Raleigh 13.1

For the first weekend in June I headed up the road to Raleigh for my first half marathon since returning to the States. Packet pickup was conveniently right across the street from a World of Beer. Which was right next to a Yardhouse!  This equates to literally 500+ beers within a 1 block radius! I started with a local NC flight. 

And was then super soles to find a yeastie boys IPA!  The only NZ beer I had previously found was a few Moas, which are kind of like the Sam Adams of NZ. Not bud light or anything, but not true micro/craft. Motueka hops are amazing. 

One different thing about races in the states is the start time! I got up at 530 am to head out to the 7am start!  It was a great race, mainly in the greenways so a little cooler!  Wicked humidity though! I stayed under 2 hours so happy! The winner did it in 1:13!

Post race we headed over to the farmers market and got some goats milk chocolate gelato. Appropriate breakfast :)

For the afternoon we embarked on a self guided beer tour. Flight of beer and cheezits. Heaven for me! 

Crank arm was our first stop. Great brews and my favorite of the three in terms of set up and bartender knowledge/friendliness. Plus, they had onesies :)

A beer tour (an official one) showed up and mobbed the place so we headed outside to finish up. 

The up a very large hill to Boylan Bridge Brewpub. Worth the walk for the view of the city. 

We hopped in the car, as Christina kindly was drinking way less than me and could drive, and attempted to find Neuse River Brewing. We found it, but they dont appear to have a tasting room yet. So we settled upon Nickelpoint. The beers were decent, but I really was in love with Crank Arm. Photo cred to Christina!  Cheers!

Asheville 3

For Sunday we headed out to the blue ridge parkway for a hike at craven gap.  We hiked along the mountains to sea trail in an out and back. 

Some random flowers along the trail. 

The trail goes a fair ways along the parkway. We turned around at about 3 miles. 

It was cooler at elevation but was warming up. Nice to be in the shade of the trees. 

I had forgotten about snakes. Apparently this one isn't poisonous.  Still waited for it to leave the trail. 

A little walk along the parkway to get a shot of the craven gap sign. 

And then a little drive along for some more vistas. 

Such a gorgeous day. 

That evening we finally enjoyed my last bottle of New Zealand wine. This wine has traveled with me thru a couple countries, three states, five hotels and three houses/apartments :)

Enjoyed at curate, a fabulous tapas bar in Asheville 

Excellent end to a fantastic weekend. And absolutely stellar wine! 

Asheville 2

Saturday brought the beer festival. Couldn't have had a better day for it. Blue skies and sunny but not oppressively hot. 

We paced ourselves quite well, managing to get through 5 hours of beer tasting without excessive drunkenness. 

Note the sign in the background. 

The organizers roped off the veterans memorial to keep stupid drunk people off it. Good plan. 

We spent a good deal of time on the courthouse steps, as there was shade.  Only in Asheville can you drink on the court house steps...

At one point we found the booths with tattoos. Always a good plan. 

Still going strong! 

After the festival ended we attempted to go on the Asheville historic urban hike. There are bronze placards on the sidewalk to teach some history. 

Unfortunately these proved difficult to find and often unrelated to the structure they were next to. 

But still enjoyed a walk around town.  

Because the festival wasn't enough beer....we headed to thirsty monk that night for more! 

The omnipollo brewery from Sweden. While pollo undoubtedly does NOT mean chicken in Swedish, it was dubbed the omnipotent chicken anyways. And at 11% it wasn't messing around. 

Finished up at a piano bar close to the hotel.  Very talented players and some entertaining bachelorette parties. Very impressed with my stamina to make it all the way to midnight!  Cheers! 

Asheville 1

From Charlotte I headed west to Asheville. Beer and craft capital of NC. I stopped along the blue ridge parkway for the folk art center before continuing on to downtown. 

A short run outside of the main streets I came to the unc botanical gardens. The trails were nice but short. And lots of green but few actual flowers this time of year. 

Literally the only two types flowers I saw :) 

And some fun with my new photo editing app. 

Next stop was the hotel pool to cool off after the run. 

And then I headed out for a pub crawl...slightly ominous clouds. 

Jack of the wood, home of green man brewery. 

Asheville brewing company. 

And burial grounds brewery to round it out. Great evening in Beer City, USA (seriously. It has been voted that.  A few years in a row)