It’s been a bustling week and a half around here. From Annapolis to Gatlinburg to home. Then Saturday morning I was up and out early for another quick getaway to Greenville, SC. Greenville is about 2.5 hours from me and happens to be a fairly central location for all my college best friends, so after a few YEARS of not all being together, we finally made it happen!

Christen, Alexis, Jenny, Kristin, and I all met up late morning at the new Grand Bohemian Lodge in downtown Greenville. It’s quite an impressive hotel with rich jewel tones, an impressive stone fireplace, and an incredible location right on Reedy Creek, right in downtown. Once we parked our cars, we could walk everywhere we wanted to go, and on a beautiful fall day, Greenville was bustling with people and music. It’s the cutest town.

But first we set up massages at The Grand Bohemian Spa. Surprisingly for such a grand hotel, the spa is quite simple and small. However, the massage was a good one and they were able to accommodate all five of us at one time in only four treatment rooms (Jenny and Kristin had a couple’s massage, ha!), so we were grateful and the experience was rejuvinating.

Afterwards we walked to Hall’s Chophouse. Wanting to take advantage of the gorgeous day, we sat outside, ordered food and drinks and did a deep dive of catching up on everyone’s lives. Though we keep in touch with sharing the highlights, there’s nothing like having hours to dive deep into the details of each others’ lives again.

After a leisurely lunch we walked back to the hotel. We spent some time hanging out in the room watching college football and talking. We finally got moving and got ready to head out. Since Christen lives in Greenville, she was able to pick out our itinerary, and she certainly knows where to go! We started the evening at Juniper, a unique spot that offers a rooftop bar, but also a speakeasy. It was not only adorable, but the craft cocktails were next level delicious. It provided the perfect atmosphere to walk down memory lane and they were quite kind to us considering our laughter volume had to be louder than the average.

We left Juniper to head to our dinner reservations at Jianna, a happening downtown Italian spot. We ordered food to share and everything was incredible. From the shishitos to the whipped ricotta to the star of the show- Cacio e Pepe, we devoured it all.

Afterwards we walked back to the hotel where we made a brief stop by the bumping bourbon bar on the lowest level before deciding pajamas and more chatting in the room suited us better, so we called it a night.

The next morning we were all up and out before 8:00 to make it home to feed babies, get to work, or food prep for the week. We are in different phases of life and I know how busy everyone is, but we all agreed we need to make this happen more often. Spending 24 hours with friends I’ve had for 20+ years filled me up; I sure do love those sweet friends of mine.

I grabbed tea and breakfast from Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery before hitting the road. I stopped at Whole Foods to grab food for the week and snag a few deals they had on freezer favorites. We worked out, I made sausage, kale, and tomato pasta, then we snuggled up and watched Goosebumps. I didn’t know what to expect but I thought it was great! It’s a little Halloween scary, but fairly mild, and has a lot of humor, too. My 11 and 8 year old enjoyed it and are already asking to watch the second. Check out these 25 Not-So-Scary Halloween Movies for Kids

And that’s a wrap on the weekend! This week brings a return to school lessons, a full week of sports practice, some gorgeous weather, co-op, and squeezing in a few more Halloween movies. October is the best. I hope you have a great week; thanks for making my blog a part of your Monday; I’m grateful you’re here!