Blue Ridge Mountains -- Breweries!

My other favorite thing about the Blue Ridge Mountains area (besides the great hiking) is the plethora of amazing breweries.  I don't know what it is, but something about this area just churns out amazing beer!  And we were definitely sure to take advantage of this with multiple brewery visits throughout vacation!

Devil's Backbone Brewing Co...

Starr Hill Brewery...

Blue Mountain Brewery...

There is just something so perfect about watching a gorgeous sunset with good friends and good beer.  Cheers to an amazing vacation!  Brett and I are already starting to brainstorm our next... ;)

Blue Ridge Mountains -- Hiking!

Continuing on with a few posts from our Blue Ridge Mountains Getaway 2014!

A trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains is never complete without plenty of hiking!  Hiking is one of my favorite reasons to visit this area.  The amount of awesome trails to choose from is almost overwhelming, there are so many!  For this trip, we mostly chose trails that were accessible from the Blue Ridge Parkway.  And let me tell you, just driving along this iconic road provided some awesome scenery with plenty of pull-offs to take in the views.

And once we'd get to the trails and start hiking, plenty more amazing views awaited!

A short hike around Sherando Lake...

A sunset hike along the Appalachian Trail before dinner at Devil's Backbone Brewing Co...

A steep hike to Humpback Rocks...

An Easter Sunday hike along the Riprap trail in Shenandoah National Park...

Yay hiking!  And when we weren't hiking, can you guess where we were?

Yup!  Brewery touring our way through the Blue Ridge Mountain beer scene... :)

Coming up next!*

Blue Ridge Mountains

Blue Ridge Mountains getaway 2014!

We had such a great time on this little vacation, especially with the addition of Lee & Jess this year!  We stayed at the same place as last year's trip (Misty Mountain), only in a different cabin.  We spent plenty of time hiking, biking (the boys), and visiting the local breweries in the area (some of our favorites!).  Even though this trip was only 4 days long (and seemed to fly by way too fast - don't they always?!), it was still an awesome and relaxing getaway in the mountains.  More to come!*

Virginia & North Carolina {Our Great Adventure}

Virginia!

North Carolina!

After leaving West Virginia, we drove straight on to North Carolina.  We've been wanting to visit Asheville for a long time since we heard it was an awesome outdoorsy, funky town that we would love.  And holy crap, was that right.  Asheville was awesome.  We stayed two nights at a little laid-back hostel right downtown and it was perfect.  We spent the days wandering around and checking out all the breweries, shops, restaurants, and live music.  One of my favorite memories of our time in Asheville was when we stumbled upon this drum circle happening in the little park in the center of town.  All kinds of different people from all over town were joined together with their drums, bongos, and djembes making beautifully awesome music.  It was such a moment of community and just really made me happy for some reason.  And apparently it happens every Friday.  So awesome.

After a few days in Asheville, we headed out to the wilderness.  Pisgah National Forest.  Brett spent the day riding the epic mountain biking trails.  (Pisgah is a huge mountain biking mecca on the east coast).  And I spent the day relaxing, reading (I picked up a copy of "On The Road" at a used bookstore in Asheville), and enjoying our awesome campsite.  Come nightfall, we had a delicious camp dinner, played games, and fell asleep under the great big pine trees.  The weather was gorgeous, the forest was green, and I couldn't be happier to be spending my days outside.

Mountain Getaway - Charlottesville

Last mountain getaway post, I promise!

On our last full day of vacation, we headed into the cute little town of Charlottesville, VA.  It was only about a 20 minute drive from our cabin.  We spent the afternoon wandering around the quaint downtown and checking out all the local shops.

And then headed over to dinner at Mellow Mushroom!

Pretty much one of our most favorite pizza places ever!

And topped the night off with some froyo, of course!

The perfect end to a really great vacation!!

Hope you enjoyed my recaps of our little mountain getaway.

Now, onto the next adventure!!*