66 Days: Wordless Wednesday, Asheville Vacation Photos

70 Days: Adding To The List, Pisgah Inn Edition

This trip was in reality a business trip for the lovely and talented Lisa. The North Carolina Association of Municipal Clerks held its summer conference in Asheville, and since Lisa had a room anyhow, she wanted John and me to tag along. This was great for John and me as we got a vacation in Asheville, but we didn't get to see as much of Lisa as we'd have liked. Nor did Lisa get as much time to tour around as she's have liked. But Saturday afternoon afforded us time between lunch and a dinner reception to go adventuring as a family, so off we went.

Finally together on an adventure

Since John and I drove north on the Parkway on Thursday, we decided to take mom south, somewhere none of had yet been. It was raining as we left, but we were undaunted, because, I mean, why worry about something you can't change? We found a very nice visitor center, which everyone enjoyed despite my family mocking me on the way in over my love of informational signage and maps. Oh, and speaking of maps, I was woefully unprepared for this trip as I felt miserable the night before and didn't study my books or maps before we left. We survived.

Not only did we survive, we made a new discovery, the Pisgah Inn, the Peak of the Parkway. Well, it wasn't completely a surprise. I may have a little bit of a fascination with maps and my have (as John predicted on the way in) found one I didn't have in the visitor center. I saw on that map, while the boy drove on the Blue Ridge Parkway (how cool is THAT!!??!!) and I was in the back seat, the little dude-in-a-bed symbol on the Parkway and hoped we'd make it that far before having to turn around.

The clouds made it even more beautiful

The ride up was awesome. The rain stopped, or we drove above it, and we were treated to cloud-covered mountain views to the east and clear as a bell mountain views to the west. It was a pretty package and quite a treat to get such different views on one short trip. And there were tunnels, which are always fun.

Lisa took a few tunnel photos....

We finally did make it all the way to the Pisgah Inn, which sits plop on the side of the mountain at nearly 5,000 feet. All the rooms have porches or balconies looking out over the Pisgah National Forest, there's a restaurant and a general store. Rooms are not cheap, but nothing in Asheville or the vicinity is and at $155/night, it is really pretty reasonable considering the view.

So now we have unspecific yet very real plans to go stay there for at least a long weekend. Turns out the drive to the Asheville area isn't as long as we thought. We could leave here in the morning and be in Asheville by early afternoon. It's a totally do-able long weekend.

So, one more destination added to the list :-)

73 Days: Off To Asheville

I had planned to make this another Wordless Wednesday using photos from today's trip out to Asheville. But we've only been here about 4 1/2 hours and I already gots words!

Today's trip was long, but with a couple stops it wasn't horrible. Our first stop was Guilford Community Technical College for a tour of the Entertainment Technology department. John is interested in pursuing a career as a sound engineer and this was recommended as one of the best programs for such in the nation, so Lisa scheduled a tour led by Tom Johnson, head of the department. The tour went great, and Mr. Johnson and the facility and program look to be all we could hope and more.

John was impressed with GCTT, here he is in front of their amphitheatre

We left High Point and I took a wrong turn somehow and headed east instead of west on I-40. After I figured that out and turned around and backtracked, we were off with plans to visit the quaint little mountain town of Hickory for lunch. We did get to Hickory for lunch, but as it is the least well-signed and most convoluted pile of street names (they are all numbers, going every way, with at least two Main Streets I saw neither of which leads to any sort of pleasant part of town) in the state, we ended up at Mellow Mushroom just off the ramp back onto I-40 WEST (heh heh), which was delicious, but not what we envisioned.

Leaving Hickory, we finally saw the mountains I was looking forward to seeing. They were covered with rather impressive clouds. Then those impressive clouds sprouted some spectacular (and a bit scary) lightning. Then rain. Lots of heavy rain. On mountain roads in a car prone to slip and slide under any sort of dampness. That wasn't fun. By the time we emerged from the storms were finally closing in on Asheville.

Safely through the storms :-)

We found the hotel lickety split and checked into a 7th floor room with a terrific mountain view. Then it was time to get out into a new city and have a look around.

Room with a view :-)

Charlton Heston got is start right here!

Turns out our hotel is directly next to Thomas Wolfe's boyhood home, now a museum, and the Asheville Community Theatre. We are right in the thick of Asheville's downtown, which is totally cool. So, off we went.

Asheville, if you aren't familiar, is North Carolina's Hippy City. John and I started counted Bernie bumper sticker as soon as we got here. It's that kind of town. We were looking forward to hippy watching and boy were we not disappointed!

We weren't out of the hotel 15 minutes before overhearing someone asking for "vegan nail polish remover." Oh, and it had to be animal cruelty-free, of course. Upon leaving that store we saw a guy sort of wandering in a circle banging on a tambourine. I don't think he was busking, I think he was just wandering in a circle banging on a tambourine. The real buskers were more professional, and quite good. We shopped Mast General Store, ate at a noodle house and had chocolate from a chocolate shop. All in all a great beginning.

Tomorrow, it's more exploring, hippy-watching and a trip to the Pinball Museum. Stay tuned....