Home Sweet Home

We’re baaaaack!!!

I’m so glad to be home! South Carolina was fun but 8 days is a long time to be away. Look at the sweet face that greeted us at baggage claim:

Chloe hasn’t left our sides since we got back. Even Piper seems happy to see us. Right now she’s hanging over Brian’s stomach on the couch.

But back to the weekend…

-FRIDAY-

On Friday we made the drive to Asheville, NC to tour the Biltmore Estate. Just a nice little country house:

Isn’t it gorgeous??? I kept having to remind myself that people actually lived here. It was like hotel. The coolest part was the basement, which featured a bowling alley, indoor pool and several kitchens (pastry, rotisserie, etc.). And check out the amazing view from the back of the house. Even the servants’ rooms looked out onto this:

The mountains made me miss Virginia.

We had lunch at the Stable Cafe on the grounds. The food was delicious. I ordered a turkey sandwich that was served on ciabatta with bacon, brie, arugula and raspberry mustard. The turkey was roasted on-site; none of that slimy deli meat business. I was starving yet could only manage half of this monster:

We also toured the winery and took advantage of the wine tasting. Well hello there, handsome fellow.

I definitely tasted a few. The pinot noir and sauvignon blanc were my faves.

-SATURDAY-

On Saturday we slept in and then headed to downtown Greenville. It’s such a cute town with so many great shops and restaurants around Main St. And look at this, right in the middle of downtown:

I tried to restrain myself with the shopping, but we did end up buying Jack a cute little knitted hat. He also got a sock monkey at the Biltmore. He’s not even here yet and already so much fun to shop for!

For dinner, we ate at Trio, a brick-oven pizza restaurant downtown. Brian’s parents took us here a loooooong time ago, when I was still in college, and we were excited to go back again. I started with the Trio salad:

Brian and I decided to order two pizzas and share. I had the goat cheese pizza, topped with kalamata olives, sun dried tomatoes, pesto, peppers, mushrooms and capers:

And Brian had the smoked salmon pizza with brie, green apples, capers, red onion and dill:

My pizza featured pretty much all of my favorite things (I could eat goat cheese at every meal) and was perfect. Brian’s pie, on the other hand, was a little disappointing. Too many creamy incredients. It needed some acidity- more apples or capers would have been good. But still, anything with that much brie can’t be too bad.

-SUNDAY-

We had a stopover in Atlanta, which made Brian VERY happy. Why you ask?

Because there’s a Krystal in the airport- i.e., the Southern version of White Castle.

I tried one of the tiny burgers to see what the fuss was about.

Not impressed. It smelled like B.O. I stuck with my little $5 grape and cheese tray.

OH- I borrowed Water for Elephants from Brian’s mom and finished it in about 2 days. What a great book!! I couldn’t put it down. So that makes three amazing reads for this vacation.

My parents picked us up at the airport and we immediately headed to Matt’s Rancho Martinez… a week is a long time without Mexican food, after all. I had the chicken fajita lights:

And then came home and took a nice long snooze with my pug. Ahhh, home sweet home.

-SURVEY-

What do you eat when you travel? Airport food? Or do you pack snacks?

I’m pretty good about packing Larabars and such, though I usually end up wandering into Starbucks or grabbing something snacky. And I love those little Biscoff cookies Delta hands out.