Honeymooning in Asheville Part 4

During the first couple of rainy days in Asheville, I would look at the forecast for Saturday and think yes. Saturday will be my day. My voice will be back and it's not supposed to rain. And later on I figured I wouldn't be (as) motion sick by then. So we planned a long hike in the Blue Ridge mountains. Our first stop was the Visitor's Center in the Blue Ridge Parkway, a sort of national park highway that extends through several states with various scenic spots and places to hike and be outdoorsy along the way. I was impressed with the resources and quality of the visitor's center, shown below.

A park ranger steered us toward a trail that led to a waterfall, and after consulting the map, we were on our way. Unfortunately, the Blue Ridge Parkway winds quite a bit, and we determined after a few minutes that we should abandon our original idea and try a different path. It wasn't a hard decision to make, since we saw plenty of places along the road with parked cars and trailheads. We decided to try one of the trails along the road and hoped it led somewhere interesting. It was marked with white paint on the trees per usual, but we never saw anything indicating how far we'd gone, or where we were going. 

Most of the trail was wide and clear enough that we could have run on it, but it was also a pretty steep grade. We hiked for over an hour in one direction and then turned back. Based on the tree line and all the climbing we kept thinking that the top MUST be close. But we never came to any kind of look out point or clearing. The path just seemed to keep going. We veered off on a smaller path near the top to see if there was a view. The only thing we came upon was an abandoned camp site that didn't look too old to me and the whole thing kind of gave me the creeps. So back down the mountain we went, setting a timer on my phone to remind us to drink from our fuel belts every 15 minutes.

We bought sandwiches at City Bakery before heading out and ate them when we returned to the car. We were both hungry and tired by that point, and those sandwiches were pretty much the best thing I'd ever eaten.

Before leaving the Blue Ridge Parkway we stopped at the Folk Art Museum. 

First we looked at funny things in the gift shop, like these 3" musical instruments. 

I jokingly suggested that we buy one of these hand carved wooden hats for our future dog and John pointed out that they cost about $95.

Then we saw exhibits of folksy art, like cornhusks made into dolls and other figurines.

Large moose statue.

Then it was time to drive a little further to Black Mountain, NC to taste beer at Pisgah Brewing. 

Their bourbon barrel stout was also delicious, and I was happy that it came in 4 oz pours. This might have been John's favorite brewery, but it's hard to choose a favorite in a place like this. Like a lot of the breweries we visited, Pisgah is basically a giant warehouse with the garage door open. Across the parking lot they had a music venue with a little hippie festival set up. Those tents had booths with people selling soap and petitioning to legalize marijuana. You know, the usual. 

John knew of another brewery in Black Mountain so we left Pisgah to try to look around the little town, and we took turns sitting in this rocking chair at the visitor's center.

I know you're thinking, "Black Mountain? Like, the Black Mountain?"

And the answer is yes, it's the same place where John Cage and his friends started Black Mountain college. We saw a historical marker about it in the downtown area. 

We walked around and found a bakery where John got a pastry. 

I offered to keep driving if he wanted to taste more beer, but I think Pisgah did him in. John was officially out done by the breweries of North Carolina. 

Once we had returned to Asheville and washed the mud off, we went to Salsa's for dinner. We hemmed and hawed for a while before choosing this place, and we were so glad we did. It's like you can throw a dart at a map of Asheville and find a good restaurant. We both had an enchilada dish that was out of this world. 

The next morning we had one final southern breakfast at Mayfel's, a New Orlean's style place that had some of the best vegan sausage I've ever tried and heavenly grits. It was a great end to our stay in Asheville. 

And so our trip to NC came to a close. We both feel like we just scratched the surface in terms of food, beer, and hiking in the area. I hope we can go back!

Honeymooning in Asheville Part 3

When we planned our trip, we hoped to find something fun in Asheville to do on the Fourth of July. Had it not rained, we would have had no problem. Asheville has the usual fireworks, but they also have a street fair and a kiddie parade. But since all of that was rained out, we had no plans. I was kind of worried that everything would be closed, Canada-style, since federal holidays in Canada mean that everything you might want is closed. I checked with the grocery store to make sure they were open so we could cook for ourselves if everything was closed. Of course, this is America, and the grocery store near the house was open 24 hours, just like a regular day. 

Anyways, we decided to call up some friends of ours who live in the area, and who we pretty much never get to see. They are the family of John's roommate who passed away suddenly while they were both grad students at UT Knoxville, and we've been fortunate to stay in touch with them over the years.  We drove about 90 minutes to their house where his former roommate's parents, their children and grandchildren had gathered for the holiday. It was a lovely evening and I'm grateful that we go to see them. 

I'm not so happy to say that the drive from the lake house back to the main road, and then back to Asheville, made me more motion sick than I've been in years. I'm still feeling the effects of it a few weeks later, which is partly why I'm posting these recaps in large batches. 

Anyways, I spent a lot of July 5th lying in bed, waiting for the room to stop spinning and trying to choke down some saltines and sprite. Delicious. 

After a couple hours and a walk around the neighborhood to get my balance back in order, we headed downtown for biscuit sandwiches, tea (for me) and espresso (for John) at City Bakery.

We decided to try a few breweries inside Asheville and then take a break in case I got sick. Happily, I was able to hang out (but not quite participate) at several breweries that afternoon and I felt a lot better by the evening, as is typically the case with bad bouts of my motion sickness.

We stopped by Wedge before it opened, but I snapped a picture from the outside: 

In the mean time, we went to French Broad brewing: 

We both liked their IPA and golden ales, and we were impressed with their not-too-sweet Scotch Ale, especially since neither of us normally go for scotch ale.

Next we headed to Green Man, where we had probably the weirdest flight. 

My stomach wasn't up for tasting all these beers, but John thoroughly enjoyed them. I really liked the porch, especially since it, too, was dog friendly. I saw a terrier that had coloring more similar to Toby's than any dog I've ever seen.

I have to say, I saw some very good dog owners in Asheville. Places that encourage guests to bring their dogs seem like they could be chaotic, since dog owners range so widely. And let's face it, everything thinks their dog is good. Many times a dog has lept at me while I'm on a run, and the owner will casually shout, "Oh, he's fine. He doesn't bite." I'm left thinking that the person is crazy and their dog is out of control. But the dogs I saw in Asheville were mostly calm and well-mannered, especially in public places like brewery patios.

After a nap, we went back out for cocktails,

....and then we walked around in our rain gear while waiting for dinner....

...at Chai and Pani, an Indian place that specializes in what they call Indian street food. This place was casual and, to me, reasonably priced. And the food was some of the best we had.

John whistled along with the song playing in the background.

The final dish we ordered was a sort of green mango salad with peanuts, cilantro, and a sort of house-made cornflake topping. It was spicy and refreshing, the best possible end to the meal. In a way I'm sorry we didn't go back there, but every place we went for dinner made me feel that way.

We made a stop after dinner for a box of chocolates at a store that had a beautiful, edible aquarium display.

Then we went back to Wedge so John could find his happy place. This is him saying, "I have all the beers!"

Behind him here you can see a food truck, along with people drinking beer outside and playing bean bag toss. The rain finally let up and we enjoyed sitting outside. And, by this point, I could almost talk normally. It was a great end to what started as a very rough day.

Honeymooning in Asheville Part 2

It rained for the first three days of our honeymoon. In fact, those days coincided with the number of days it took for my voice to come back after I lost it during the wedding weekend. John was a real trooper the whole time; he never complained, and he held up more than his end of the conversation. 

We started our second day at Tupelo Honey Cafe, where they have breakfast all day and a special drink menu called The Pickled Okra. I had the first of many servings of grits (among other things), while John had a very southern breakfast: fried chicken and biscuits with gravy, and a fried egg on top (the waitress talked him into that last bit). He could have wept for how much he loved that meal.

We spent most of the rest of the day at the Biltmore Estate. The two-hour-long audio tour was the perfect activity since I couldn't speak, and we avoided some of the worst weather while we were inside. 

It's hard to adequately describe the scope of the Biltmore. I've never seen anything quite so large and opulent, except, maybe, the Louvre. Every room is filled with original art work, Albrecht Dürer prints, sculpture, tapestries from the early Renaissance, etc. As Kira has said, the price of the ticket is staggering at first. But the whole place is a museum, from the wall paper and furnishings to the actual works of art housed there. It was interesting to tour it after seeing the recent Great Gatsby film (and after reading the book this spring for the first time). Not that the periods are the same - the Biltmore is from the 19th century. But the grandeur reminded me of that book. The indoor swimming pool with tile designed by the same person who designed the New York City subway system. The grounds, carefully constructed (by the man who designed Central Park) to seem naturally idyllic. The wealth of the place was overwhelming.

Photography is forbidden inside the house. After we finished our tour, John pulled a surprise peanut butter cup out of his pocket and we had a chocolate break. Then we set off to see what we could of the gardens before it really began to rain.

 In case you were wondering, this is the side view.

We saw some of the French garden. 

And the garden house. 

The garden house had designated rooms for different plants. The hot room, the cool, room, the dry room, the succulent space, and the orchid room:

I liked this one below because it looks like the two blooming orchids are riding some kind of alien animal with their arms raised. Do you see the same thing? No? Never mind then.

I wanted to spend another hour at least walking around the grounds, as the garden complex is large in itself, but the rain stopped us. We skipped most of Biltmore Village and headed back to Asheville to continue exploring. Up to this point, I had been communicating via a large pad of sticky notes. But those were hard to keep track of and my stack began to grow thin. So we went to Downtown Books and News to find a notebook.

Mission accomplished.

I was frustrated from having to write down everything I wanted to say. But in a way, I'm glad I have a written record of some of our conversations, many of which seem like non-sequitors. And it's handy to have a notebook in your purse while on vacation. I always had a place to jot down directions and record my opinions on various beers we tried.

Our first stop for beer that day was LAB, and it's the only place I'd honestly recommend that you skip if you happen to be in town. Their pizza hit the spot, but the beer was really meh. Nothing had any flavor or life in it. 

Next we headed to Asheville Brewing, one of the better places we visited. It was really pouring by that point, so I was happy to be anywhere. And we noticed that they have a special night aimed at dog owners who sit outside with their dogs with treats provided.

At that point I think I had enough of writing everything I wanted to say, and we were sort of on the fence about dinner. We ended up having a drink and small plates at Seven Sows Bourbon and Larder (where I somehow didn't take any photos, but everything was delicious), and then hit up both a taqueria and a snazzy beer bottle shop before spending the evening back at the B&B. It was nice to finally get my soaking wet Toms off for the night. 

Honeymooning in Asheville Part 1

Once John and I had a few days to recuperate in Bloomington, we drove about 7 hours south to Asheville, NC for our honeymoon. We chose Asheville for a few reasons: 

• John fries like an egg in the sun, so a beach vacation seemed like a bad idea. 
• We didn't want to fly so that our schedules could be especially flexible, and because it was cheaper. 
• Asheville is close enough to Bloomington, and has lots to recommend it: beautiful scenery, outdoorsy activities, good food, and more breweries than we could count.

So we made a reservation at an Air B&B place (more on that in a minute) and stayed Tuesday through Sunday. All the funds for the trip were included in the generous wedding gift I received from my brother, and it was fun to pretend for a week that we had high paying jobs. I think John and I have been poor long enough that we're very easy to please when it comes to vacations. We get to eat out - every night! And we can pay for parking!

Our first stop was Wicked Weed, a brewery with fantastic food. 

My favorite beer upstairs was the Cool Cumber. It's based on a gin cocktail with basil and cucumber, and it was cool and refreshing. For my tastes, their peach habanero was kind of meh, but I liked the idea. On the whole, though, most of their beers were pretty good. We eventually made it downstairs to try their more limited release beers. 

The basement room opens up to a second patio and, as you can see above, it only had five beers on tap. But they were the best. The bourbon barrel stout in the photo below was by far the best thing I drank all week. And because we were in America, where things are cheap, it was only about $5. The beer was so good that I started to think it would be fun to wear John's summer vacay hat.

Before dinner, we bought raincoats (again, more on that to come) and poked around the stores downtown while we waited for a table for dinner.

We learned right away that Asheville is very dog friendly. Those coasters were only the first of many indications.

For dinner the first night, we decided to try Curate, the tapas place we'd heard so much about. 

All the things we heard were true. It was probably the best dinner we had all week, well worth the wait for seats at the counter. I didn't photograph all the food, but each thing seemed better than the last.

White, pickled asparagus with a homemade whipped mayo.

Breaded and fried eggplant with local honey and rosemary (how is this so good?).

Goat cheese stuffed pimentos.

Some kind of custardy cream with fruit on the bottom and caramel on top. 

Here's the reading alcove at our B&B, just outside our room. 

And the view from the front door. 

This was the first time we've used Air B&B and I was so glad we did. The room was very affordable; our five-night stay was less than $400, and it had pretty much everything I could want. The room and private, attached bathroom were clean and well stocked. It's part of a "Model Community" home, in that the mother-daughter team that own and rent it also live with other renters, and they have various types of agreements about rent and responsibilities. Everyone we spoke with in the house was accommodating and polite. With downtown only about a half mile away, we were well located by all the places we hoped to go, as well as a couple grocery stores an bakeries. The house felt completely safe and welcoming, friendly as well as private. I would definitely stay there again.

More to come!