A Weekend Staycation in Uptown Charlotte

Did you know that today is the first time since 1948 that the Summer Solstice and a full moon have happened at the same time?

We are all feeling super excited about summer over here! 🙂

I’m an experience kind of person when it comes to gifts. I’d much rather do/see/experience something than receive a traditional gift so when my fiance suggested a staycation date night for my birthday I gave him two thumbs up! Note, we made these plans a couple of weeks before my birthday. The surprise party alone was more than enough celebration but I was happy to have a night just the two of us! <3

After teaching our classes on Saturday morning we got packed up and hit the pool for a couple of hours before checking into the Charlotte Marriott City Center. I worked with the Marriott last year on a project and received a complimentary stay that we had yet to take advantage of. The City Center Marriott is on the tail end of completing a massive renovation. Luckily, all of the guest rooms and the gym were completed for our stay and everything is slated to be done around the end of the summer. I’ll be sharing a complete review of the renovated Marriott tomorrow. It was awesome and a great step in the right direction for travel and wellness.

We checked in around 5 and had commenced happy hour by 5:30. We took our time checking out the hotel, lounging in the room and getting ready before heading out for dinner. I was excited to wear this BCBG dress that my mom and I got back in January when I was visiting. The pattern and flow-y-ness (I made that word up) of the dress are perfect for summer!

BCBG has always been one of my go-to spots for dresses. This dress is sold out but they’re currently offering 30% off all markdowns on both their main site and their factory site. Tons of dresses on sale.

We had dinner reservations at The Capital Grille. They brought the wine list out on an iPad and it allowed you to search by varietal and also provided a description/tasting notes for each wine. It was a gorgeous night in Charlotte so we opted to dine on the patio. It was perfect for soaking up the energy of the city and people watching.

We each had a lobster and crab cake to start. I’ve always loved crab cakes but the addition of lobster to these really took them over the top!

And for our meal we split the 10-ounce filet and the soy glazed brussels sprouts with smoky bacon. Everything was so good!

We decided to walk around after dinner and discovered a street right in the heart of uptown that was closed off for the night. I had my DSLR camera with me and the lighting and backdrop were amazing for a couple of yoga shots. I always think it’s fun to get them outside of the studio and out of conventional yoga clothes. (FYI…I started a new Instagram account where I’m sharing lots of yoga flow videos and photos. You can follow it @poweryogaflow.)

We ended the night back in our room and watched Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix. It’s our newest obsession! 🙂

The Center City Marriott has the best hotel gym I have ever seen so we wanted to take advantage of it before checking out. We slept in and then worked out.

Our final stop was brunch at 5 Church where we ordered three entrees. We were both sold on the Belgian waffles with chai-infused maple syrup as soon as we read about them on the menu so we split them as an appetizer.

He had the lamb burger.

And I had two eggs over medium, bacon, toast and home fries.

One of our friends came over to dog/house sit for the night so we went home after brunch to relieve him of his duties. The rest of our Sunday was spent teaching (both of us had one class to teach), dog walking and relaxing.

My birthday week was so much fun but I am happy that the festivities have come to a close. I can officially wave the white flag on sugar right now and I’m looking forward to a “regular routine” kind of week. I’m teaching 14 classes this week + it’s a teacher training weekend so yoga will be keeping me very busy!

I hope you guys have a great week!

Are you more of an “experience” or “things” gift person? 

Are you more pancakes/waffles/french toast or egg-ish for brunch? 

Big thanks to everyone who entered the Newton Running giveaway. Congratulations to comment #196, Kaitlyn, who says, “I love to run for many reasons. Running makes me feel strong! I also like how accomplished I feel after a run. Not all runs are fabulous and easy, but those hard runs sure make the easy ones that much better!” I used a random number generator to select the winner. I wish I could send ALL of you new shoes! xx