Asheville Day Three

After dropping Josh off, I went to this place called the Green Sage for breakfast. It was yummy French toast and fruit and I had a realization while I was there – if you want to be vegan, live in Asheville. Seriously, in every restaurant I visited there were at least two vegan options. 

I tried to take a picture of my breakfast but didn’t want to get caught doing that thing of taking a picture of my food. So it’s blurry.

After breakfast, I went back to the room and packed some supplies and drove out to this place called the Linville Caverns to explore some caves. It was about an hour drive and I had to stop at Goodwill to pick up a sweatshirt. The website had warned me that the tours were about 45 minutes and the temperature in the caves is 52°. It was so cool! There were blind trout swimming in the stream and tons of stalactites and rock formations. It was pretty amazing to think of how old everything in there is; the guide told us that it takes 120 years to add a single cubic inch to a stalactite.

By far my favorite part was the total darkness demonstration. The guide took us into an open area and then turned off all the lights. It was so freaky! At first, you expect your eyes to adjust after a minute or two but they never do. I literally couldn’t see my hands in front of my face. Our guide told us that it only takes about two months to go completely blind in total darkness but only about two weeks to go insane. Thankfully she turned the lights back on after that 🙂

Afterward, I drove back to the hotel and had my leftovers from the night before for lunch and once again did nothing for most of the afternoon 🙂

After I picked Josh up, we decided to go out for Japanese for supper and then mini-golfing. I was really proud of how well I was doing (I was tied or beating Josh for most of it) but he ended up getting a hole in one on a hole where you subtracted two strokes if you went through the volcano. Sooo, he won. Again. But it was really fun to go on a “date”!

Josh’s “prize” was me buying him an ice cream at marble slab. Which is basically Coldstone with a different name. Also, walking downtown at night to get ice cream, my sweet husband says, “That is weed I smell, right?” 😂 So funny because 1) he assumed I would know, I’ll try not to be offended by that and 2) the fact that he didn’t know. But yes, between the cigarettes, cigars, pipes and weed, the walk was quite an aromatic experience 🙂

We went back to the room at 9:30 and played chess and went to sleep. Because we are WILD. 

Asheville Day Two

After enjoying my morning of essentially doing nothing yesterday, I decided to make it the theme for the day. I did drive out to an apple orchard to do some apple picking. It’s about a half hour away from Asheville and the drive was really pretty. Although it would probably have been better on a motorcycle or in a cute little convertible. Going around all those narrow winding roads in my mom van didn’t have quite the same effect. 

When I got there, I was super disappointed with the lack of good fruit to be picked. I asked the woman working about it and she said they had been really picked over during Labor Day weekend and the next varieties weren’t ready yet. Oh well, I still got some apples and fresh cider and got to smell the truly unique smell of cider donuts being made. All of it reminded me so much of growing up, although this was my first apple picking experience where I could also get barbecue. Actually I had expected a lot of the scenery to remind me of where I grew up, but it’s just not the case. It’s so different, even though being surrounded by mountains and trees is similar – the feel isn’t the same.

After that, I went back to the hotel and went to a lunch place called the Green Sage. It was a tasty, healthy eating kind of place and the walk from the hotel was pleasant.

And that was the last “real” thing I did! I went back to the hotel and went for a (very short) swim, read and watched TV until it was time to pick Josh up from his class. I know, I party hard.

When I picked Josh up, we ended up walking around and exploring the crazy beautiful resort where he’s meeting every day. It’s the Omni Grove Park Inn and it’s super historic. Pretty much any famous American you can think of has stayed there at some point. It overlooks the whole valley and the best thing I can compare to is Disney’s Wilderness Lodge. But the real version. Josh and I ended up deciding to eat there at one of their three restaurants and it was delicious.

“I realized I’m more of a mountains guy. A beach is like, ‘here’s a park. Sit in some dirt.'”

After dinner we went to the Tervis store in Biltmore Village (I’m telling you, without Judah around, we go craaazzy) and then had a relaxing night in the room.

Until tomorrow folks…

Asheville Getaway (part one)

This week Josh and I are away in Asheville! He had some CPE to do and I got to tag along. We had originally planned to take Judah too but the logistics of the hotel and everything didn’t work out. So he’s having a ball spending a few days with Me-maw (Josh’s mom) and, as a bonus, Josh and I can go out in the evenings when he’s done with “work”.

The face of a toddler clearly missing me 🙂

Yesterday we drove out here and had a chance to walk around downtown Asheville. It’s such a funky place! I told Josh it might be the weirdest place I’ve ever been, and I’ve worked in Salem on Halloween. We were admiring a building last night when a man in a skirt, smoking a joint, offered to give us a tour. #sketchy. We also found this crazy cool book store that was all these different levels and nooks literally full of books. There were several first editions and vintage books too. It was very exciting.

First edition of the LOTR trilogy. Only $750

We ended up eating supper at Mellow Mushroom, which, considering we have one in Greenville, is not very exciting. But we were pretty hungry and worn out from walking by then and we could sit outside which was fun. After that, we went to see the movie “Bad Moms” using a gift card Jody and Kate had given us. Again, you may be thinking,”But there’s so much to do in Asheville! You went and saw a movie??” Yep. Because we almost never go see movies at home! We laughed until we cried and then came back to the hotel and went to sleep.

This morning, I brought Josh to his conference at another hotel. And by hotel I mean AMAZING GORGEOUS RESORT. We actually could have stayed there but would’ve had to change rooms after the first night and when we thought we were bringing Judah, that would’ve been too much work. Now I wish we had done it anyway because I think it would’ve been worth it!

When I pick up Josh today, we’re planning on doing some exploring

After I dropped him off, I went to place called Vortex Donuts for a donut and coffee to take back to my room. Unfortunately, I was not very impressed with the donut (sorry Christina! Maybe it was just an old batch?) but the coffee was delicious.

I sat trying to figure out what I’m going to do today when I realized I could get back in the bed and watch the Today show as long as I wanted. There’s no house to clean or toddler to take care of and it’s been rather glorious. More updates tomorrow!