I'm so excited to share this trip on the blog today. We took a small trip for our one-year anniversary, and it was a ton of fun. Since I'm in school, we had to plan the trip around my classes, so since my classes are on Mondays, we decided to leave on Wednesday for a few days in Asheville, North Carolina. This was a perfect location for us! It was only about a four-hour drive, so it didn't put much of a dent into our budget, and the trip wasn't really impacted by the gas shortage.

Wednesday, we headed out in the morning around 10ish, and got Cracker Barrel for breakfast (just like last year for our honeymoon). We  drove out to Asheville, and arrived around 4. As soon as we got to the city, we Uber'd to a Caribbean restaurant (9 Mile) in the Montford part of downtown. The food was pretty good, and definitely fulfilling.

After dinner, we walked to the center of downtown, checked out the Arcade Grove, and spent a good bit of the night in the Asheville Pinball Museum, which was one of my favorite parts of the trip. For $13 a person, we received wristbands and were able to play as many games of pinball and arcade games as we wanted until close. They also had a pretty good selection of cheap local beers. I had a few Bold Rock ciders (so good and crisp!), and played several games of X-Files pinball.






After pinball and several drinks, we found this awesome double-decker bus turned coffee shop in the downtown area. We both got some espresso drinks from Double D's, and drank those in the upstairs seating on the bus, then headed back to the hotel (around 9:30). We watched American Horror Story and at Cook-Out to end the night.




Thursday, we started off the day by heading out to Vortex Doughnuts for some coffee and doughnuts. We started downtown around 11, so we knew we were in for a long day. After doughnuts, we headed around town for a few hours checking out shops and enjoying the day. The weather was in the 70s throughout the day, so we definitely enjoyed being outside for a while.




We checked out White Duck Taco Shop for lunch, and geez, Louise. Hands down, the best tacos I've ever had. They were street style with loads of options to choose from. After tacos, I wrote on the Before I Die... wall. I was pretty excited, because I'd seen these online before, but this was the first time I'd seen one in real life. They clear it off each night, so there wasn't a ton written on it when I filled my spot out.




After writing on the wall, we lounged around on city benches for a while, then hit up Double D's coffee bus again, before starting our brewery tour for the night. We rode around the city for close to four hours trying out beers and having a great time. I'm glad we chose to ride with Asheville Brewery Tours. (Make sure to check back later this week for more on that.) We finished the night at Wicked Weed for dinner, and were back in the room by 10 to catch How to Get Away With Murder.





Friday, we had to check out by 11. So we stopped by the hotel lobby for breakfast, and spent the rest of the morning in the hotel room watching television and videos before heading out to the River Arts District for lunch. We stopped by Wedge Studios (and bought some art!), before grabbing lunch and the other location of White Duck Taco Shop before heading home.





I enjoyed our trip very much. Asheville definitely had a small-town feel, but also a ton of shops, restaurants, and breweries like a bigger city. It was an interesting trip, and I'm glad that we went.

Have you ever been to Asheville, or do you plan to go? What are your thoughts on the city?