For my birthday this year, Danny gave me something that I’ve been dying for! His idea was to take me to the airport on the Friday after my birthday (Dec 2) and let me choose any place to go for the weekend. Not bad, eh? We both love to travel and we were due for a weekend outside of Boston. It sounds much more exiting to choose a place right at the airport, but I did want to plan a little so we got our plane tickets on Thursday evening to fly out to Asheville, NC on Friday night.
I wanted to go somewhere in the southeast because I’ve never been and I am fascinated by southern culture. I wanted to eat boiled peanuts, hear people say “y’all” and experience the “southern hospitality” I’ve heard so much about. Here is a teaser image from our weekend!
Us:
Here are some of the highlights from downtown Asheville. I’ll try to explain most of them, as Asheville is so very unique!
First, there was a cute soap shop that sold fortune cookie shaped soaps in about 10 different scents. The cat is to symbolize the catwalk where delivery trucks needed to go to bring goods to the shops in the old days. The purple wall and monk was by a new Belgian beer place (yum!). There was a spice shop that sold maybe 40 different kinds of salt, and in the photo you see 4 or so different kinds of smoked paprika. Of course I had to snap a picture of Boston Way in Biltmore Village and a sign of the Biltmore Estate. We didn’t go here because they charge $60 a person just to drive up to it. No thanks!
This place was my favorite in all of Asheville! It was a double decker buss/coffee shop! It is called “Double D’s” and I highly recommend a visit to anyone passing through. They even had a live musician playing on the top floor! How awesome are the tables?
After we had seen the sights of Asheville, we wanted to go see some of the nature around town. We headed to Chimney Rock to climb to the top and work off some of those calories consumed in town. All of these photos were taken in Chimney Rock, NC.
All in all we loved Asheville. The town was about 10 years in the future as far as being environmentally friendly. Everything seemed to run off solar panels and there were recycle bins of all types all over downtown. Tons of coffee shops to just hang out and not a Starbucks in sight! All of the shops had signs on them saying “locally made here in Asheville” and all of the restaurants had the same. There was live music happening in every pub on Saturday night which is something we’re not used to here in Boston, or they charge you $20 to get in. We just roamed the streets and found ourselves in and out of places at night. “DW” from Tupelo Honey Cafe helped us find things to do because we went to Asheville with zero plans and no knowledge of the city. He was great! Also, Tupelo Honey Cafe’s food was so good, I highly recommend it. Even the police officers were friendly, asking how we were doing as we walked on by. In Boston most of the time I am scared to look a police officer in the eye for fear they will start yelling at me for no reason like they typically do.
I leave you with one last photo. As we drove back to Charlotte to catch our flight back to Boston Danny saw this house on a hill and immediately pulled over because he knew that I would love it. What do you think?
As always, thank you for reading!
xo
Wut wut! Can’t wait to see the pics!!!!
Beautiful pictures! (except the making out one, but that’s just ’cause I’m your brother) I love how you get a muted “feel” with some really vibrant colors.
Awesome photos – especially that last one! We loved Asheville and Chimney Rock when we were there. We will be moving as soon as this house sells – perhaps to Hendersonville (south of Asheville). Y’all can come see us when we get there! We’ll share photography notes.
That last one is fantastic. It belongs in a frame. I want it in a frame.
Loved your pictures and articles….I live in Asheville. It is so beautiful and I appreciate how graciously you described our small city.
Wow I totally want to visit there now! That double decker coffee shop is the coolest!!
So jealous!! And if you want southern hospitality, you need to come to ATL! Oh wait …
Wish we could’ve been there with you.
XO
Glad to hear you enjoyed Asheville – my parents retired there a few years back and we’ve spent every Christmas there since. Did you get your boiled peanuts? (more of a Georgia thing, anyway). The bluegrass is excellent there, and there’s definitely lots of good food and coffee downtown. Probably didn’t hear too many ya’lls – Asheville is a little more Seattle than down South, mostly because of all the old retired yuppies.
Hi Peter, I did hear y’alls! Someone even said “y’all have a good’n”. Loved it! Those did mostly happen right outside of town where our hotel was though
I saw a sign for boiled peanuts on the side of the road but we did not get a chance to try them, maybe next time!
SUCH an amazing capture of your experience, all of it! I love seeing the snippets of where your camera was aiming. Makes me want to hop a plane tomorrow and visit! That last shot is gorgeously treated of course too
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