When you live in the South, there are more benefits than amazing food and unbeatable golf. There are endless places to visit!! And one thing that I am proud of Ashley and I for is visiting places. Going places. Seeing people. Taking advantage of being so close to so many great things. We have really carved out a hobby for ourselves: traveling! It is ironic, because that has been the essence of our relationship for years. But now it is something enjoy! Let me give you the highlights of our travels from the past year!
Cool Stop #1: Asheville, NC. This is one place you have to go. We tackled this place head on for a weekend back in early November. THe real reason we even went there in the first place was because Ashley bought me a round of golf at the Grove Park Inn for my birthday, so we wanted to make a weekend out of it, and man did we. We were lucky enough to stay with Ash's friend Betsy, and it was great because she only lived about 15 minutes from downtown. But after golf, the weekend was just starting. We ate at great restaurants, walked around a very cool quaint downtown, and the best part of the trip (which everyone needs to do once in their life) was the Biltmore Estate. I have blogged about this before - but my goodness, it was easily the coolest and most amazing place I have ever seen. Go. Book your tickets. And make sure to do some free wine tasting afterwards!
Cool Stop #2: Charleston, SC. If you want to get a taste of the "real" South, go to Charleston. They have cobblestone roads dating to the 1760's! I mean, talk about history. Charleston has battlefields from the Civil War, historic and important cotton plantations, row houses that are older than half of the country, an epic oyster festival every year (which we attended!), the best southern food anywhere, great golf...I mean this place has it all! We were lucky enough to have stayed with a friend of mine, Kelley (who is getting married next weekend!) and again, were pretty close to downtown. We took a house carriage tour, we strolled the historic streets of Charleston, ate oysters, had amazing food...we had a great weekend. So if you want "the South", go to Charleston and get some!
Cool Stop #3: Hilton Head Island, SC. Just last weekend we invited ourselves on someone else's vacation (come on, you've done it before!) to Hilton Head. I have always wanted to go here, mainly for the golf, but I quickly realized that it had way much more to offer. We rode bikes, walked on a very flat beach (much easier than fluffy sand), ate seafood every night, kayaked in a sea inlet, and yes, I golfed. But talk about relaxing...ride your bike to the beach, walk, tan, come back, have a beer, go get some seafood, do it again the next day. One of the top 2 highlights for me was our dinner on night 2 at "Eat!" (http://eathhi.com/). The owner gets his fame from the Food Network on the show called "Dinner Impossible", so he definitely has some street cred. It was unbelievable. Probably one of the top 3 dinners I have ever had in my life!! But of course, highlight numero uno was Harbout Town Golf Links. But aside from the heavenly golf, Hilton Head Island is worthy of a trip!
Cool Stop #4: Orange Beach, AL. Wake up, get coffee, sunscreen up, go to beach, come in for lunch, back to beach, come in for shower, go to dinner, sit on patio, go to bed. REPEAT. It is THE MOST relaxing place on earth. And it has great seafood as well, because it is located on the Gulf of Mexico, so shrimp, oysters, grouper is all readily available. We have been here a number of times, it is an O'Dea favorite. And it has become one of mine too! If you are a golfer, there are endless options as well...but I rarely play golf while there. Lots of reading, lots of sun-time, lots of eating and beers, lots of laughing. It is such a fun place to go! Of course, you can't to there without visiting the "Florabama" bar. Yep - on the border of Florida and Alabama. And yep, easily the most white trash bar in the world. Bras hanging from the ceiling, dirty floors, dirty people...but if you can get past that, great music and a rowdy crowd! It is a sight to be seen. Seriously.
Cool Stop #5: Atlanta, GA. Talk about a cool city. In tourist terms, you've got it all: CNN headquarters, Coca Cola headquarters, the World's Biggest Aquarium (literally, I'm not just saying that...), site of the 1996 Olympics...I mean, its a tourist heaven. In terms of being a local, you have great sports teams (Hawks, Falcons, BRAVES!!), great music venues (Eddie's Attic, Verizon Amphitheater, Peidmont Park), great local bands (MID LIFE CRISIS!), great food (come on, it's the South!!), and great people. Atlanta, while we didn't take nearly enough advantage of the downtown area, is a cool place to live. And a great place to visit!
Some honorable mentions from our visits: Durham (ok, only for Alex and Jay's wedding...and DUKE), Montreat College, NC (home of Billy Graham), Mt. Airy (home of Andy Griffith!), Winston-Salem, NC, any place surrounding Boone, NC (Valley Crucis, Banner Elk, Blowing Rock, etc etc..it is all cool!), Windy Gap Young Life Camp, Sharp Top Cove, YL camp, Charlotte, NC....I could go on. But those made the list.
As you can see, we took advantage of living in a very cool part of the USA. The best part? We drove everywhere! That's how accessible these historic and awesome places are. My encouragement to you, wherever you are: GO. Go places. Visit people. Try local food. Go to Oktoberfests and Wooly Worm festivals. Go to Oyster Cracking contests. Go go go! You gotta take advantage of where you live, and where you don't. We have come to embrace that, and I love it. So X out my blog, and google some place to go this weekend! It's only a drive away. . .
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