Monday, May 1, 2023

Weekend In The Mountains

It's been a sunshiny day here in the Upstate which feels appropriate for the first day of May. The temperature hasn't quite gotten the message yet, but I'll take the sunshine. We've had so much rain this spring and today's blue sky feels like a real gift. 

Hubs and I drove through what felt like a monsoon Thursday morning, but managed to make it safely to our weekend destination-the North Georgia mountains. Specifically the little town of Ellijay, where we'd rented a house with three other couples we've known since college. 


Which was a decade or four ago, but whatever. 


These boys were all fraternity brothers and we've remained close now for let's just say a long long time. 
We're all married, we all have grandchildren, we all have various aches and pains related to the fact that we're not 20 anymore, except when we're together we kind of still feel 20. 

That's the beauty of old friends. The ones who knew you when you were still trying to figure out exactly who you wanted to be. 


You can be bare faced and bare souled and real and hilarious and honest and grateful. 

We had dinner down the mountain on Thursday night, then stayed up late (not late for 20 year old us, but late for 60+ year old us) talking, laughing, and playing Mexican Train Dominoes at the big kitchen table. 

The skies cleared mid-morning Friday and we loaded up the cars to make a short hop one town over, to the little town of Blue Ridge. I'd never been before, and it's a popular tourist and retirement destination both, so I was glad to see what the buzz was all about. 

Blue Ridge is cute with lots of great little shops and restaurants and you can park your car and walk at your leisure. The sidewalks were busy, but not overly so, and we were glad we opted for a Friday visit as we discovered there was some kind of fish festival happening in town Saturday. We stopped in a little wine bar early afternoon for a light lunch and beverage then headed back up the mountain to relax and have a later dinner at home. 


We had a view y'all. 


We spent a lot of time sitting on the covered deck and everyone brought their own steak for grilling that evening so it was simple, delicious, and low key. We had also been assigned 'parts' in a murder mystery and everyone had some little bit of costume they'd brought from home, and it was a hoot. Took a little bit of time to really get into, but once in we were all in.

 
I was not the murderer in case you're wondering. 

Saturday was a gorgeous day, with warmer temps and bright blue cloudless skies. We trekked back down the mountain to visit a couple of the wineries on the other side of Ellijay. When I say trekked up and down the mountain it sounds like a million miles, but it wasn't. It was a somewhat steep, winding road getting to and from the house, that we all agreed would be tricky in the winter months. 


Our first stop was Chateau Meichtry which is in a very pretty location. We had a tasting there before moving a couple of miles down the road to Buckley, also very pretty and the wines were more to our liking. 

This is us-


This is also us-


We're still us. 

We headed back up the mountain late afternoon so we'd be there when our chef arrived. We'd hired a chef to cook dinner at the house, and it was so much fun. 


We selected the menu based on what she suggested and had a lovely charcuterie board as a starter, then it was a green salad with paella made in a huge paella pan on the deck. She put noodles in her paella instead of rice and we all agreed we liked that better.


Hubs will own one of these set ups before summer is over. Just sayin'. 


Dessert was a seriously scrumptious tres leches cake, and our chef cooked, served, and cleaned up, so easy peasy.  


We headed home on Sunday and all agreed we should do this more often. The thing about old friends is it matters not how long ago you were together because in your head you are always together. In your heart too. 


Still it is really fun to actually be together.

7 comments:

  1. Oh What Fun!! We've talked about hiring a chef to come in and "do" a party. I'm so glad you shared about doing just that!!

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  2. How fabulous! Now, I'd love to hear more about the murder mystery.

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  3. I just love that y'all do/did this. Old friends are just the best friends. I love the photo recreation!! So fun. Thanks for sharing the experience with us, Joyce! xo

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  4. What a great way of spending a weekend. Sounds like you'd need a rest when you got home though lol.

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  5. Wonderful! Love that idea to hire a chef for one of your dinners. Fun to do a murder mystery, too. So great to keep in touch and plan weekends like these with old friends.

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  6. That sounds like such a wonderful weekend getaway!!

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  7. OMG, what a fun time you had. I would love to do that with some of our couple friends. Beautiful view and I love everything that you did. The Murder Mystery sounds like it was fun. Food looks delicious.

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