This post is going to be a short and dull one since it seems like ancient history (now that I’ve already been back in Southeast Asia for over a week) and because it’s probably not that interesting to most people.
I spent about a week at an Airbnb in suburban Minneapolis, followed by my cousin Kelsey’s wedding weekend, then flew to Chicago for a few days to visit some friends, then flew to Asheville for another wedding (a good friend from college) before flying back to the bay area. The vast majority of my time in all these places was spent having reunions with family, college friends, San Francisco friends, and even Thailand friends. When I wasn’t doing that, I was usually out exploring the city.
Minneapolis was a pleasant surprise. The weather was perfect while I was there and I found a lot of great food and craft beers, which I wasn’t expecting. Granted, most of the food was American, but on more than one occasion, I settled into a bar, had a veggie burger with sweet potato fries and a craft IPA, and realized it was one of the best American meals I’ve had in a long time. Special shout out to Blue Door, which has been featured on the Food Network, and rightly so. I went there on a Friday afternoon and the place (which is not small) was packed with more people waiting outside. At 3:00!
Asheville was also pleasant, though I can’t claim it was a surprise since I had heard many good things about it before going. It’s a city with many dimensions to its personality: humble, artsy, musical, hippie, new age, organic, vegetarian, hoppy (as in, lots of beer), a bit bummy, and Southern. My impromptu craft beer tour of the country hit its crescendo in Asheville, which is apparently the new microbrewery capital of America, overtaking Portland. There’s no way I could forget that fact, as I was reminded of it by locals many times during the weekend.
While in Asheville, I caught a show my first night there – Trombone Shorty at The Orange Peel, both of which are highly recommended – and also went on a Friday afternoon hike. The rain had been off and on the whole time I was in town, but I decided to head to DuPont State Forest regardless. It was a gorgeous hike with several waterfalls, not including the massive one I had to walk through at the very end: when I was about half an hour from my car, a massive thunderstorm rolled through, the sky opened up, and I was drenched within seconds. Given that I had my raincoat and a waterproof backpack, the little kid in me had a ton of fun hiking around in the heavy rain. Needless to say, the only photos I have from that day are pre-storm.
The two weddings were the usual weekends of fun and reunions, filled with good food and drink, lots of laughs, and the requisite getting a little bit softer now, getting a little bit louder now, and Cupid shuffling.
With the last of my stateside obligations finished, I flew back to the bay area for two days of errands, last-minute tasks, and goodbyes before taking off for the next adventure (more on that in the next post). With that, I leave you with a context-less smattering of photos from my last two weeks in Murrika.
