Atlanta to Asheville.

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive,
and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."
-Anais Nin-

{Mary Kay, Heather, Me}

I always say that I would never want to repeat junior high, but I would do it a million times over if it meant the difference between having and not having these two friends. A week ago yesterday I flew to Atlanta to meet up with them for a Girls' Trip right before Heather's wedding (post to come!). And, we had a great time. I'm not sure I've laughed so much in a long time.

The first night we stayed in Atlanta at The Artmore Hotel, which is a cute, renovated boutique hotel. We totally lucked out as we got upgraded to their largest suite. It was a 2-bedroom apartment. I'm not kidding when I say the room was bigger than my own apartment. When we got there we had a bottle of champagne waiting for us (thanks babe!). It was the perfect way to toast to the beginning of our trip. When we first got the the hotel, it was almost like 7th graders reuniting with how giddy the 3 of us were. After we calmed down a bit (and turned down free Jerry Seinfeld tickets - what were we thinking?), we headed to our dinner reservation at South City Kitchen.

Good gracious, the food at South City Kitchen was delicious. As one yelp review said it, "Put some south in my mouth." We started the evening with fried green tomatoes with goat cheese and delicious cocktails. I then ordered the Southern Caesar Salad that had fried okra, grit croutons, and grilled shrimp with a side of macaroni and cheese. It was incredible and I am determined to attempt a recreation of that salad. Finally, we ended the night with cheesecake bread pudding, and yes, it was as fabulous as it sounds.

The next day we hit the road and drove up to Brevard, North Carolina. We stayed at The Red House Inn, making my first bed and breakfast experience a huge success. There was a little cottage in the back of the house that we stayed in and it was perfect, complete with it's own back porch.

Somehow I was unaware of the fact that there are so many amazing chocolate shops in North Carolina, I seriously ate my weight in chocolate during the four days I was there. The chocolates below, clockwise from the top right are: honey hazelnut, raspberry, lemon mint, and espresso. My favorite was the lemon mint. The mint in it was fresh, not extract, I thought the truffle was creative and refreshing.

Breakfast at the Red House Inn is a complete English breakfast. There was scrambled eggs, roasted tomato, ham, sausage, mushrooms, beans, and an english muffin. I ate it ALL.

While enjoying our breakfast, we enjoyed the entertainment of seeing a white squirrel! Who's ever heard of a white squirrel that's not albino? I guess they are quite the show stopper in Brevard as many tourists are so fascinated by them. I can understand why, this little guy was pretty darn cute.

Thursday morning we drove the final stretch to Asheville, a quick 45 minutes from Brevard. There is nothing quite like a rode trip with girlfriends.

I am incredibly thankful for those couple of days reconnecting with some of my oldest and best friends. There is something about being completely known by other people. I know that I can be myself, my whole self, because there is full acceptance. And, knowing that these two put up with my awkward jr. high self to be my friends either proves that they are too great or too crazy for words (or perhaps a mixture of both). Those few days full of laughter, remember whens, practicing the wobble, heartfelt conversations, sharing dreams for the future, and Heather's nurse stories were good for my soul. Good for my soul.

Even though arriving in Asheville was the end of our Girls' Trip, it was the beginning of wedding festivities and there was plenty of fun still left to be had. Here's a look at the vacation house we stayed at in Asheville. It was called Green Gables and was really quite cute.

Up next: The wedding!!