I HEART Asheville

 After being in Asheville, NC for a whole week there is no way I could NOT love this place.  It is the perfect getaway destination for us from now on.  The mountain were gorgeous, the antique stores were great fun, the food delicious, and don’t get me started on the French Broad Chocolate Lounge……a liquid truffle…need I say more!?! 

Also it wasn’t just me that found heaven here, but Jon (Mr. Honey) as well!  Turns out there are lots of local breweries….surprise surprise.  All of our vacations have at least one brewery stop…and this one had eight…that is right EIGHT breweries!   

Here are the ones we hit:

Craggie Brewing Company, Green Man Brewery, French Broad Brewery, Asheville Brewing, Highland Brewing, Pisgah Brewing, Wedge Brewery, Lexington Avenue Brewery (LAB)

They serious love their beer here; one bartender said that if there is a way to combine beer with anything Asheville will do it, there is even a laundry mat that serves beer!  Crazy!  But I guess you can work up a thirst with all that folding, ya know.

The only downer was well….the thrifting kinda sucked.  I’m guessing that is because of all the local antique and vintage shops in the area.  The only really great thrift store to me was the local Re-store. 
  

One busy busy busy Re-Store

 In the front there were the usual goods….toilets, trim, appliances, etc.  But in the back there was another store set up for furniture, house-wares, and such, plus there was a small vintage record shop and a silent auction!  The silent auction is where the good stuff was, when we stopped by the first time there was a Conant Ball chair on the block and when we stopped the second time later in the week a Paul McCobb dining table!

The Conant Ball chair....nice!

 But when you can’t thrift…you antique….and antique I did!!  I really have to give some major props to my then fiancé (now husband), because he did all the planning.  It actually work out great…I’m one to sleep in until he wakes me which is usually WAY earlier than I want to be up.  So this week I got to lounge in bed while he planned the day.  He would look up local antique shops that had some MCM booths, thrift stores, somewhere awesome for breakfast and lunch, plus a couple breweries…..then plugged everything into his phone app for turn by turn directions.  YUP I’m spoiled.  I mean how could I NOT marry him after that, definitely a keeper. 

So here is part of the Asheville haul:

Bennington Potters Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper.....I love these! 

Three piece Rosenthal-Netter set in perfect condition!

Super large Ultima Aluminum Ashtray...but I don't smoke.  too cool to pass.

A Seth Thomas flip clock at a steal!

Neat Walnut Whale puzzle...one of the few thrift finds.

More goodies to come, I think I will sprinkle some more finds into next weeks Monday Thrift Share.

Ciao for now,

Becca

The 400 mile 4 pack of beer

This past weekend was a testament to how much I love my honey.   I didn’t know what I was getting into when we had this conversation:

“Can we go to Tampa for Hunahpu day?”  - Mr. Honey

“Sure, what is Hunahpu Day?”  -Me

“There is a beer made by Cigar City Brewing called Hunahpu which is only release once a year in limited quantities, hence Hunahpu Day.   There is a limit of 3 bottles a person and if you come I can buy 6” – Mr. Honey

“Okay” -Me

I should have clued in to the madness when the limit was drop from 3 bottles a person to 2 bottles, a week or so before the event.  The brewery opened at 11am, but of course like a much anticipated estate sale you come early.  Mr. Honey wanted to get there by 7am, which put us leaving the house at 3:30am.  We packed the car the night before with our folding camping chairs and a cooler full of local beer (supposedly you also trade beer at these things).  I thought he was a little weird to bring the cooler, but once we got there I saw that lots of people had them.  Since I slept in the car, I was refreshed for a day of waiting...lots of waiting....

Our place in line at 7am

 At 7am there were about 45 people in front of us, which shocked me a little but that’s cool.  We set up our chairs and settled in, Honey starts talking beer (yes beer is another language) with the guys in front of us and they traded some, about 9am someone comes around with arm bands.  One showing you’re 21 and another that allows you to purchase your 2 bottles of Hunahpu which they will start selling at 3:30PM. (That’s right 3:30 in the afternoon.  OUCH).  

My two armbands! 

By this time the line behind us is insanely long, one of the guys next to us walked down to film it and it took him over 5 minutes to get to the end of the line.  It just kept going and going.  I truly had NO idea there was going to be that many people but I was super glad we left early; I heard later they ran out of arm bands roughly half way through the line so some people left Hunahpu-less. 

Behind us!

Thankfully CCB (Cigar City Brewing) had planned well for the crowds.  There was a music stage, food vendor trucks, and LOTS of beer on tap at various stations.  The only downer was that the lines for beer were super long, so some of the special beers were gone before you got up to front.  Since I’m not a big beer drinker, me and Mr. Honey split up to double team the lines.

Here is a list of the beers on tap…although I know there were a few special specials that weren’t on the list….

There is one beer on here by CCB I wish I had tried called "Those Candies your Granny Loves"...what an awesome name for a beer!!!....the name alone makes me think it tastes like Werthers Originals. 

Anyways.....after a long hot day (I have the sunburn to prove it), a 400 mile round trip, and only an eight and a half hour wait with roughly 5000 other people, we walked away with our Eighty dollar 4 pack of beer. 


The End.