Month: October 2018

Sugar Mountain for mine and Sugar’s Anniversary

Of course we packed a pic-nic before hitting the road. Our first stop on this journey was to Linville Falls where we first had lunch and then hiked. There are several trails and all are fairly easy. The views are amazing. Unfortunately the leaves were not quite a peak but it was still very pretty to see. https://www.visitnc.com/listing/n9wC/linville-falls

Our next stop, and this was completely unplanned, was to Linville Falls Winery. https://www.linvillefallswinery.com/ We spotted it on the drive and made a u-turn to check it out. We were not sorry. It was a relaxing treat to sit outside on their patio and enjoy the mountain air after an invigorating hike. The wine tasting was fun as they offered two options so we each tried a different one. Of course, we grabbed a few bottles to go for our mountain stay and to have at home.


From there we made it to our accommodations that we had reserved through Air BnB. I won’t spend too much time on this but we had a heck of a time with AirBnB. Our first host canceled at the last minute, which left me running around like a chicken with my head chopped off trying to find alternate accommodations during peak season. Our second host, thankfully was a property management company because they ended up having a maintenance issue. Long story short, they were able to upgrade us to an even better Condominium on top of Sugar Mountain. We were quire literally swinging from the tree tops. In fact, on the second night the wind was so intense we seriously thought we might wake to having been blown off the top of that mountain. We gave up on keeping the pilot light for the gas fireplace lit and just went to bed. The next morning we woke to frost and news reports of 100mph wind gusts having been recorded in our area throughout that night. The views from our balcony were breathtaking and the condo was quite spectacular.

The first night in town we had dinner at the Eseeola Lodge. http://www.eseeola.com/ It was a very romantic, warm atmosphere with top notch service. Of course I had the Trout special. What a TREAT!


The next morning we woke up to fog so thick we couldn’t see out our balcony at all. We enjoyed the fire place while I prepared a light continental breakfast and then got ready for the day. By the time we were ready to go the day had cleared and was gorgeous but still very windy.


We drove into Blowing Rock and spent the day shopping, having lunch and actually touring the famous rock. We also stopped at the original Mast General Store, at a trout farm and a few other Mountain spots that you just can’t drive by without stopping to check them out.





It was a long, fun day so we opted to head back to the Condo and enjoy a light supper by the fire. We also still needed to enjoy the top of our wedding cake that my Mom had saved all year.

Happy 1 year anniversary. Wedding Cake Topper.

This is the night mentioned above so we woke to FROST. Neither of us had packed appropriately for that. We had to check out of the condo anyway so decided to just out for breakfast before heading to the famous Woolly Worm festival in Banner Elk and then touring Grandfather Mountain. We opted for a small Mom and Pop for Breakfast called, Grandview http://grandview-restaurant.com/ While you could indeed see the view of the Grandfather on top of Grandfather Mountain from the road, you couldn’t really see it from the restaurant. The food was decent but they were so SLOW and we were anxious to get on with our day. Honestly we didn’t enjoy it all that much, which pains me to say it because I just love to patron local joints. This one did not impress us much at all and the staff were not seemingly interested in even trying to be friendly. ouch! We would give a different establishment a shot next time over this one.


When we arrived in Banner Elk it was A) Freezing and B) the Woolly Worm festival was in shambles. The wind the night before had knocked down all of their tents and displays and they were feverishly trying to clean up. While we walked around town a bit the festival leaders apparently decided they were not going to be able to clean up and successfully host so they called the event. That was a disappointment but we understood and I felt so very sad for them. As a plan B we had planned on taking the ski lift up Sugar Mountain to look at the views but when we checked in with them they stated the wind gusts were still too high therefore they could not put anyone on the ski lifts. We drove back into Grandfather Mountain where we had planned on ending our trip anyway. When we arrived we were told that while the park was open the path to the top of them mountain and the famous swinging bridge was also closed due to the wind. At that point we decided to just slowly make our way back home. It was fine, we stopped at a few road side markets, listened to our wedding CD we had given to guests the year before and just took our time home, enjoying the views along the way. This is such a beautiful area of the country that I am sure we will be back one day to do the things we were unable to check off of our list during this trip. While fall is peak season, I can imagine that any time of the year is great. Cool in the summer and beautifully covered in snow in the winter, (although that might require a 4×4 vehicle). Either way, it was fun celebrating year #1 with my Sugar in Sugar Mountain.

Blue Bikes

Recently Columbia, SC adopted the blue bike rental program. So many larger Cities around the Country have these already so we were excited to also have the program locally. Blue Bike stations are located all over downtown and for a small fee you can rent them via an app on your mobile phone. https://www.bluebikesc.com/

Neither of us had been on a bike in a while but wanted to give it a try. We stopped by Pita Pitt https://pitapitusa.com/ and grabbed 2 sandwiches and then headed to a local bike station. We chose carefully, one located in an area of town that doesn’t have much traffic on the weekends. Before you go be sure to download the app, that will save some time. It was a little cumbersome to get everything working the first time but we finally figured it out and picked two of the electric bikes. Look for the lightening bolt on the back fender, those are the electric powered bikes, the others are regular manual. Each bike has a basket, which was perfect for our sandwiches and beach towel I had thrown in, just in case we needed to pic-nic on the ground. Because we had stopped at the bike station off of Taylor Street closest to the township we decided to ride over to the Bull Street District. That seemed like a safe option as the Bull Street district is home of the Historic State Hospital Grounds and while portions of it are currently being developed for new growth such as the Fireflies baseball stadium, restaurants and housing, other parts of it are still basically a ghost town. We had the best time riding around and looking at all of the old vacant buildings. Some of them are super creepy! https://bullstreetsc.com/

We found an old pic-nic table to enjoy our lunch on and then got in a bit more exercise, further exploring the area before riding the bikes back to the station where we picked them up. You can rent them for different time increments and there’s a clock on the bike that counts the time down in order to help you keep track of the time. Note: that the bikes are for ages 18 and up but your children could bring their own bikes and ride along with you. You don’t have to drop them back at the same bike station that you picked them up at. You could indeed ride across town and drop them in a different bike station area. Returning them was super easy. You pop them back on the bike rack and plug them in, all set and good to go.

We had the best time finding out that it’s true “it is just like riding a bike”. We hope to try more of the bike locations and explore other parts of the City when time allows. Seeing your City from a different view (and not from a car window) is very interesting.