tell them i sent you.

where to eat: soul gastrolounge.

one thing i’ve learned is that charlotte has a slew of cool places to eat. i wanted to try something different and after asking around to a few friends, they recommended soul. soul gastrolounge is a quaint dimly lit relaxed restaurant located in the plaza midwood part of charlotte. it’s got a more eclectic feel and serves up their small plates tapas style. they have everything from hummus, dips, flatbread, sushi, tacos, meatballs and lord knows what else i can’t remember.

oh and they had $2 PBR’s. that’s pretty noteworthy.

{my date}

i was told by numerous people that if i went, the pork belly tacos were a must.  it was a perfect place for date night and definitely a place i’ll go again. see below for what we ordered.

{spicy feta dip}

{white flatbread with arugula, goat cheese, pesto and garlic; definitely recommend!}

{soul roll: salmon, curled, jalapeño, tuna, spicy mayo}

{pork belly tacos; do not go here without ordering these. oh my.}

 where to visit: chimney rock, north carolina.

so this past weekend  lee and i took a day trip up the mountain. chimney rock is a little under two hours from charlotte, and simply for yolo reasons, we decided to head up to make the climb. i had never been to chimney before and really enjoyed the easy (for the most part) hike. this place has several trails, but we mainly went for the view and the 0.7 mile loop to the top – once you take the elevator up 26 stories that is.

yes you read right. i said elevator. in a flippin mountain. humanity never fails to amaze me with laziness, but the hiking trail to get to the top was actually closed due to a rock slide earlier in the year, so this was our easiest  bet. however, once getting to the top, the views were nothing short of amazing. check them out below.

{view}

{merica}

i also caught this woman taking a straight up no shame selfie where she didn’t even smile. i hate selfies so this just did it for me. i couldn’t help myself for snapping a pic of this and nope, lee and i weren’t the only ones snickering.

{no.} 

we decided to then take the small hike to the highest point of the mountain – exclamation point. this sits elevated at 2480 feet and even though it was a bit chilly, the weather felt nice after we broke a sweat with the climb. theres a few hundred (thousand) steps to climb so go on a day where you feel like getting in your workout for the next month.

i also got to climb into a mini cave because i am a five year old and saw this really creepy looking rock they like to call “devil’s head.” hey see it for yourself. it freakishly looks up to its name. chimney rock was a nice little day trip and has cute little lodges and shops if you want to spend more time.

{devils head}

what to do on a monday: go to a panthers game where they BEAT THE PATRIOTS.

a lovely friend of mine, allyson, has season tickets to the panthers home games and although i love her for many, many other reasons, getting to tailgate and attend some home games with her is definitely one of them. if there’s one thing i know (and everyone else should know) about allyson is she’s pretty much the biggest panthers fan and has been a supporter and a lover of the team even during their not so pretty seasons. she even has a twitter account she runs called “miss purr” where she tweets odds and ends about the team and sometimes live tweets when the team is away (damn the no signal in the stadium!). the account has actually gotten some attention by sir purr and even members on the team! you can follow it here.

anyway, the kickoff was after 8pm so right after work we scrambled to get the cooler packed, get on our BACK IN BLACK gear since the game was a blackout and head to tailgate. with us was allyson’s mom (another huge fan) and her boyfriend chris.

{beast mode}

we tailgated on the corner of graham & trade where one of allyson’s friends had a complete set up of chili, hotdogs and cornhole. we made friends and ended up taking shots of crown (yikes!) with people we didn’t know. it was awesome.

{allyson and I at the tailgate}

however, once inside the stadium, things took a turn for the awesomER, even though that’s not a word. cam and the panthers got the crowd pumped as the score went back and forth before the panthers finally scored a lead touchdown in the 4^th quarter and held the patriots from scoring down to the last seconds. if you think watching this game at home was cool, you have NO idea what i experienced. it was hands down the best nfl game i’ve been to. we had no voices later that night.

{your carolina panthers!}

{amazing.}

heres to the panthers getting another W against the dolphins this weekend!

xo,

-A