My big fat weekend recap!

Brace yo selves.  A whole heck of a lot went down this weekend!

Let’s rewind to the premature start of the weekend—Thursday evening’s Chow Down Uptown Food Truck Festival!

This was my second time hitting up the food trucks in Uptown Charlotte, and there were quite a few newbies!

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As soon as I saw “meatball” on Clover Joe’s sign, I had to go for it.  I’m a sucker for a good meatball Winking smile

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My sub came straight out of the (toaster) oven and was topped with ooey gooey cheese.

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It was pretty darn tasty, but I needed to save room for dessert so I downed all the balls and only half of the bun.

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I also snagged some of Vanessa’s fries she got after waiting for-ev-er in the Roaming Fork truck line.  I’m not sure what the heck took so long, but these fries and their herb and parmesan coating were deliciously addicting.  I’d say they were definitely worth the wait.

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Last time I hit up the festival, I nabbed a chocolate cupcake from the Southern Cake Queen truck:

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So this time I decided to spread the sweet tooth love and try out one of the cupcakes from Cupcake Delirium.

Here’s Jamie about to order her Smores cupcake:

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Look how good this thing looks!!  Fire roasted icing and graham cracker crumbles!

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I decided to do something out of the ordinary and got the lemon blueberry cupcake in lieu of my normal chocolatey delight.

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It was light and delicious and tasted like sugary sweet summer in my mouth!

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Taylor followed Vanessa’s recommendation and went with the Elvis Cupcake which featured a banana cake with peanut butter frosting and CANDIED BACON.

Bacon, I say.  Bacon.

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Me with my fellow Charlotte Food BloggersJamie, Vanessa, Taylor, Moi, and Julie!

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After the food truck festival, I headed home to do some last minute cleaning before my bestie Tracy arrived from OH.  Tracy and I have been friends FOR-EV-ER, and I was super excited to spend the weekend with her.

Unfortunately I had to go to a horrendous seminar all day Friday, so Tracy was left to explore the Uptown area by her onesie.

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Once I finally got home from work, we were both exhausted and decided to take naps.  It’s hard to fathom, but Tracy is an even bigger old lady than I am.  She always pays in exact change and even puts tissues up her sleeve in the winter.  I swear on cannolis.

After we caught our Zzzzzz’s we headed to get our grub on at Big Daddy’s!

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I’ll be posting a review of Big Daddy’s soon, so all I’ll say now is that their burgers are REDONKULOUS.

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Also, per Tracy their gluten free buns were really really tasty.  I hear tasty gluten free buns are hard to come by, so kudos to Big Daddy’s for gettin it right!

Post-dinner, we headed to Ri-Ra to enjoy their fabulous rooftop patio in the heart of uptown.

Please ignore the weird face on the bf.  I most likely was in the process of saying something highly intelligent and we was having trouble comprehending 😉

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We headed home shortly after so that we could wake up bright and early Saturday morning for BODY PUMP!  I was really excited she decided to come.  I’ve never had a “friend” in body pump before, and I have to say it made the class even more enjoyable than it usually is!  I was super impressed by how well Tracy did for her first class.  The instructors even commented on her good form!  You go girl Smile  Hopefully she’ll workout with me when I come home to visit!  *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*

Post body pump, we headed to Fuel for some ginormous pizza slices (I’ll post a review soon!).

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And THEN Tracy roped me into going on a Segway tour of the city, courtesy of a Living Social deal she’d purchased for Queen City Segway Tours.

Here.we.go.

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Neither of us had ridden Segways before, and we were pretty excited.  I was honestly a little nervous.  I’m kind of a klutz, and I just had this feeling that if anyone was going to get hurt it’d be me.

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Tracy taking her first mount:

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Clearly, I wasn’t as good of a student:

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I eventually got the hang of it though Smile

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I have to say the tour was REALLY fun.  I’m all about going on tours when I’m traveling, but it never dawned on me to do it in my new hometown.  I am kind of glad I waited though, cuz now I can totally blame my riding a segway on Tracy.

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After the tour ended, we headed back uptown to stroll the city

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Then hopped into the car to drive to the Charlotte’s Giant Head!

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Tracy is kinda quirky (*cough* old lady *cough*) and is into visiting roadside attractions when she travels.  I gotta admit this was pretty darn cool.

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Speaking of roadside attractions, last time Tracy visited Charlotte we made the drive to Highpoint, NC to see the World’s largest chest of drawers!

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So random, but so fun!

For dinner, we met up with Jamie and headed to Zink for appetizers.  Their Lobster Mac & Cheese was ah-mazin.  If it weren’t for the sizzling skillet it was served in, I would of licked that plate clean!

After Zink, we headed to dinner at the Cowfish.  Jamie decided she was an adult and wanted dessert for dinner.  Enter the spiked vanilla cake shake:

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If this doesn’t scream happy in a glass, I don’t know what does.

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Tracy and Jamie’s milkshake photo shoot:

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Thennnnn Sunday rolled around.  I was sad to see Tracy go, so we decided to squeeze in a bit more sightseeing before she hit the road.

I took her to the Noda area to visit some of the shops… too bad none of them were open.  Dangit!  So we strolled around and I showed her some of the artsy nooks and crannies.

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How cool are these eyelashes on this car?!

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Hello shops.  Why don’t you open until 12 on Sunday??

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Twas the end of a fabulous weekend with my gal Tracy.  I hope she comes back soon!

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18 Comments

  1. Looks like an awesome weekend! So many great foods that you tried! 🙂 I love segways! I went on a segway tour in Epcot in Disney World! It was so much fun. We did a tour through all of the countries before the parks were open.

  2. Fun! I love meatball subs – I was on a meatball sub kick for about a year. I’d order them at every restaurant I went to that had them on the menu. (Luckily, that isn’t tooooo many restaurants!)

  3. Holy crap…why in the world did I not know about this food truck festival!? Looks awesome! I need to know where those cupcake trucks park on a daily basis!

    I’ve lived in Charlotte all of my life and I feel like you are uncovering parts of it for me! Can’t wait to see what you have to say about some of those restaurants! The whole reason I found your blog in the first place was when I googled reviews for Mama Ricotta’s…and after going there and taking your suggestions I’ve decided your food recommendations are like gold to me! 😉

    1. The next food truck festival is September 2nd!

      I’m doing my best to get out and explore the city, especially the food!! Now that I know someone out there is actually interested in my restaurant reviews, I’ll be even MORE dedicated to scouting out the delicious spots in the city 😉

      Oh man Mama ricottas…. goat cheesseeeeee mmmm 🙂

  4. i’m not an old lady!…well…maybe a little, ok i am. 🙁 but at least I’m a fun old lady that got your bootay on a segway. AND you got to see the worlds largest head AND the world largest chest! If you didn’t have me you would never had experienced the world of roadside attractions! 😉

    love you mae! I had a FABULOUS time…and yes I will work out with you when you come home because I’m an old lady that is apparently a pansy that needs more muscle because I’m still sore from Saturday body pump

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