My mom took me on a mini trip to Highlands, North Carolina as a present for my 22nd birthday. I would much rather do something or go somewhere for my birthday than get a tangible gift (I really don’t need anything!), so this was perfect. Also, my mom doesn’t think I come home enough to see her, so its a sneaky way to make me hang out with her (Love you, Mom!).
This was our room:
Which had a mini-kitchen stocked with coffee and bananas:
First thing we did when we arrived and dropped off our stuff in the room was going to lunch at a restaurant called Wild Thyme Gourmet.
Started off with cold asparagus soup:
Mom got the spinach salad, which was topped with brie, almonds, red onions, cranberries, and a boiled honey and lemon dressing.
I ordered a warm sesame chicken salad that had sauteed bell peppers with a sesame ginger sauce over mixed greens:
Mom proclaimed that her salad was the best spinach salad she’d ever had, and I must say, her salad beat mine.(Do you do have ordering competitions in restaurants to see who picked the best meal? I do…) I think the stand out ingredient was the “boiled honey and lemon” dressing….I must figure out how to make that!
Next stop was going to see the waterfall known as “Dry Falls,” which Mom thought was an oxymoron. I think the name is due to the fact that you can actually walk behind the waterfall and not get wet!
Mom and me at the waterfall
...and behind the waterfall
Then we bought a bottle of wine, and chilled out in the room.
And then ventured off to Pescados for some highly recommended fish tacos with blackened tilapia.
You can’t tell, but there is plenty of guacamole on this taco….don’t think for a second that I would eat Mexican food without guac!
Their “tacos” were more like mini-burritos and were only $3.75! Talk about a great deal for delicious and fresh food!
Part 2 coming up tomorrow. In the meantime check out yet another study on possible health benefits of chocolate because I never get sick of reading that my chocolate addiction might be good for me 
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