When the Newmans offer you to stay in their country home on the Lake of Glenville, you don’t think about it and hesitate. You postpone your flight back home, and you stay three more days North Carolina. Even if you’ve already spent ten days with your favorite aunt and uncle in their charming and cozy cabin, somewhere in Black Mountain. I can’t tell you where precisely, because I promised them to keep it to myself.

North Carolina should change its nickname from the Tar Heel State to the Vacation State. I’ve been to London and Mexico City this year, and although I didn’t do any work except for dental work (in Mexico City), I came back badly needing a vacation. It’s not that North Carolina doesn’t have attractions—it does—but they all involve fresh air, water, trees, live music and delicious cornbreads.

We hiked almost every day and spent the entire weekend by the river or lake. Elana, who’s the female version of Tarzan, took us to all her favorite hikes and made sure, like a good Jewish mother, to pack snacks to picnic by stunning waterfalls. North Carolina has more waterfalls than people. No wonder Elana won’t live anywhere else.

I was so annoyed with myself for saying “wow” about everything, but I swear I couldn’t help it. The landscape was too beautiful, and too relaxing. I tried a few times to worry about the future, but the trees wouldn’t let me. Neither did the gracious people we met on hikes, in cafes, or at the bar in Chimney Rock. The locals were genuinely kind.

Nevertheless, it’s not an all-inclusive kind of vacation; your body will be working hard on those gorgeous trails—we hiked every day for a minimum of 2 hours—but your brain will act as if it was never greedy or wild. Even my American Express was grateful.

Now as much as I’ love being in’m fascinated by nature and its mother, I could never give up good coffee shops, museums, bookstores, or international supermarkets like Buford Highway Farmers Market in Atlanta—and good food. Nunca! Bad food equals bad mood!

I didn’t have high expectations regarding the food, but I wasn’t too worried about it because I knew that our relatives are both good cooks and are as picky about food quality as we are. At some point I looked in the mirror and wished the food wasn’t that great; if I hadn’t hiked every day, I might have come back home looking like one of those black bears that shows up on Elana’s deck every now and then.

If you’re in North Carolina, make sure you eat or have coffee at these places:

• Indian street food restaurant at Chai Pani in Asheville with the impeccable decor 
• The casual Southern food and local artisanal cider at Chimney Rock Brewing Co.
• The pizza made with homemade yeast at White Labs Brewing Co in Asheville
• Juicy, sweet, freshly-picked blackberries from the farmers market in Greer
• Delicious coffee at Methodical Coffee Roasters in Greenville, SC 
• Buck’s Coffee Café in Cashiers
• The addictive coffee in Barista Alley
• Smoked turkey sandwich at The Local in Glenville, NC
• Mead wine at Fae Nectar in Black Mountain
• The fluffy, croissant-like donuts (much better than cronuts) at Parlor donuts in Greenville, SC

I wanted to cook too, but Aunt Elana and Uncle Lloyd insisted on treating me like a queen. I won’t lie, it wasn’t easy for me to be a queen, yet at the same time, I loved it. It feels so good being taken care of for a change.

I didn’t have to cook at the lake house, but the Newmans’ kitchen seduced me with its size and equipment. I made basic meals and New York-Style Bagels, only because we had plenty of time between kayaking or swimming in the lake. Life is too hard, let’s move to North Carolina.