Saturday Picnic

On Saturday, we went to the mountains to see the leaves change! We had a picnic, went for a hike, rode a ways on the Blue Ridge Parkway, found a car show (!) and ate at a BBQ restaurant. It was perfect!

Since moving to North Carolina from Florida a couple years ago, it's become a yearly tradition to try and catch the leaves at their peak in the mountains. Before moving here, we had never saw the leaves change anywhere. Florida doesn't do that. Florida doesn't do a lot of things. It makes you hot and that's it.

We went to the Elk Knob State Park near Boone, NC. The leaves looked amazing! Everyone in the Jeep kept pointing and saying, "Oooh, look at that tree!" or "Look how red that one is!". Sooo pretty! It was even prettier because there was a lot of fog on the ground and on the mountains.

We ate lunch at one of the picnic tables at the park, in the fog. It was eerie and cold. I wished I had brought hot soup! Instead, we had Applegate Farms sliced Ham, apples, banana chips, black olives, boiled eggs and grain-free mini chocolate chip cookies I made at 6:30 that morning. My husband had to work for a couple hours, so I got up with him and made the cookies after he left. Anyway, that's basically my standard picnic spread. Everyone likes it and it's quick and easy to put together.

After we ate, we went for a hike. The hike wasn't strenuous at all, which was nice, I didn't want to be exhausted for the rest of the day. The photos below are from the hike. Everything was so pretty in the fog, so magical.

Then we rode on the Blue Ridge Parkway searching for more leaves and scenic overlooks. Unfortunately, the peak leaves were in places over 4,000 feet in altitude and we were in lower mountains, so they weren't as colorful. Still, the views were amazing!

On the way back, I remembered my sister telling my about a BBQ restaurant that Bobby Flay, AKA "Baby" Flay (that's what we call him), visited on the Food Network that was nearby.

When we got to the North Wilkesboro, NC (where the restaurant is), it was too early to eat. So to kill time, I wanted to go antique shopping in the downtown area. When we got there, they we're having a car show! We've been trying to go to a car show for a while. I loved looking at the classic cars with the mountains in the backdrop. I took a photo with my phone.

At the restaurant, I ordered pulled pork with potato wedges (not fried in bad oils like french fries), BBQ slaw, green beans (canned, ew) and hush puppies. Hush puppies are not Paleo, but I can't resist eating a couple bites! Side note, I hate getting vegetables at restaurants. You never know if they're going to be canned or not. The pork was nice and smoky, but I don't know why Baby Flay liked the restaurant as a whole, so much. Baby doesn't like canned green beans.

Something really cool about that place was that they make their own ice cream! And waffle cones, too! I have a soft spot for 'from scratch' made things. I saw that they had pumpkin pie ice cream and I couldn't resist! I know it had grain in it, but I was hoping it'd be worth it... and it was! The ice cream was so creamy, I don't think I'd ever had ice cream that creamy before. I want to know their secret! 

And just so you know, the ice cream made me feel gross. I could only eat half of it. 

I saved the rest for the next day!