Our 1st Anniversary!

I cannot believe it's already been a year since our wedding day! Rob and I decided to celebrate year one in the south just like our honeymoon. We flew into Greenville, SC this time and explored a bit of their downtown area. We loved Falls Park - pretty cool to have waterfalls in the middle of your downtown! We grabbed coffee and treats at some of the local shops and then we went to Bacon Bros for lunch. We enjoyed some cheddar biscuits, boiled peanuts and split a waffle with pulled pork. We loved this place because everything was locally sourced and organic. It was super tasty but very filling! Then hit the road and headed for Cesar's Head State Park which was about an hour away. It was an absolutely gorgeous day for a hike at the beautiful state park. We basically had the trail to ourselves and we enjoyed hunting for fall leaves and listening for wild life - we only spotted a bunch of chipmunks and a raccoon and lots of birds. We saw the beautiful waterfalls from an overlook and then hiked back to our car. Then we drove to the Asheville, NC area to check into our B&B, the Honey Hill Inn in Candler. It was so perfect! I'm so glad we found this place and got to stay there. We just loved it! We rushed and got ready for dinner and we even had to push back our reservation at Cucina24 a bit. I went in to get our table while Rob looked for parking for about 40 minutes!!! Luckily they were so understanding and Rob is the most patient and calm man alive - I was losing it! It's worse than Chicago! The meal was certainly worth the wait. Probably the best meal I've had in months. We enjoyed local Greenman beers and started with the burrata app which was heavenly. Then we got a pork and veal potato gnocchi dish - AMAZING - and a pork belly dish. We wrapped up the meal with a complimentary dessert - olive oil cake with berries and ricotta. DIVINE! We couldn't get over how tasty the whole meal was! so perfect. Then we rushed off to a show at Isis Music Hall which was SO cool! Great venue! We saw the Stray Birds - bluegrassy folk. They were so talented and we just loved every minute of it. It was all around an incredible day! The next morning we enjoyed a delicious breakfast at the B&B before walking around their beautiful property. Then we got ready to go white water rafting! But first we stopped by White Duck Taco - foodie hot spot in the River Arts District in Asheville. We got 3 tacos and tried each of them. They were giant and so good! Then we went to the rafting post - we had to wait awhile for an obnoxiously late couple but they had goats on their property to keep me entertained. Then we headed to the French Broad River and started our journey. It was the most gorgeous day I can remember! The sun was shining and there was a gentle breeze. Our guide Noah was great - very informative and nice. We went through a couple of minor rapids and then they let everyone jump off some rocks into a deep part of the river. I opted out but Rob ofcourse did it twice and was so happy! We also got to float down the river together which was super fun! It made me so happy to see Rob's smiling face the whole ride! We did about 5 rapids that were either 2's or 3's. We got stuck a few times but that was even fun. We just loved it! After that we went back to the b&b to change and I napped before we headed to Greenman brewery for a few beers before dinner. it was a really cool setting and we got to sit outside and take a load off. Then we headed to downtown Asheville for dinner. We had a lot more luck with parking this time and we were able to get to our reservation at Curate early. It's a tapas restaurant and we tried all sorts of stuff - we had patatas bravas, jamon trio, manchego on tomato bread, garlic shrimp and asparagus with lemon. We loved the ham and manchego dishes best. We did find it to be a bit pretentious - she told us one of the hams came from a "blackfooted hog that only feasts on chestnuts" or something hilarious. We could barely keep straight faces but it did taste incredible! They also gave us a complimentary dessert - a crazy chocolate sculpture! After dinner we went to this crazy haunted forest near our hotel. It was so fun! The lady at the front called ahead to tell them we were from Chicago so they could add that into the act. One of the guys touched my hair which really threw me off because they definitely don't do that here! I was really really scared from that point on! The proceeds went to charity and all the villans had adorable southern accents - it was too fun! The next day we ate another amazing breakfast at the B&B and then checked out before hopping on the Blue Ridge Parkway to go hiking at the Graveyard Fields. It was such a gorgeous drive! We saw so many great leaves at the high elevation and so many great views. We made it to the fields and started hiking. We quickly found the lower falls which were awesome! Then we tried to find the upper falls but failed but enjoyed the views and scenery anyway! Then we hit the road for the airport had tbell for lunch - classy :) and then waited for our flight because it was a short delay. We made it home after a long day and Rob gave me the most beautiful diamond earrings and really sweet card before we went to Bistro Champagne for a romantic dinner. He had roses sent to the table for me! I'm SO spoiled! And they greeted us with complimentary champagne. So nice! They had all this cute fall harvest decor and we just loved it there. We enjoyed the baguette and butter and split a bowl of french onion soup. I got steak frites and Rob got a croque madame - his fav. It was so nice! It was such a special anniversary and I truly love Rob more and more as each day passes. I'm the luckiest.