Eclipse Trip

Good afternoon, readers! Before you say anything, I know. I know I keep failing to fulfill my promise to keep you updated on my life and for that I apologize but I will reward you with an exciting tale about Nate and my weekend to my aunt's to view The Great American Eclipse.




A few months ago Nate approached me with the idea to go visit my aunt in Western North Carolina to view the eclipse because her town was directly in the path of totality, while Raleigh was only going to have about 93% coverage. Being the total astronomy dunce that I am, I had no idea what the big deal with the eclipse was. What's so exciting about the moon covering the sun? I'd seen a partial eclipse in 2012-ish in New Mexico and remembering being wholly unimpressed. WOW WAS I WRONG. But I'm getting ahead of myself, I guess I'll have to take you back to Friday first.

Friday

I skipped my lunch hour on Friday afternoon to leave work an hour early and get on the road. The trip to my aunt's takes roughly 6 hours so I was eager to get moving before the anticipated eclipse traffic. After some traffic getting out of Durham we were off and on our way! We ran into a little congestion near Winston-Salem but were mostly on schedule.

After 4 hours of driving Nate and I were getting a little grumbly in the tumbly so we decided to stop in Asheville and eat at the Village Wayside Bar and Grille (which I may or may not have researched earlier in the week). The Village Wayside Bar and Grille is located at 30 Lodge St, Asheville, NC 28803. The restaurant is housed in a historic train depot from the late 1800s (WOW) and serves up some great grub near the famed Biltmore Estate.

Décor: the décor itself isn't really anything to write home about. There is a large outdoor patio in the front and side of the restaurant and a small line of tables in the back facing the railroad tracks. The interior of the restaurant has 2 small front dining rooms, a small bar area and a very small strip of tables lining the front windows. All-in-all, the restaurant probably seats no more than 60 comfortably.

Food appearance: a level of care is taken when plating but this place is far from gourmet. I'd probably call it upscale pub food. High quality ingredients used in classic ways.

Food taste: their menu is surprisingly expansive! They have everything from burgers and sandwiches to brisket and Pad Thai. I settled on the Cold Hot Burger, made with a veggie patty, of course. The patty itself was most likely just your basic grain-based veggie burger but the toppings were excellent! The dollop of Cold Hot Dip (blend of cheeses mixed with diced hot peppers) added the perfect spice and bite while the fresh avocado cooled everything down. My only knock would've been that the veggie patty had too many grains for my taste, but I've always preferred black bean patties anyway. I ordered a side of Confetti Couscous and honestly I could've eaten a whole bowl of that by itself! It was a blend of Israeli couscous, carrots, celery, feta cheese, edamame and kalamata olives tossed in a vinegar-based sauce. Like I said, it was incredible.

Nate ordered the Meatball Sub. He said the meatballs were flavorful and moist. I tried the marinara sauce and it was wonderful! It was the perfect balance of sweet and tomato-y. I hate when tomato sauce is too sweet. He ordered the kettle cooked chips and ranch dressing. The chips were crisp and the ranch was creamy and tangy.

We also ordered a side of sweet potato sides but they didn't arrive until our meal was almost complete.

Service: our server was friendly but wasn't very attentive. She didn't come back to check on us after our food was dropped off and we had to ask another person to track down our sweet potato fries. I guess it was 9:00 PM on a Friday night so I'll give her a little leeway.

Cleanliness: tables were turned over quickly and the bathroom was beautiful! It wasn't Angus Barn-level of beauty but it was decorated with tea lights, fancy soap dispensers and vintage-esque mirrors.

I would definitely return to Village Wayside Bar and Grill to try any of their fabulous (vegetarian) food options!

After a relaxing dinner we continued on to my aunt's.

Saturday

After a brunch of homemade vegetable quiche and grapes (thanks Aunt Bev!) we decided to wander Murphy, North Carolina. We went to the town's new art gallery (which would rival any gallery I've been to in Santa Fe), an antique store with a ton of hidden gems (like a 1994 shark Beanie Baby), and a stop at my childhood haunt: The Sweet Tooth, located at 658 Andrews Rd, Murphy, NC 28906.

The Sweet Tooth is a Murphy institution! I remember going here when I was toddling around and ordering cups of vanilla ice cream under mountains of maraschino cherries.

Décor: this place is walk-up and drive-thru service and cash only. There are a few wooden picnic tables set up around the building but I personally recommend taking your frozen bovine secretion to the nearby Konehete Park.

Food appearance: ice cream is served in Styrofoam cups with plastic spoons or sugar, cake or pretzel cones.

Food taste: their soft serve is creamy and delicious, the hot fudge is thick and rich and the cherry sauce tart. Everything is fresh and decadent. I ordered a "small" hot fudge sundae with cherry sauce. Their "small" is gigantic! I feel like I could've easily shared it with Nate and both of us would be plenty satisfied, but then I wouldn't have been able to steal some of his brownie sundae (it's called the "spouse-tax").

Service: ice cream is primarily served by teenagers and young 20-somethings but they're friendly and helpful enough.

Cleanliness: the small ice cream hut appears to be clean and orderly and the picnic tables are free of trash.

One food coma later, we were up and at it again going to a reunion of Doyle's at Cedar Hill, a restaurant my aunt frequented. Late last year, the restaurant suffered a fire and was a total loss. This "reunion" was a chance for regulars to catch up with their favorite staff members and fellow regular patrons with open bar and live music.

The event was held in the newly remodeled railroad depot and was absolutely breathtaking! The interior was "rustic chic" and I would love to get married (again) there. Hey Nate, wanna renew our vows anytime soon?

However, the acoustics of the building left much to be desired. The brick interior did not lend itself well to live music and as such, it all just sounded like a dull roar. The bad acoustics didn't stop my aunt from jumping on the dance floor with a few of her friends though!

Sunday

Sunday morning we met up with my Uncle Harry and Aunt Sue and all went to brunch at Brasstown Valley Resort and Spa, located at 6321 US-76, Young Harris, GA 30582. This resort is another childhood haunt of mine. I remember feeling so regal walking into the formal dining room in my Sunday best and eating brunch - well, truthfully I only ate champagne flute after champagne flute of chocolate mousse. I'm happy to report my palette is a bit more refined now. Their brunch is phenomenal! So many options!!! Anything from seafood salad and mini Belgian waffles to smoked salmon and bread pudding. I ate way too much and enjoyed every minute of it. I began with a mixed greens salad, Caesar salad and cheese and crackers, then quickly moved on to smoked salmon, mashed potatoes, peel-and-eat shrimp and red velvet cake with vanilla ice cream. It was heavenly and well worth the 2000+ calories I ingested.

After a walk around the picturesque resort grounds, we headed up to the top of Bell Mountain to take in the views above Hiawassee, Georgia and Lake Chatuge. The road up to the Bell Mountain lookout was harrowing and slow-going thanks to the red Honda that would unexpectedly slam on its brakes but the views were awesome! The Lake, for instance, was much larger than I even knew! The views were breath taking and, of course, selfie-worthy.

My aunt and I took a walk around her local forestry preserve and caught up. It was wonderful to spend one-on-one time with her as an adult and catch up on our lives.

Shockingly, we got hungry that night and (once again) over-indulged. Aunt Bev had found a recipe online for Lasagna-Stuffed Mushrooms and we thought it would be the perfect meal to make together!


Lasagna-Stuffed Mushrooms

4 large portabello mushroom caps, stems removed, cleaned and left whole (try to get ones with high edges)
2 Tbsp olive oil, divided
1/2 C tomato sauce
1 garlic clove, minced
4 C fresh spinach
1 1/2 C ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/2 C parmesan cheese
1 C mozzarella cheese
Salt and pepper, to taste


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.


Using a spoon, carefully scrape out the mushroom ribs being careful not to tear the cap. Brush the top of each mushroom with 1 Tbsp olive oil and season the interior with salt and pepper. Spoon a little bit of tomato sauce in the interior of each cap and set aside.


In a skillet over medium heat, sauté garlic in olive oil until fragrant. Wilt all the spinach and season with salt and pepper. The original recipe called for frozen spinach but after my Lasagna, I decided that using fresh would be best.


In a large bowl, combine ricotta with egg, parmesan, wilted spinach and season with salt and pepper. Spoon some of the mixture on top of the tomato sauce and top with mozzarella cheese.


Bake the mushrooms for 20 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and golden.


Now, our mushrooms weren't deep enough for all the delicious filling and thus they collapsed on themselves, it didn't change the flavor at all but they were a little less-contained.


We served these mushrooms with linguini (topped with leftover lasagna-fixings), crusty bread to sop everything up, and a Robert Mondovi Red Blend to round out the meal. Aunt Bev was tickled by my decision to play "Italian Restaurant Classics" (thank you Spotify) while we ate.
 

Monday

After an entire weekend of over-indulgence, I decided to go on a run. I've become so accustomed to running on treadmills that I had forgotten how hard running up hills was! I ran a hilly mile and a half loop and, much to my surprise, my mile time was only affected by 30 seconds.

Since we were planning to watch the eclipse from Uncle Harry and Aunt Sue's boat, we decided to make deli sandwiches for everyone to munch. I put my Sandwich Artist skills from my first high school job to use and we ended up with 10 or so giant sub sandwiches for 5 people.

We spent the morning swimming in Lake Chatuge, listening to sun-themed songs and munching on junk food and beers until the eclipse began around 1:10 PM. I'll say this part of the eclipse wasn't very exciting. We donned our ISO approved glasses and stared at the sun to watch the small black circle make its journey. Nothing really got exciting until around 2:00 PM when the sun was around 75% covered.

At 2:00 PM we noticed that colors seemed less vibrant, the temperature began dropping and crickets began chirping. Hiawassee, Georgia began totality at 2:35 PM and everything happened very quickly. The sky was suddenly black, Venus was the brightest thing in the sky and the Sun looked like something out of a science fiction movie! I can't even fully comprehend or describe what the scene looked like other than nothing short of magnificent. Nate caught a picture of all our reactions.

Nate and I departed Hiawassee at around 3:00 PM to begin our journey back to Raleigh and that's when things got a little hairy. I had input our address into our GPS and was given an arrival time of 8:30 PM...we did not get home until 1:00 AM! Nate and I anticipated that traffic would be heavy due to all the signs on I-40 indicating the same but nothing quite prepared us for the gridlock we experienced on our way home Monday.

We had been driving for 4 hours and had not even reached Asheville, 90 miles from my Aunt's! It was a disaster! The eclipse was a wonderful once-in-a-lifetime experience, but I think I'll just stay home for the next one!

I hope you enjoyed the eclipse from where you were and did not sacrifice your retinas!