With the sunrise coming over the mountains I woke up early, as always. I may be on vacation but my body clock rarely lets me sleep past 6:30am. My husband does not have that problem. I didn’t want to disturb him on his first morning of sleeping in so I threw on jeans and a t-shirt and drove a few blocks to downtown Burnsville for my morning coffee.

Thankfully, Burnsville has a wonderful local coffee shop – Appalachian Java. I ordered a medium mocha to go (a strong 4 out of 5 beans) and resisted the pastry case because the night before we had bought apple fritters for our breakfast. Appalachian Java is very cozy and has extra seating upstairs. Located on Main Street, it’s a great place to people watch. I arrived only a few minutes after they opened at 7am so it was only myself and a few people on their way to work picking up coffee.

I made my way back to the inn and did my best not to wake Cecil but he eventually gave up and got up. We enjoyed breakfast together and after getting ready for the day I left him to his relaxing and treated myself to a manicure and pedicure at a local salon. I rarely have my nails done so for this trip I decided I wanted that to be my special purchase, like Cecil and his locally made gin. Two hours later my hands and feet felt completely pampered and sported beautiful shades of pink.

It was time for lunch so I picked up Cecil and we parked on Main Street for some exploring. When we traveled to Burnsville in 2016 Rad Dawgz Hotdog Joint was still under construction so we were excited to finally try it. Cecil ordered The Betty (homemade pimento cheese and jalapenos) and The Shredder (sauerkraut and spicy mustard) and I chose the Rip Curl (lettuce, tzatziki sauce, sausage crumbles, tomatoes, and blue cheese) with a side of macaroni & cheese. Boy were they delicious! It wasn’t just the toppings – the hotdogs themselves were excellent.

With our hunger fully satiated we walked down Main Street and around the town square. At Something Special Gift Shop I picked up a beautiful dish to be used as a soap dish in our guest bathroom. Connected to Something Special is the Monkey Business Toy Shop. We love wandering through there to be reminded of our childhoods and think of gift ideas for our gaggle of nephews. Our next stop was the Book Cellar, a wonderful, small, used bookstore run by the Friends of the Library.

Our final stop was one of our all-time favorite antique stores, mainly because of its owner. Hammond Antiques is absolutely full of treasures and Mr. Ralph is always happy to help you pick one out. With over 50 years experience he definitely knows how. Having visited during our 2016 trip Cecil went right to the shelf of vintage beer steins and I was instantly drawn in by all the sparkly, vintage jewelry. One of the ways Mr. Ralph gets inventory is through estate sales. He saw me drooling over a case of jewelry, walked out of his office, and said “Let me show you something.” He led me over to two other cases and said he had recently purchased the jewelry from the estate of a woman who had been a flapper in the 1920s. What gorgeous pins and bracelets and necklaces! There was even a collection of beaded handbags. It took me forever but I finally narrowed my choice down to a beautiful sterling pin. I can’t wait to wear it when scarf season finally arrives!

We finally pulled ourselves away from the antique store and went back to the inn to relax and refresh for a bit. After seeing the weather report for Saturday included rain we decided to change our plans and visit Mt. Mitchell State Park today instead of tomorrow. Located about an hour south of Burnsville, it was created as North Carolina’s first state park in 1915. The drive there is nothing but winding roads but the views are completely worth it. It’s free to visit the park and you can drive almost to the top. From the Visitor Center you walk the rest of the way up a short, but very steep, paved walkway to the summit. Mt. Mitchell is the tallest point east of the Mississippi River and I can’t even begin to describe the views. We lucked out because even though it was a cloudy day the summit wasn’t hidden behind clouds. They seemed to be skirting around it.

We slowly made our way back down the trail and visited the gift shop so I could buy a magnet to commemorate our trip. I buy a magnet on every trip we take – the front of our fridge is getting crowded!

Taking in the views one last time we got back in the car and made our way back to the inn. We threw off our shoes and promptly took a nap. Vacation naps are the best!

A couple hours later we changed our clothes and went back to downtown Burnsville for dinner at the Mountain Chef Bistro. Located in a cozy building on Main Street the service was excellent but the kitchen was running a bit slow as the restaurant had quickly filled up. I had the manicotti and Cecil tried the Nashville Hot Chicken pizza (fried chicken bites with a spicy, sweet sauce and dill pickles). My favorite part, though, was dessert. I tried an absolutely delicious chocolate cake. YUM.

We finished dinner and happily returned to the comforts of our room at the inn. After a long but wonderful day we were ready to lock the door and not leave until the next morning.

Stay tuned for Day 3!