Ah, Asheville... For too long you and I have not crossed paths. I have driven by you many times on my way to the old religious pastures of my youth. (That's Montreat, for those of you that don't know.) M & I flew to Greenville, SC and drove the hour to Asheville this weekend. It was definitely a fun time. When we returned to the airport this morning I had a hard time believing that we had techinically been gone less than 48 hours (just a smidge shy of it by like, 45 minutes). It is hard to believe in the past two days I've had Chick-Fila & Sonic (We miss things we're used to when we're taken out of our environment. "we" meaning me and the "environment" being the South where there is good chicken and Cherry Limeades).
I have seen Biltmore Estate, petted a Merino sheep and young goat, watched smelly hippies prostletizing in a park, seen a window exhibit on
Jewish families of Asheville, seen a girl with the word: HOMO tatooed on her pretty arm, bought a book at an independent bookstore and seen more happy dogs than I can count. We also drove to the top of Mt. Pisgah via the Blue Ridge Parkway and got M some new shoes at the
Mast General Store. We weren't ableto actually find the waterfall hike we had planned on taking and in the end we find a wiggledy road and went over some mountains, through some valleys and over some rivers.
The
Biltmore Estate was interesting and ostentatious. Even stranger is the guy, George Vanderbilt, is buried in Staten Island along with the other Vanderbilts. I somehow need to examine this undiscovered richness of M's old stomping ground as it is a mystery to me. The estate itself is very European, no doubt about that. I wonder what the folks of North Carolina thought about it when it was built in 1895. It had to be something like no one had ever seen and it amazes me that it was occupied for as little time as it was. There were so many rooms on display that most of them are a real blur now. Back last year my Mom took a rooftop tour and thought that was really neat. We didn't do any extras or even stop at the winery. We did pet the farm animals and see a girl clog at the farm. However, I think M wants to put a bowling alley in the basement. Oh dear!
I know I talk about food a lot here, but I did want to give a big round of applause to the
Tupelo Honey Cafe. We were the last people seated before they closed Sunday afternoon, we had a great wait person and the food was delicious. Just a few items to enjoy about them:
*Instead of a pickle, they serve a pickled okra pod
*They served biscuits with jam and butter instead of regular plain old bread
*They have sweet tea (Well, every place did, but theirs was extra yummy)
*Blacked fish on grits
*Honey on the table
*They get their honey from the
Smiley Apiary*Go there. You won't be sorry!
