Hi Ben!
Ben and Ryan met years ago through the men’s soccer league team they both played on in Orlando and he’s been a good friend of ours ever since. Ben appeared on the blog many times when we lived in Orlando and also attended our annual Friendsgiving party when we lived in Ocala, but this was our first time having him up to our new home in North Carolina.
Ben arrived in town on Friday and ever since his arrival, we’ve been running around town, eating lots of delicious food and soaking up all the beautiful autumn sunshine we could during his short visit.
The highlight from our weekend with Ben occurred on Saturday night after an awesome two-hour hike at Lake Norman State Park. Once we arrived back home, we showered and immediately headed into the city for dinner at Basil, a local Thai restaurant.
(For those who asked via Instagram, my top is from H&M and my skirt is from Express. Both were under $15!)
Ryan first dined at Basil when he traveled to Charlotte for work last year and came home absolutely raving about the food. It’s been on our list of places to go for dinner since we moved to the area and on Saturday night, we finally had the chance to take Ben and enjoy a bunch of delicious dishes.
The restaurant was smaller and more intimate than I expected for a popular uptown restaurant, but it was lively and a definite hot spot!
Once we sat down and ordered our drinks, we perused the menu and decided that sharing a bunch of dishes was the way to go. We started with two appetizers (the fresh basil rolls and fried wontons) and a large bowl of the Tom Kha Gai soup that easily served three of us.
We knew our meal was off to a great start because all of our starters were fabulous. (The soup was a definite favorite!)
For our main course, we split four entrees: The fried duck salad, Pad Thai, crispy red curry duck and the basil mixed seafood with brown rice.
We enjoyed every single one! There wasn’t one entree that didn’t get rave reviews from our table and we loved each fresh, flavorful dish.
After dinner, we talked about going out downtown, but while we were eating we started chatting about what we’d eat for our last meal on earth (which, yes, sounds like rather morbid dinner conversation, but it was interesting!) and we quickly came to the conclusion that the three of us share an intense love for ice cream. Ben suggested bringing one of our “last meals” to life and within 30 minutes, we found ourselves roaming the aisles of Target, selecting four different flavors of ice cream to bring back home for a rockin’ Saturday night ice cream sundae bar.
It was basically my heaven.
Once we arrived home, we each filled our bowls with a smorgasbord of ice cream, peanut M&Ms and whipped cream.
(Hi Sadie!)
You better believe I went to bed feeling like one happy little lady! It was a rather random Saturday night but any Saturday night that involves lots of ice cream is a good one in my book!
I’ll be sure to share a little more about our weekend activities later today, but right now I’m heading out to teach a barbell strength class. I’ll see ya later this afternoon!
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Any chance we can find out where Ben’s sweater is from? Also, I bought my mom the small appliance slider tray you recommended on one of your Friday posts and she loves it! Thanks for the great idea!
SO happy to hear this!! It’s such a small little thing but it really makes a difference if it’s something that you use every day! 🙂 And I’ll text Ben now about his sweater!
That is too funny! I was wondering the same thing about Ben’s sweater as soon as I saw the first picture. I’m glad I’m not the only one! That ice cream smorgasbord looks divine. Any Saturday night that ends in ice cream is a great Saturday night in my book.
This sounds like kind of a perfect day! Great food, AWESOME dessert, good company.
Also, can I just say this may be one of my favorites of your outfits? You look great!
Thank you, Starr!
I love Basil and eat there way more than I should!
By myself, between Friday morning and Saturday afternoon, I finished an entire loaf of Italian bread. So, needless to say I think my last meal would be lots and lots of bread.
I love your outfit! Super cute! You always seems to have the best time on the weekends. Love hearing your weekend reviews 🙂
Hi Julie,
This outfit looks gorgeous on you. Do you think the skirt is true to size?
love your outfit!!!
Never been to Basil sounds great!!
Now I want ice cream 🙂
Holy crap Ben is CUTE
Ha!! 🙂
Ben’s cute! Is he single 😉
Ditto!
Ditto! Is he single???! 🙂
Ha! Yessss! Single and ready to mingle. 🙂
When my roommate and I moved to Charleston, the first night here we ate at Basil and then split a pint of ice cream. It is seriously the best night ever!
Is that peppermint ice cream already! No way!
I love your outfit too….and where did you purchase Sadie’s adorable sweater? You, Ryan and Sadie are such a cute family!
My mom actually bought it for her so I’m not sure! If I had to guess, I think she probably got it at either Petsmart or Marshalls. 🙂
LOVE the last meals on earth game – thank you, Julie & Ryan 🙂 and what a fabulous idea, Ben!!! We must do this next time we play!! 🙂 Misssss you!
Ben is quite the cutie!! And an ice cream smorgasbord?! YES PLEASE!!
-AJ