Asheville, North Carolina Girls Getaway Weekend

Things have been a whirlwind around the Olsen household lately. My mom’s spirits are as high as they could be considering she can’t do much because of her broken ankle (she has a long road ahead), but I’d say she’s doing pretty well. Hadley has no idea that she’s hurt and climbs on her and plays with her like nothing’s wrong at all. 🙂 Mom’s received so much kindness in the form of meals, texts, cards, etc. from her friends, coworkers, my in-laws, my sister’s in-laws, etc. and she’s really felt the love.

My big personal challenge last week concerned a vacation I’d had planned with my two friends to Asheville. We’d been planning a long weekend getaway for a while now because the timing was perfect for everybody. We’d booked our lodging and entertainment weeks in advance, and I was really excited to give my parents the opportunity to have Hadley all to themselves for four days.

When my mom broke her ankle, things changed a bit and my aunt (who I referenced here) immediately jumped in to help. Not only did she want to fly down to Alabama to help care for my mom, but she also wanted to offer to keep Hadley so that I could keep my commitment to the vacation with my friends. I felt really conflicted about to do, but my family encouraged me to keep my plans and convinced me that they still wanted the alone time with Hadley. I knew she was in great hands, so I packed my bags and headed to Asheville!

Asheville, NC Girls Weekend

Amberlee, Ashley, and I picked Asheville, North Carolina because it’s a travel spot that none of us have hit yet. We pulled up to our B&B (Pinecrest) Thursday afternoon and squealed because the outside was so cute and home-y!

We were immediately met by Janet (who we affectionately referred to as our house mom) who chatted with us for a bit before showing us our room.

We stayed in the Cowley room because it comfortably accommodated three people for a much cheaper price. The air mattress was super comfortable, and we each agreed to take a night on it. Worked perfectly!

 

 

After getting settled, we freshened up and headed downtown for a bite to eat. We picked to eat at Curate because it’s the #1 restaurant on Trip Advisor, and it did not disappoint! We all enjoyed the tapas-style meal and some wine to celebrate finally being together. After dinner we passed the French Broad Chocolate Lounge on our way to our car and quickly agreed that chocolate would be the best way to end our first night of vacation! We got three desserts to go (plus we knew there was lemon pound cake back at the house – oh gosh!), drove back to the B&B, slipped into pajamas, and got comfy in the living area of the house. We laughed and told stories for what seemed like hours before making our way up to bed. Fabulous day!

On Friday, we woke up early to make sure all three of us were dressed and ready to go for the day by breakfast at nine. We ate a big meal prepared by the owner’s daughter and were quickly out the door for a full day at the Biltmore. It wasn’t a very pretty day, so doing things inside all day was perfect.

 

We toured the mansion for a few hours, walked around the property’s garden area, and made our way to the Bistro & Winery. We ate a big lunch before enjoying the wine tasting.

The best part of the wine tasting was running into my cousin Tara who I hadn’t seen in almost four years! It was so fun to see her!

We didn’t leave the Biltmore until after five, and we basically collapsed back at the B&B as soon as we got there. We all vegged out and napped until around 8 when we finally decided to get our acts together and head to dinner. We didn’t have reservations, so we picked the Bier Garden pub downtown since it didn’t have a wait. We had the most relaxed, casual dinner and were home in bed sacked out by midnight.

Saturday was our last full day, so we decided to sleep in a bit. Ashley and I made the last minute decision to run a couple miles on a nearby trail before breakfast, and we got back just in time for breakfast at nine.

We took our time getting ready after breakfast before heading downtown to enjoy the gorgeous day!

We walked around and shopped for a couple hours before our big event for the day, the “Eating Asheville Food Tour“. It was highly rated on Trip Advisor, so we splurged and went for it. It was basically 2.5 hours of walking around town on a guided tour with about 20 other people while stopping at seven different local restaurants to sample their best foods and drinks.

 

We had a really good time and would highly recommend a restaurant called The Night Bell (same owners as Curate) for dinner if you’re headed to Asheville. Absolutely incredible atmosphere, food, and drinks. I’d never seen at atmosphere or tasted food like what they served. Awesome place.

The rest of the day we just wandered around before grabbing dinner and heading back to the B&B around 10. We stayed up and cried laughing at stupid YouTube videos hung out for a while before crashing hard again.

On Sunday we had a great breakfast again, except this time the owners sat the three of us in the sunroom because of how full the B&B was that morning. No complaining here!

We hit the road after breakfast completely wiped out from a really, really fabulous much-needed girls weekend. I thank God and count my lucky stars all the time to be able to call these two best friends since middle school. My life is so much richer because of their friendships.

To my Tante Lynn – Thank you from the bottom of my heart for loving my girl and running around like crazy for four days caring for her so well. She really loves you and so do I!

 

A big thank you to my parents as well for entertaining and loving on my girl too amidst all that you had going on. She had the best weekend!

Asheville, NC trip recommendations:

Lodging: Pinecrest B&B (#4 on Trip Advisor)
All-day attraction: Biltmore Estate
Afternoon entertainment: Eating Asheville Food Tour with Hank
Dinner: Curate bar de tapas & The Night Bell
Dessert: French Broad Chocolate Lounge & Chocolate Fetish