High country, low key

When we are in the mountains we chill.  We might go check out some of the touristy stuff every now and then, but mostly we just hang out.  We watch movies, read books, play games, sit on the porch and watch the tourists at the store across the street.  I get a lot of knitting done in the mountains.

There are a few things we always do, no matter what, when we visit.

• We go grocery shopping at Ingles.
• We browse through the Mast General Store, usually a few times.
• We have breakfast at the Mountain House restaurant.
• We stop by the pet store so I can visit the birds.
• We play games at least one night.

I like having this wonderful place to return to every year.  Even though we keep to a little bit of a routine, there’s always something to discover.  This time when we went grocery shopping I found this:
I couldn’t believe it!  CSP & I first learned about the Beacon Drive In on the Food Network.  I think it was Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives.  We’ve been wanting to go there ever since.  I’ve never seen Beacon Iced Tea in a store in Charlotte (and CSP is a grocery store manager so he’d know) so we were surprised to see it in a grocery store up in the mountains!  I bought a bottle of the peach flavored tea and it was so yummy!  The Beacon is off hwy 85 on the way to Atlanta.  Ever since IKEA opened here we haven’t had a reason to go to ATL.  Maybe we’ll have to make a special trip!