I took a couple of extra vacation days over the weekend and turned it into a decent mini-vacation to Asheville, NC.
What a great town. I highly recommend taking a 4-day weekend to this cool mid-sized town in western NC. Lots of great places to eat, small locally-owned shops and galleries, and outdoor activities galore.
Me and the wife went, and we got stopped by a TN cop a few miles from the NC border. I had been careful not to go too far over the speed limit because of the holiday weekend and there were also cops everywhere in VA along I-77.
So the cop stops me for speeding (70 in a 55, and I never saw a 55MPH sign) and decides to give me a warning, but wants to search the car. (I had shown him my CC license and told him I had no weapons in the car, but I don't think he believed me) He asked if I really had no weapons int he car, and said "I'm not concerned about a small amount of marijuana". RIGHT!! I've watched COPS. Luckily, it's been many years since I've partaken of the halfling's leaf, and since he was cool enough to just give me a warning, I consented to the search. ( he was actually very cool the whole time) If he'd given me a ticket, I'd have had a fit and made him get a search warrant and/or K-9 unit before he searched the car. I told him to put everything back where he found it, and after 10 minutes, we were on our way. He seemed almost disappointed that he didn't find anything. He seemed pretty sure at first he'd be taking me to jail for something.
We got into Asheville about 10 am on Friday, had an early lunch and checked out some shops downtown before checking into our room in the afternoon. We were on the outskirts of town near the regional airport at a Days Inn ($65/NIGHT)
Friday: I needed a short nap after the 8.5 hour drive so I did just that after we checked in. We took showers and headed back into town early in the evening. We ate at an Asian noodle restaurant. I then joined in on the drum circle, which has become pretty famous at Prichard Park. A few of the people in this clip were there. There were about 20-25 drummers total.
Saturday: I had originally planned to hike up Mt. Mitchell on Saturday, but there was a chance of rain (Which didn't happen. Chance was 30 pct... in Cleveland means it's going to rain for sure), so we pushed it back to Sunday. Instead, we went to Chimney Rock to check out the area. Glad we did, it was great. Beautiful area, and there is a killer view from the top of the chimney. You can see the entire length of Lake Lure, which we drove around. As we were entering the park, about a dozen ambulances and other emergency vehicles went screaming past us. I thought maybe there had been a bus accident, but it turns out a 2 year-old boy had fallen to his death on one of the trails above Hickory Nut Falls. After going up to the chimney, we hiked a trail to the falls and then back down to the parking lot, about 2.5 miles, all downhill. I'll take uphill vs downhill on a hike, especially when you have shitty hiking boots like I do. Time to invest in a new pair. We checked out some more shops in Chimney Rock Village, and ate lunch outside next to the river. All the restaurants on the river side of the street had patios overlooking the river. Later, we drove back into town for dinner and a few drinks, along with some live music at a couple of different places. For dinner we chose Mela, an Indian restaurant. Excellent food, casual and trendy atmosphere with large windows overlooking the street that open up to give it an "al fresco" feeling. There was also a dude playing cello which added to the ambiance.
Sunday: Simply getting to Mt. Mitchell was the hard part. It's only 40 miles from Asheville, but it ended up taking us 5 hrs to get there due to 1 mistake on my part, and another on the part of TomTom, my little GPS friend, which took us in a 50-mile loop right back to the roadblock we were trying to avoid. Overall, TomTom treated us pretty well and certainly saved time/fuel reading maps and asking for directions. Anyway, once we finally got there, it was another beautiful place to see. (first off, I highly recommend a long drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway, it's very cool. You can pull off the road just about anywhere you want and the views are spectacular) We drove up to the summit first and had lunch at the park's restaurant, which was very good considering it's run by the state. I have eaten twice at the restaurant inside Everglades NP and it was pretty shitty. Funny story about that...we ate there twice, about 5 years apart, and had the same waiter both times. He hadn't improved in 5 freaking years!! Worst waiter ever, but he was actually comical. Kinda like the keystone cops of foodservice. Anyway... we drove back down a few miles and hiked back up to the summit. One of the most picturesque but yet grueling hikes I've ever done. It was also my 6-month anniversary as a non-smoker...woo hoo! The hike was mostly uphill and I was pretty certain my heart was going to explode a few times, but I made it. The trail pics are all of Old Mitchell Trail.
Monday: We were a little whipped from all the hiking so we slept in and went into town for lunch, then checked out a few more shops. We went back to the room pretty early. We left about 7am on Tuesday.
The weather was prefect the entire time...sunny and 80 every day. I'll probably get back there in the fall.
Saturday: I had originally planned to hike up Mt. Mitchell on Saturday, but there was a chance of rain (Which didn't happen. Chance was 30 pct... in Cleveland means it's going to rain for sure), so we pushed it back to Sunday. Instead, we went to Chimney Rock to check out the area. Glad we did, it was great. Beautiful area, and there is a killer view from the top of the chimney. You can see the entire length of Lake Lure, which we drove around. As we were entering the park, about a dozen ambulances and other emergency vehicles went screaming past us. I thought maybe there had been a bus accident, but it turns out a 2 year-old boy had fallen to his death on one of the trails above Hickory Nut Falls. After going up to the chimney, we hiked a trail to the falls and then back down to the parking lot, about 2.5 miles, all downhill. I'll take uphill vs downhill on a hike, especially when you have shitty hiking boots like I do. Time to invest in a new pair. We checked out some more shops in Chimney Rock Village, and ate lunch outside next to the river. All the restaurants on the river side of the street had patios overlooking the river. Later, we drove back into town for dinner and a few drinks, along with some live music at a couple of different places. For dinner we chose Mela, an Indian restaurant. Excellent food, casual and trendy atmosphere with large windows overlooking the street that open up to give it an "al fresco" feeling. There was also a dude playing cello which added to the ambiance.
Sunday: Simply getting to Mt. Mitchell was the hard part. It's only 40 miles from Asheville, but it ended up taking us 5 hrs to get there due to 1 mistake on my part, and another on the part of TomTom, my little GPS friend, which took us in a 50-mile loop right back to the roadblock we were trying to avoid. Overall, TomTom treated us pretty well and certainly saved time/fuel reading maps and asking for directions. Anyway, once we finally got there, it was another beautiful place to see. (first off, I highly recommend a long drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway, it's very cool. You can pull off the road just about anywhere you want and the views are spectacular) We drove up to the summit first and had lunch at the park's restaurant, which was very good considering it's run by the state. I have eaten twice at the restaurant inside Everglades NP and it was pretty shitty. Funny story about that...we ate there twice, about 5 years apart, and had the same waiter both times. He hadn't improved in 5 freaking years!! Worst waiter ever, but he was actually comical. Kinda like the keystone cops of foodservice. Anyway... we drove back down a few miles and hiked back up to the summit. One of the most picturesque but yet grueling hikes I've ever done. It was also my 6-month anniversary as a non-smoker...woo hoo! The hike was mostly uphill and I was pretty certain my heart was going to explode a few times, but I made it. The trail pics are all of Old Mitchell Trail.
Monday: We were a little whipped from all the hiking so we slept in and went into town for lunch, then checked out a few more shops. We went back to the room pretty early. We left about 7am on Tuesday.
The weather was prefect the entire time...sunny and 80 every day. I'll probably get back there in the fall.
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