Eat and Play in Boone, NC

In my last post I gushed about the adorable mountain cottage my husband and I escaped to last weekend. Now, as promised, I will share some of the highlights from the rest of our vacation. When we managed to rip ourselves away from the comfort of our cottage, it was usually in pursuit of food.

This is the photo a happy and hungry vegetarian.

I was pleasantly surprised to find several restaurants in Boone and Blowing Rock that offered multiple vegetarian options. For dinner the first night we wanted to check out downtown Boone and decided on Hob Nob Farm Café. It was very exciting walking amongst the college kids, out and about on their last day of class. (Reminded me how much fun it was to be that age.) And as much as I wanted to snap a photo of King Street, I already felt out of place dressed in overpriced jeans, pink shoes, and a shirt from Loft; pulling out a DSLR would have been too much.

Isaac and I quickly found our restaurant, ordered drinks, and waited for the food to arrive. For our appetizer we had Plantains served with a yogurt/mango dipping sauce. What can I say about plantains—so ugly, yet so incredibly delicious. I could have eaten three more platefuls.

Our apps didn’t stick around for long and we were excited when our dinners arrived. Isaac had one of the specials which was a quesadilla with roasted red pepper hummus, squash, cheese, and a host of other goodies. It was a little too garlicky for our stomachs, but the flavor was outstanding. I decided to splurge on Ravioli Medici: cheese raviolis tossed in a pine nut basil pesto cream sauce, portabellas, squash, peas, tomatoes, feta, and walnuts. It’s been a long time since I ordered something so rich at a restaurant and I assure you, it was worth every bite!

For breakfast the following two days we enjoyed the complimentary continental breakfast and Yonahlossee Inn which was beside our cottage. On Saturday, we lounged around for a while after eating and then I tested out the fitness center. I love having a workout room all to myself.

I returned to find Isaac neck-deep in the jacuzzi tub (I have a photo, but I’ll be kind) which was exactly what my tired body needed after an HIIT workout. Finally the stormy morning subsided, our fingers were shriveled like prunes, and our bellies began to growl. We decided to head into downtown Blowing Rock to browse the shops and find lunch.

The streets of downtown were crawling with tourists and we enjoyed looking through the unusual shops while soaking up the sun. Gotta get that vitamin D!

My favorite shop: the Life is Good store.

The most unusual: an art gallery with cat and dog clocks. I think this photo can speak for itself.

We had hoped to try out Storie Street Grille, but they had some sort of kitchen fire and had to shut down for the entire day. Sadface. Instead we went to Mellow Mushroom. Even though we have one in Charlotte, we were hungry and knew MM would have yummy veggie options. It did and we departed with fat bellies.

After a huge lunch we were looking forward to a hike. Not wanting to drive too far, we chose the Boone Fort Trail which was less than 10 minutes from our cottage.

I knew nothing about the trail except that it was near water and described as “moderately strenuous.” It turned out to be the most perfect 5-mile hike with a mix of flats and hills. The trail ran right beside a stream so there were lots of rocks and the air was pleasantly cool.

Hiking for over 2 hours is enough to erase all evidence of a large lunch which was one of the goals considering we had plans to try out Black Cat Burrito in downtown Boone.

To be honest, I was thrilled to have vegetarian options (i.e. tofu, tempeh, etc…), but the food was a little bland and lackluster. But that didn’t stop me from polishing off my burrito.

Our final day of vacation we requested a late check out and simply relaxed. I read Fifty Shades of Grey and Isaac played World of Warcraft. We had leftovers for lunch and headed towards our final destination: Tanger Outlets. We spent too much money in the first place, J. Crew Factory store, putting an abrupt end to our shopping excursion.

Isaac and I were very sad as we began our descent back to Charlotte, but were pleased to have found such a lovely vacation spot only a few hours away. I’m already looking forward to the next trip!