4 Hours in Asheville

Friday was the first day I mustered up the courage to take Thomas to daycare. We knew it was going to be hard so Matt played hooky from work and we took a quick day trip to one of my favorite places ever – Asheville! Upon arrival we had exactly 4 hours to cram in as much as possible before jumping back on the road to get back in time to get the kiddies. 

Although Asheville is full of amazing restaurants I always end up at Early Girl Eatery as my first stop of every trip. Normally you have to wait a solid hour or so to be seated but we got right in since we were there on a weekday for a change. This farm to table restaurant uses only the freshest, local ingredients and consistently delivers the most delicious meals!

A creature of habit, I get the Early Girl Benny every time. Grit cakes topped with tomato, spinach, poached eggs, tomato gravy and avocado and served with a biscuit! Matt got biscuits and gravy. 

After breakfast we drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway for about 30 minutes to Craggy Pinnacle Trail. Hiking is one of my favorite hobbies so this 1.4-miles roundtrip hike with beautiful panoramic mountain views was just what the doctor ordered. Totally my happy place.

 And we got a little carried away with our selfie stick.

After frolicking around the top of the mountain for awhile we made our trek back to the car. We still had a pretty good amount of time left so we visited the Grove Park Inn for a drink on the terrace.

Such a pretty place.

We thought we’d need to head back to Charlotte after this stop when we originally planned out our day but to our surprise we still had plenty of time to grab lunch too! We decided not to go to one of our usual spots and instead did a quick Yelp search to find an amazing new lunch spot, White Duck Taco Shop, in the River Arts District. Woah. The 466 rave reviews were spot on. 

With more than a dozen taco choices to pick from, Matt and I decided to each get different tacos and share. 

 Matt ordered the Thai Peanut taco and Lamb Gyro taco (top) and I ordered the two most popular choices, the Fish taco and Bangkok Shrimp taco. We both agreed the Bangkok Shrimp was the winner!

We finished our lunch exactly on time and jumped in the car to head to daycare. It was the very best day date ever and I’m so glad we got to sneak away together for a few hours one last time before I return to work.