Asheville Adventures (part 1)

What’s up, world!? This post is actually a week after the fact, but last week was piled with interviews galore, so I didn’t have time to write something in almost-real time. If you follow me on instagram, you probably saw the pictorial version, kindasorta!

Before I start in on that, I have another Balance Bar giveaway to share with you, so make sure you get to the bottom of this post!

If you missed out on the Chocolate Mint Cookie Crunch giveaway last time, I have good news! This time around, we’re celebrating fall with 4 different varieties (Peanut Butter, Cookie Dough, Chocolate Mint Cookie Crunch + Balance Bites)!

But first, you get to find out why I’ve been lugging a stash of em’ along with me (hint: it’s from all the crazy travels I’ve been going on lately!)!

My AI in North Carolina ended with my interview on the 6th, so I decided to go on a mini-vacation in between interviews to…Asheville!

Every friend I’ve had who’s ever been to Asheville has told me that I’d really like it, and I’m undecided as to whether or not they secretly think I’m a hipster, or just that I’m artsy. I would take the latter as a compliment.

Since I have yet to meet a single blog friend, I asked Julie beforehand if she’d be around, but she was away for that weekend (noo! I hope you had fun though! <3 ). She gave me an awesome list of inexpensive and delicious places to check out, so I bookmarked them all on Yelp and went on my way!

I found Bon Paul & Sharky’s Hostel on AirBnB for ~$25/night (check out my review here)! For dinner, I hit up a food truck (El Kimchi–check out my review here!) that was camping out nearby, and struck up a conversation with a guy from Boston who was also hanging out at the hostel. We ended up talking til 2 a.m., at which point I figured I should probably get the hecks to sleep.

It is probably a good thing that I’m such a heavy sleeper, because the loud snorer in the adjacent bed didn’t keep me from falling asleep (one of the other girls threw a sheet at her somewhere in the night, and then felt really bad about it in the morning), and the couple next door in the private room having really loud furniture-moving sexy-times didn’t affect me either. (Yayuh.)

The next morning, we decided to go explore the River Arts District together since I had zero rain gear for my initial plans to go hiking. We popped into a bunch of different studios and talked to a lot of the local artists.

Jonas Gerard’s studio.

We stopped by White Duck Taco Shop for lunch (check out my review here!), and although I’d left a note to try out the Duck Mole taco…but found that I could not, because White Duck Taco Shop’s logo looked a little too much like Littlefoot (one of my pet duckies). :[

Bangkok Shrimp + Pork Belly tacos!

Banh Mi Tofu + Jerk Chicken tacos!

There was also a little bakery attached to one of the galleries, so I got us dessert!

Molasses Ginger Cookies!

My friend dropped me off at The Chocolate Fetish while he went to find parking, so I got a truffle for myself, and a bag of dark chocolate-covered espresso beans for my apartment-mate since her birthday was coming up. :] (Check out my review here!) She was super awesome company while we were doing our rotation together, and I’m really glad I met her! :] Mayhaps we’ll even end up at the same residency next year?! (We have a mutual top-choice program.)

Chai Moon Truffle!

We walked around downtown and checked out several shops, including Ten Thousand Villages, and a couple craft stores.

Two of the staff from BPS worked at Nine Mile (check out my review here!), which happened to be on my list anyway, so that’s where we went for dinner! The food was super tasty!

Nine Mile, their signature dish!

Raggy Road!

Now that I may or may not have made you super hungry, I have some delicious snacks to offer you in the form of Balance Bars!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I’ve mentioned in the past how much I love and adore the Cookie Dough and Chocolate Mint flavors, but peanut butter is almost always a win in my book, and this was no exception!

Balance Bars are my go-to snacks whenever I’m on the road, which is…a lot of the time these days. They follow the 40-30-30 nutrition principle (40% total calories from carbs, 30% from protein + 30% from fat). :]

I keep a stash of them in my car, and they help to curb my hunger until I make it to my next food destination (because I plan my travels around food–don’tjudgeme).

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Linking this post up with Erin @ Her Heartland Soul for Weekend Snapshots!

• Have you ever been to Asheville?! I need to go back someday (hopefully soon)! *-*
• If you had a studio, what would it look like? :O
• Have you ever tried Balance Bars?

Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow! <3