Lazy Sundays on the Beach

The last full day of our Adult Spring Break was spent on the beach. It was a beautiful day, although slightly chilly due to the wind coming off the water. By 11am we packed up the cooler…it could have been the most expensive selection of beach beer we’ve ever taken out to the beach! We decided to bring a few of the beers we bought the day before on a surprise shopping spree at the Piggly Wiggly of all places.

Our Relaxed Beach Beer Tasting:

Terrapin Side Project #2: Roggenrauchbeir

Flying Dog Wild Dog Collaborator Doppelbock

Weyerbacher Blasphemy Quad Belgian

Well’s Banana Bread

Sam Adam’s Blackberry Witbier

In between beer tastings we went across the street to our favorite pizzeria at the beach…Basil’s. Other than eating and drinking we spent the afternoon wrapped up in towels while reading, chatting and taking walks. Tara and I were not exactly smart when it came to remembering that the sun was quite strong and we ended up with a nasty sunburn on our feet. So we headed back to the beach house and set out for ingredients for dinner.

We threw together the most amazing dinner of grilled scallops, NY strips, chipotle lime shrimp, asparagus and the last of the Beecher’s Mac & Cheese. AMAZING!! Dinner was followed by more beer tasting!! Hitachino Nest Espresso Stout, De Struise Black Albert, Dogfish Head Immort Ale, Great Divide Espresso Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout and Southern Tier Imperial Choklat Stout. Our last day at the beach was exactly what we needed…it was so nice to do nothing and no one cared that we did that!

Myrtle Beach Beer Fest

Our long weekend at the beach was centered around the Myrtle Beach Beer Fest. Even though it was cloudy and we had a round of spinkly rain, the beer fest was really fun. This was the first year it was held. We’ve been to several other Beer Fests and while this was smaller, it was also less crowded and much more relaxing and enjoyable. Despite a lot of your typical domestic beers, we were able to try a few local brews as well as others we just have not had the chance to try for one reason or another. It was also a great way to try different styles that I don’t normally like such as IPAs. Tara and I were the talk of the festival with our Foothills Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout shirts! Rick decided to the be the oddball and wear and Dogfish Head t-shirt.

My favorites were Clipper City Loose Cannon, Hook & Ladder Backdraft Brown, New Holland Poet Stout, Foothills Peoples Porter, RJ Rockers Buckwheat, Stone Smoked Porter, New South Nut Brown Ale and Thomas Creek Deepwater Dopplebock.

The festival was held in the new Market Street Commons. Afterwards, we ate at Gordon Biersch for a late lunch where I had the beer sampler, then walked around the shops. The trip was not complete without a beer-buying spree in the Piggly Wiggly of all places. What a great selection…we came out with Founder’s Kentucky Bourbon Stout, Southern Tier Java, Wild Dog Collaborator, New Holland Dragon’s Milk and Great Divide Espresso Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout!

We were pretty exhausted from beer tasting, so dinner consisted of leftovers and the most amazing Mac & Cheese from Beecher’s in Pike Place Market…all the way from Seattle. My sister in law, Julie sent it to us since it’s the best comfort food she knew of. We were instant fans and plan on ordering more. It’s shipped fresh and ready to bake! DELICOUS!

Beachin' & Shoppin’

Thursday evening, we departed for a great vacation at the beach with our friends Tara and Rick. Even after arriving at almost 11pm, the night would not have been complete without a very tastings of beer!

Friday morning, we were pretty lazy getting up and relishing in the fact our coworkers had been at work for quite awhile while we enjoyed Lemon Poppy seed muffins and fruit salad in our pjs. Our morning also included a quick walk on the beach.

Since it was cloudy and raining we decided on shopping for the day's activity...a little retail therapy was really needed after the week I'd had! The boys were not too thrilled and dropped us off while they went to the movies. Bad mistake! Two girls running around the outlets for almost 4 hours...we did some damage. We ended up buying out most of Ann Taylor Loft, but there were some amazing deals. We each ended up with a new spring wardrobe and I found dresses for the upcoming bridal showers and weddings in the next few months. Ben and Rick were pleasantly surprised when they picked us up that we had gifts for them too! They got a lot of matching things (including matching cowboy hats and beer boxers)!

For dinner, Ben and I introduce the Kups to T-Bonz...our absolute favorite place to eat the beach. The meal would not be complete without an appetizer of Tommy Fries, baked potato wedges smothered with cheese, bacon and ranch dressing. I could barely eat my dinner! We all brought home leftovers.

Friday night was our official beer tasting night. We tried 8 different beers and different they were. It always seems our beer  tastings end up with all Stouts and Porters, but we had quite a few Belgians included this time. For several hours we spent hovered over tasting sheets, making notes and discussing beers like a bunch of nerds!  Here's our list:

Drunkin' Punkin'
1809 Berliner Style Weisse
Thristy Dog Raspberry Ale
Stone Vertical Epic
Struise Pannepot
Żywiec Porter
Terrapin Side Project #4 Dos Cocoas Chocolate Porter
Thristy Dog Siberian Night Imperial Stout

Christmas Toys!

Late Friday evening after one more celebration my Granny Dot's house, we made our way to the beach...thanks to our new GiGi the Garmin for getting us here!

Saturday was a beautiful spring like day at the beach and Ben started the morning off putting together his bike. By noon, we all headed out for a bike ride and rode for over 30 minutes. It was a little scary getting back on a bike. I doubt either of us had been on one in at least 10 years! But it was fun and we're looking forward to using them more.


We built up an appetite on our bike ride and returned home for cranberry turkey sandwiches. My mom, Amanda and I all received a Williams-Sonoma Professional Chopper for Christmas. We weren't sure if it'd slice tomatoes, but evidently it does not! The tomato squished every where and half way across the dining room to the living room!


Our afternoon was spent doing shopping round #1. We got some great deals on Christmas decor at World Market for 75% off and then went to Target. We found light garland, wrapping paper, tissue paper for next year, and a few more bike accesories and a running shirt for Ben. We stopped by Green's Beverage on the way back for a beer run and I finally bought a bottle of Firefly Iced Tea Vodka that so many people have been raving about. We enjoyed a glass of this with lemonade prior to dinner...wow...this stuff could be dangerous. I'm glad I limited myself to just one! It'll make a perfect summertime drink.

The rest of Asheville...and Western NC!

I wish we had at least one more day in Asheville. There is so much to do, nevermind relaxing in the cabin's hot tub and making delicious meals by the fire.

Saturday morning we woke up freezing in the cabin. We didn't realize the A/C unit was also the heat too and neither of us felt comfortable sleeping all night with gas logs on. We quickly warmed up with some hot coffee and I made Eggnog French Toast with mimosas. Ben loved this!!!

By 11am we were on our way into town. We did some shopping, walked around downtown and had lunch at Jack of the Wood with some Green Man beers. After lunch, we found a great little shop with some neat Christmas gifts for our family, then headed to the Chocolate Fetish I've heard so much about for truffles.

Since we did come to Asheville for the beer we stopped in Barley's for some good local brews. This was the best place for local stuff! While there we enjoyed:
~Catawba Valley King Don's Pumpkin Ale (tastes just like Pumpkin Pie)
~Catawba Valley Blackwater Uber Pale Ale (Excellent and very unexpected)
~Catawba Valley Hyper Monkey Java Stout (Delicious...like pure coffee)
~Pisgah Brewing Co Red Devil (Belgium fermented with a ton of cherries and raspberries)
~Highland Cold Mountain (a warm holiday spice brew)

This trip would not be complete with a huge shopping trip to Bruisin' Ales...the 2nd top rate beer store in the country! Ben was like a little kid in a candy store. After almost an hour of pondering and checking off the list Ben made of beers to look for, we checked out and took our case of special beers to the car!

We then headed to Thristy Monk's, which has a bar downstairs that serves only Belgian beer and one upstairs...we had a flight of 3 beers downstairs and shared a couple half pours upstairs with delicious peanuts on the side before heading back to the cabin.

Once back the cabin, I made a mushroom risotto and lemon scented asparagus while Ben grilled steaks. We decided to open a beer we've been saving for almost a year...Foothills Sexual Chocolate. It's one of the top rated beers in the country and world. Last February, Foothills made a limited release of 500 bottles. Our bottle was number 174...this was so good...to the very last drop. Hopefully they'll make this again and we can be lucky enough to get at least one bottle. If you love chocolate...you'll love this.

Sunday morning we woke up to dense fog and a chill in the air. Ben requested more Eggnog Frenchtoast for breakfas instead of the omlettes I'd been planning on making. After being lazy, we got packed, loaded up the cars and set out for Boone to get our Christmas tree.

It was literally a drive over the river and through the woods. I doubt there really isn't a great road to take across several mountains. Combine sharp winding roads with fog and cliffs...it was a little stressful and took us almost an extra hour to get to Boone. But we finally made it in 3 hours and had a delicious lunch at Macado's. It was such a treat, and just for a second, I thought I was in Blacksburg. I had my usual Johnny Dee (Grilled Chicken, Pepperoni, Provalone cheese, Lettuce, Tomato on a bagel with ranch dressing on the side).

The Christmas Tree farm was only 10 minutes away from downtown Boone, once there, it took us over an hour to find the perfect tree. There were so many choices and we kept losing track of our favorites, but we found it. It's an obscenly ginormous tree that's 9 ft tall! The guys on the top of the hill cut it down for us, bayled it and tied it down on top of the jeep. We set out for another 3 hours driving in the rain, but it didn't matter since we had just enjoyed one of the most relaxing weekends with each other and we had our perfect Christmas tree!

Hello From Asheville...

It's been a long, but fun day...Ben got home from work at 1230am and we both tossed and turned until 430am. Sara and I woke up and were in Kohl's at 5:05am! We got some great deals and I did finish buying for a few people on my list. We made it to Kohl's, Circuit City, Old Navy, Dick's Sporting Goods, Target, Ulta, Linen's & Things, Panera for breakfast #2 and Walgreen's all before 8am! We were girl's on a mission.

Once home I woke we all showered, my parents picked Sara up for the ECU football game and we loaded the car. Between us, food and the dog's you'd think we were staying here for a week. The drive was great and we made good time. We stopped at Asheville Pizza Company for their pizza buffett and a beer on the way to the cabin.

The pups snuggling on the ride to Asheville.

I'm so glad we driving in the light. Google maps was wrong...a road listed on our directions was called something slightly different...we ended up on a long and windy road with steep cliffs heading towards the Blue Ridge Parkways, but we made it!

Our cabin is fabulous...it's very secluded with a huge wrap around porch, hot tub, flat screen tv which we've been watching movies on HBO all afternoon and gas logs. After a quick powernap and a dip in the hot tub with a glass of wine, we're making appetizers for dinner, enjoying a beer and blogging live from Asheville. I'd recommend the Cabins of Asheville to anyone!!

Living room and kitchen

Cozy Bedroom

Hot Tub and Porch

Our view!

Pepsi in a Mason Jar!

Tomorrow's plan is to sleep in, enjoy coffee on the porch wrapped in a blanket overlooking Pisgah National Forest and make Eggnog French Toast before heading to downtown Asheville.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Today has been a busy day full of time with family. I ate till I was stuffed this afternoon and may have a bite or two of dessert for dinner, but I doubt I can fit anything else in. This is a quick post since I've been busy packing for our trip to Asheville and spending the evening with my sister looking through the Black Friday Ads. We'll be up early to start shopping and be done before 8am!! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Today I'm Thankful for:

~All the delicious food that was prepared today: It's incredibly sad to think so many people went without food today and I stuffed myself until I was miserable.

~Being able to spend Thanksgiving with both of my grandparents...as well as my aunt, cousins, siblings, parents, etc...

~Black Friday Ads: I love shopping and looking through the ads is just as fun

And...my list from Wednesday:

~Having a few days off from work to enjoy with my family, shopping and Ben

~All of the traditions we've established over the years and all of the memories they will bring us!

~Flannel PJ's: I'm packing them to keep warm in the mountains...so cozy!

After a round of early shopping...we're off to Asheville. Have a great weekend.

It's Almost Here...

I've been eating Thanksgiving stuff almost every meal since Sunday and yet I still couldn't be more excited for dinner tomorrow night with my mom and lunch on Thurs with my dad! We had leftovers from the Stafford Thanksgiving last night and this morning I enjoyed my favorite breakfast of vanilla and pumpkin spice granola topped with my homemade cranberry sauce....DELICIOUS!!!

We've got a busy few days ahead of us. Ben is finishing up projects and exams, while finding some time to work a few hours between Thanksgiving dinners. Work is busy for me trying to get Oct. ad-hoc things wrapped up before Nov. close starts on Monday. Nevermind the usual list of laundry, grocery shopping and now packing for our Asheville trip!!

I've been working all week on our itinerary:

Friday-Early Black Friday Shopping with Sara, On the road at 930am to Asheville, Lunch at Asheville Pizza Co, Arrive at our cabin, unload and enjoy the rest of the evening by the fire with appetizers, desserts and wine for dinner.

Saturday-Omelettes, Bacon and Coffee for breakfast, dowtown Asheville for shopping, lunch and beer browsing, a possible trip to the Grove Park in to see the Gingerbread House display, back to the Cabin for a special dinner with dessert and a dip in the Hot Tub.

Sunday-French Toast, Bacon and Mimosas for breakfast, pack up and drive to Boone for lunch at Macado's, Christmas Tree farm to find the perfect tree and drive home.

Just a few more days left in my Gratitude Challenge, but yesterday's and today's list includes:

~Tervis Tumblers: We have several of these and I use one every night. I have to have water on my nightstand and these are prefect for not sweating.

~Family Dinners where everyone brings something: I love potluck...it helps the hostess so the cooking doesn't fall on them and there are tons of choices!

~Soup: I eat it almost every day!

~Good smelling candles: Right now I'm obsessed with fall scents and these make the house smell so delicious.

~Black Friday ads early: I'm a planner and I like knowing what's on sale before the ads hit my doorstep on Thursday.

~Doggie shampoo: Freddie is getting a bath tonight with the most yummy smelling dog shampoo...he needs it bad!

Ballet, Bowties and Brews

This has been a pretty fun weekend so far and we've been busy!! Friday after work, we braved the rain and headed to Sanford to see Laura in the Nutcracker. She was a gum drop and a clown this year...and did an awesome job as the littlest clown! Afterwards we had dinner at my parents and stayed chatting with them until 10:30!

We woke up really surprised by the weather...it was tricky on Saturday, teasing us all day long. I headed to the grocery store, while Ben did the dreaded chore of taking Freddie to get his nails cut! I told him I'd reward him with a trip to Carolina Brewing Co. in Holly Springs since they were tapping their Winter Porter. We met Chris, Sam & Shane there and I was pretty disappointed in the Winter Porter. It was slightly smokey and just bland, not at all what I'd expect from a Porter.

We walked out of the brewery after a torrential downpour with angry skies, but by the time we got home it was clearing up. I got everything ready for dinner and Tara and Rick showed up with the most awesome selection of beer and an amazing FAT-FREE mexican dip!

I made a fall salad with mixed greens, pears, pomegranate seeds and raspberry vinagrette. I've only had a pomegranate once, but I think they'll become more of a regular in our house. I love how the seeds pop in your mouth. I also made Grilled Chicken and Pesto Farfalle. Technically Ben grilled the chicken and I made everything else. It's a new recipe that got rave reviews and it turned out delicious! I'm so excited there are leftovers.




Once dinner was out of the way, we started our beer tasting. Including the few beers we shared during appetizers and dinner here is our line up:


~ Ben's Cinnamon Oatmeal Stout
~Laqunitas Cappucinno Stout
~Abita Pecan Harvest
~Smuttynose Winter Ale
~Baron's Black Wattle Seed Ale
~Ben's Smoked Vanilla Bean Porter
~Ben's Ginger Ale
~Ben's Blackberry Chocolate Stout
~Weeping Raddish Pumpkin Bock
~Terrapin Side Project III Gamma Ray
~Heavy Weight Lunacy
~Southern Tier Creme Brulee Stout
~Dogfish Head Theobrama
~Dogfish Head Raison D'Extra


Ben printed everyone score sheets based on appearance, aroma, taste, drinkability, and overall likeness. All but one or two we really good...my favorites were the Creme Brulee Stout, Terrapin Gamma Ray and Dogfish Raison D'Extra!


In between rounds we snacked on Pumpkin Scones and Mini Pumpkin Cheesecake tarts. I think we all had a great time...it's so nice to not only have new friends, but ones that enjoy our nerdiness love of beer.



This morning, I'm sipping coffee and mentally preparing for my 10k run this afternoon. I'm so happy the sun has decided to make it's appearance and stay out although it's a little chilly...we're enjoying our coffee by the gas logs!


The things I'm grateful for: (Fri and Sat)


~How close we live to family: It's so nice that we can go see our family whenever we want and I love being a part of my little sisters' lives.


~Soup: It was rainy day and I love chicken noodle soup when it's cold and rainy out


~The internet: information is always at your fingertips...you just gotta know where to look


~New friends: No surprise we love entertaining and having new friends to join us is the icing on the cake


~Beer: We're beer snobs!


~Quick & Easy dinners that look gourmet: The pasta was incredibily easy to make and delicious at the same time...perfect for enteraining.

One Last Summer Hoo-Rah!

As Labor Day is typically considered the last weekend of the summer, we celebrated it at the beach! We still have a few more weekends planned to the beach. Next weekend is one of them if Hurricane Hanna decides to make a sharp right turn and head back out to sea.

Both Saturday and Sunday turned out to be incredibly nice, although a little hot. We started Sat. morning off early with a run. My best 5k ever! I did 3.14 miles in 31:23. The rest of the day included the beach and pool. Then dinner at our usual favorite beach place...T-bonz. It didn't take much convincing, but we ended up at the Chairmen of the Board concert at the House of Blues. This is my favorite place to see them and this being the 6th time I've seen General Johnson, it was probably the best. I'm sure the drinks Ben was handing me all night had nothing to do with that. My uncle and my mom ended up on stage, so I guess you could say we had a great time!

Sunday was a lazy day. We spent most of the day by the pool and then headed in to pack and head home. I had to work today, Labor Day. It wasn't all that bad and I get an extra vacation day for working the holiday. I came home at 230 and Ben and I have been tidying up, doing errands and now finally relaxing!

Until I flipped the calendar to September, I was sad summer is almost over and nowhere near ready for fall, but now I can't wait to buy new fall decor and start decorating our new house. I can't wait to set out pumpkins on our front porch.

Our Fall Vacation...

It isn't much, but just a perfect little weekend getaway to Asheville. Ben just booked us a weekend in the Pisgah Paws at the Cabins of Asheville in Candler, which is about 20 miles west of Asheville and looks over the Pisgah Mountains. After our recent vacation we enjoyed doing nothing but relaxing and that's exactly how we intend to spend most of our long weekend in the mountains.

Technically this is our anniversary trip, but we aren't going until the end of November. For 2 years we've wanted to take a trip to the mountains and find the perfect Christmas tree. This year we're doing just that! And even better, Freddie will be joining us! He'll definitely need his winter vest for this trip. We also plan to do a little beer shopping at Bruisin' Ales, take several brewery tours possibly through the Brews Cruise, and have lunch in downtown Asheville. But mostly relaxing in the hot tub, cooking dinner and reading by the fire is on our must do list.

For anyone looking to get their choose and cut Christmas tree, I recommend the North Carolina Christmas Tree Association to find a farm. We're hoping to make this a tradition!

Back From Our Vacation

...And we're a little sad it's all over. The week went by way to quick and I'm already itching to plan at least a little long weekend getaway soon since it was so nice to relax and do absolutely nothing!

We ate way too much and enjoyed everyone's cooking until we were stuffed to the gills. We also got the chance to eat out for lunch several days. Tortuga's is always our first stop for lunch before check into our house. Monday, Sara, Adam, Ben and I went to Awful Arthur's in search of Oysters...they were delicious. On Tuesday, we drove up to Corolla and Duck and ate at Fishbones and more oysters and crabcake sandwiches. My dad also took us to a cute little mexican inspired seafood place called Chili Peppers.

Other than eating, we lounged by the pool, sat on the beach, went for a couple of early morning runs and read a ton of books. It doesn't sound that exciting, but it was exactly what Ben and I needed after the past few hectic weeks. We didn't even mind the rain for almost 2 days. Sitting on the deck, even during the rain, was relaxing.

Saturday, on the way home, we stopped in Greeneville to check out the ECU campus. Ben will be starting a IT distance program in August, so we toured the campus and stocked up on our ECU paraphernalia then had a BBQ lunch before heading back home.