Asheville, NC
Dan and I took a day trip to Asheville, North Carolina for a little date/work day and had such a great time! A family friend of ours started her own travel company called Rowan Tree Travel that runs tours internationally and nationally focusing on fibercraft (wool, knitting, etc.) and I’ve done a bit of work for her here and there the last few years. This time she asked me to take some pictures for her over in Asheville for an upcoming tour this fall.
It was a little different than our typical trips we take to explore new cities while travel nursing, because a lot of the stops were planned out for us already. Honestly, I think we both enjoyed that because we didn’t have to fight our own indecisiveness as much when choosing what places to check out. We saw a lot of interesting shops, museums, and restaurants that we probably wouldn’t have if we were just going there for fun.
We got up super early that morning because it’s a solid two/two and a half hours to Asheville, and made our first stop in the town of Black Mountain. It was such a cute and picturesque small town with lots of fun shops, cafes, and restaurants.
After that we stopped in at the Folk Art Center which is a kind of local artist/Appalachian arts and crafts museum. Next we made our way to the River Arts District in Asheville to walk along the French Broad River and spot some murals. Unfortunately, the classic “Stay Weird” mural painted on a giant silo by the railroad tracks was painted over, but the silos were still fun to check out. We actually ended up meeting a guy that had recently done some of the graffiti on one of the smaller silos. He was wondering if we could send him some of my pictures of it so I passed those along to him after we got back.
We stopped in at a couple art studios in Asheville, and at one of them I met an artist who was working on a painting of sheep which I thought would be perfect for the wool/knitting themed tour. She was kind enough to let me take a few pictures on her working on the painting. After that we made our way to downtown and stopped in at a bunch of local restaurants and shops to get some photos.
The Grove Arcade was beautiful and particularly impressive with its unique architecture. Of course the French Broad Chocolate Lounge was one of my favourites. I’d had chocolate crème brûlée before, but ironically not with the crunchy sugar top so that was exciting to get the best of both worlds there. We also really enjoyed the food, drinks, and view at Hemingway’s Cuba. We decided to go there honestly just for the rooftop views to try and get some fun pictures overlooking Asheville.
All in all it was a great day and a lot of fun. We were pretty exhausted by the end of it and probably should have found a way to make it work in our schedules to stay the night, but alas. Next time 🙂
OUR ASHEVILLE FAVOURITES
- the town of Black Mountain
- Dripolator – a café in Black Mountain with a great cheddar jalapeno bagel
- French Broad Chocolate Lounge – need I say more?
- Hemingway’s Cuba – fun drinks and incredible views from this rooftop bar & restaurant
- Riverside Studios – watch local artists work and look through some of their incredible work!
- the Wright Inn – absolutely beautiful and charming inn built in 1899 with the sweetest owners
- Grove Arcade – fun spot to explore with lots of local shops inside
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