NC Mountains, Visiting Banner Elk & Blowing Rock

July 10, 2012 by Cindy
Filed under Blissfull Living, Life

Have you traveled to the mountains of North Carolina? It is truly a trip to be enjoyed. My husband and I went on a small trip this last weekend with some great friends and had a wonderful time. We traveled to Banner Elk where we spent the night and then Saturday went to Blowing Rock. We met at Banner Elk and went on a visit to the Banner Elk Winery.

Here are some of the pictures I took.

Grapes and blueberries are grown at the winery. The property is beautiful, this is a shot of some of the grape wines.

This is taken from the front porch of the building where we went for a wine tasting and the wine is kept in the barrels. There is a pond and a fire pit (circle of rocks) that is really beautiful.

This is the building where they have wine tastings. We sat out on the front porch to enjoy a bottle of Banner Elk Wine but it started raining so we had to go inside.

This is the Banner Elk Winery Villa. You can stay in this beautiful villa which is made up of many different rooms. There are lots of weddings at the Villa and the bride and groom can stay here while the wedding is taking place.

Inside the Banner Elk Villa.

Here we are enjoying a wine tasting with friends.

Our great friends Kathee & Jess.

As I said, it started raining so we came back inside and enjoyed our bottle of wine in the wine tasting room. The painting over the fireplace is one painted by well renowned artist David Banegas, more to see from him later in the post.

Here are the lovely ladies we met while enjoying our bottle of cabernet.

I took this photo of the wine barrels and Instagramed it. Turned out pretty cool looking. I asked if I could get a few wine barrels and they said YES! Soon to come, DIY wine barrel benches. Can’t wait!!

After freshening up and settling in our rooms we headed to the Banner Elk downtown area and met Angelo, (owns the winery) which is good friends with Kathee & Jess. He also owns Serento’s and the Sushi Bar, here he is assisting the famous David Banegas paint this piece of art. How fun is that…

I love this painting by David Banegas of a single horse, his art is amazing. More of him in a minute…

I usually take more food photos but I was a little busy with all that was going on. This is a shot of our DragonRoll, Sushi, it was delish!! Instagramed..

Here David Banegas is in the courtyard painting Batman for Angelo. It was amazing to see his process. Here’s his Facebook Page

Sorry this is an iPhone shot and it’s a bit fuzzy.

We had a great time on Friday with the winery and eating Italian and Sushi, so now we’re off to Blowing Rock for some SHOPPING!! This is a very cool store filled with all kinds of ceramic pots, iron work, furniture, scarves, benches, figurines and much much more. If you get to the mountains you must stop here.

Here are some of the ceramic water features they sell. Also notice the 2 in front of the store, they are beautiful and we want one for our patio project we did at out home. See us build it here.

I just loved these ceramic boots, being a Texan and all that makes sense right??? Wouldn’t these look so cute in my garden with bluebonnets, (Texas state flower) growing in them. I want them…

We are trying to decide about this cabinet for our master bedroom. We are planning on putting a wine & coffee bar in our bedroom. It opens and has a wine rack on one side and storage on the other. The top opens and you can store things inside. I would paint it of course..

I really like this bench, it’s made from old doors $675 so it’s not going with me today. Love the Mariachi Band, so cute….

This is a beautiful piece, navy blue, love this!! I going to try to paint a piece this color soon…

This little cart was one of my favorite things.

We decided to buy this tree face for our kids. We always like to bring them home a little gift when we travel. We’re going to put it on one of our pine trees. Do you have one of these??? Not a goofy husband a tree face??

Next stop this really great antique store, filled with some amazing things.

This antique store was a true antique store. Filled with so many things that made you remember your childhood.

We were getting a little hungry so we headed downtown Blowing Rock for a little lunch. Blowing Rock is such a quaint town, everything is beautiful and there’s lots of SHOPPING!!!

Welcome to Blowing Rock…

The Blowing Rock park is really beautiful. People were just sitting around on benches enjoying themselves, talking, eating ice cream from Kilwins, playing basketball, kids on the playground, and relaxing.

Blowing Rock Park

Our beautiful friends Kathee & Jess, we love to travel with them!

We decided to eat at Glidewells so we can sit outside and enjoy the music. Food was great by the way…

Our server was so nice to take this photo of all 4 of us. We look so relaxed and happy because we are!!!

We had a fabulous weekend and hate that we had to head back to our crazy lives, but we had a few days together and loved every minute of it. Thank you Kathee & Jess for sharing such a great weekend. Can’t wait until our next adventure…