus 10,000 rainbows and puppies. Ingredients: young coconut, spices, agave. We were moaning with pleasure with every sip. I only had about 3 and was totally filled with happiness. If you are ever in NYC, you MUST try this! I’ve got it in an ice bucket so I can savor it some more in the AM.

Speaking of the AM….

NYCers: KERF meet-up tomorrow at 12:30PM at Chelsea Market  outside of One Lucky Duck. BYO lunch! We’ll plan to find a spot to eat in the Highline or public areas.

Must…

Get…

To…

Sleep….

Well, not really. I’m so Southern. But I always feel so cool when I walk the streets of New York!! Like I really could live here someday. I love being in such an exciting place.

And I love working at Open Sky!!

The team here is so cool and passionate and energizing. And I have a REALLY cool bowl the color of that wall that I’m going to have available in a few weeks. It’s really, really cool!!

I filmed my promo piece this morning and had lots of conversations throughout the office. This company is whirring as fast as I am!

Andy says hi, ladies

I brought the office some Dakota bread to enjoy

– and they supplied the Nuttzo and Cinnamon Vanilla Sunflower Butter. MY GOSH I miss that stuff. If I didn’t have a few more Naturally Nutty jars to open I would buy some more tomorrow.

Mid morning snack

At noon I headed out with Pam and Jen for a little Union Square action!

The Union Square Farmer’s Market is in full spring action!

Dancing in the street – sooo NYC

Samplez

Apple Raspberry Cider

The COMPOSTING depository! So cool! Hold your compost on your countertop (like with this nifty countertop compost that I’ve been using and need to blog about soon!) and then dump once a week.

So after some sampling, we decided to piecemeal a lunch from some of the best foodz

Bread

Raw milk cheese

And fresh, fresh organic greens!!!!

Plus, a New York apple!

And this amazing mint grape tea I found!

Just a hint of sweetness from the grape juice

The greens were pre-washed and I mixed together sorrel (SO LEMONY!), spinach, frisee and arugula. I LOVE GREENS!!!! We swiped a little olive oil, sea salt and black pepper from a cooking station to dress them. I have got to upgrade my salt – this tasted SO GOOD!

My portions of bread and cheese -

Buffed apple!

Delightful.

I’ve got Open Sky meetings set up through the afternoon. Then I’m off to a fun dinner and MUST drink a Manhattan while I’m here!

I got in that run! And was so glad I did. It felt so refreshing. Coincidentally blog reader Katie is visiting Bald Head this week too so we coordinated a run together. We were supposed to go this morning but I wasn’t really capable of running so we luckily were able to meet this afternoon. I love running with blog readers! Thanks for the run Katie

This afternoon around 5PM I was stricken with insatiable hunger pangs. The kind that probably aren’t really hunger but you have to assuage them with food. Very strange. I had a Bear Naked Fruit + Nut granola bar. Love these!

We rounded up the troops and headed to our final Bald Head dinner at the golf club’s restaurant.

Still working on those pangs with some delish sesame bread.

50% of the table wanted wine, so they got a bottle. Which came with 4 glasses.

And would you believe I had a little wine! I drank a small glass simply for the food pairing and not at all to feel any effects. Food complementing is what wine does best, after all.

This bottle was absolutely fantastic!

Matt and I shared a bowl of Cheddar + Ale Soup with Pumpernickel Croutons. SO SO SO good!! Perfectly cheesy and thick and flavorful. Definitely not light either!

Entrees arrived (I was still starving. I think my system was still recuperating from its trauma last night)

I got the Stuffed Flounder: fresh, locally caught flounder filled with asparagus spears and topped with jumbo lump blue crab and hollandaise. I asked for them to go lite on the hollandaise and was pleased that it arrived on the side for mild dipping.

Loved it! I had to stop halfway through though cause I got really full all of a sudden. Weird.

Matt got the Cornmeal Dusted Catfish: topped with creole rock shrimp velouté. It was good, but way too salty and he was in pain by the end

See The Hungry Wanderers for Justin + Amanda’s eats!

Amanda and I eyed the dessert menu and decided that even though we were full the Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingerbread and Nutmeg was too good to pass up.

SCORE. It was the best pumpkin cheesecake I’ve ever had!!

So sad to head inland tomorrow, but I’m very ready to get back home, home on the range. I miss my bears! And I think my stomach is 5x as big as it was last week. I need to squeeze all this yummy food out like a sponge with all things green, oat and healthy.