This year we booked a rental house through VRBO in Asheville, NC. We heard good things from people about what Asheville had to offer and it checked all our boxes (driving distance, dog could come, mountains, possibly warmer weather than Michigan, breweries).
We left Saturday morning at 7:30am to start the 9 hour drive. It was a smooth ride with minimal traffic, save for a section of North Carolina/Tennessee that had some construction on a very narrow, winding stretch of the freeway. We almost had a semi-truck veer into our lane and take us out, but we made it! We stopped at Raising Cane's in Kentucky to try it since we've never had it and it was pretty good. Luna slept the whole way and we tried out a new card game for the car - Scattergories to-go.
We picked up pizza, salad, and breadsticks from a place by the house called Galactic Pizza and arrived just before 6pm. The kids loved the corn hole game they had and they explored the woods by the house. Of course we all had to try out the hot tub on the deck overlooking the woods and Scott enjoyed watching the NCAA basketball tournament.
Sunday morning we were all up pretty early. No one slept well in a new house for the first night. The boys enjoyed some tablet time on the couch with Scott and I made cinnamon rolls and scrambled eggs for breakfast.
We packed bag lunches to take with us and we were ready to hit up the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was pretty chilly outside so it was definitely winter coats, hats, and gloves weather. Unfortunately, the BRP was closed in one of the sections we needed to get through to access some of the hikes I had planned. But, we parked the car near the closure and walked an extra mile each way to access the trailhead. It was actually kind of cool to walk on the BRP with no cars...
The trailhead was called the Frying Pan Lookout Tower and was 1.5 miles out and back. The out was uphill the entire way as we climbed up to 5,200 feet. When we got to the top there was an old metal lookout tower you could climb at your own risk. Scott and the boys went up some of the stairs while I stayed down with Luna, but it was super cold, windy, and Scott said the steps were moving as they walked on them. So, they came back down. But, there were some good views up top!
We made it back to the car and everyone was tired and ready for lunch. We ate our bag lunches and then started our drive back down the BRP and back into downtown Asheville. We decided to do some brewery hopping and exploring in the South Slope section of downtown. We started at Catawba Brewing, which allowed dogs inside so that was nice! We then went to Wicked Weed, Green Man, and Pie.Zaa for some giant pizza slices to take home for dinner. None of the breweries had food...which was a bummer.
We went back to the house for more hot tub time, a game of corn hole (which ended up becoming a daily thing), and movie night - Pan on Hulu.
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