A Birthday Jaunt

 When my husband found out the weekend before my birthday wasn't already busy with things, he decided we should take a jaunt to Asheville. We haven't been there since we moved home. So with less than 48 hours notice, we packed a bag and made a tentative plan and took off.

We drove on the interstate, so no real cool scenery to show you there, but after we checked in to our hotel, we walked to the downtown area and went to one of our favorite places for lunch. This is just the best little place to eat and people watch. And the food there is very good.

I had a house made ginger beer with my lunch and it was so good and spicy. Very fresh. The server said they make all their things in house pretty much. And I love the glassware they use. We mostly just hung out in Asheville that first day. We did drive over to Highland Brewing which is another place we love to go there.

The next morning we planned to hit the Blue Ridge Parkway after breakfast. The sky was such a beautiful blue when we walked downtown to get breakfast at another of our favorite eateries. They have the best breakfast foods, very southern and filling. Had to get our grits, you know.

And then it was off to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway. We spent the entire day driving north and east toward Boone, which is where we spent the second night.

There are tons of scenic overlooks you can pull off on and this is a picture of the side that was behind us as we looked out at the view. These are some big mountains.

There was rain forecast for the day and as you can see here, it was often off in the distance. There is sun where we were standing.

As you can see, I was very taken by the clouds and the mountains and the way the sun came and went all day long. It was so quiet up there, even the birds seemed subdued.

In the afternoon, the rain finally caught up with us. I took this picture from the Moses Cone homestead on the front porch. Can you imagine this as your view every day? It is now a public place where they have a gift shop and teach classes about the history of the area and such.

This is one of the things that always amazes me, the clouds are so low and you are so high, the clouds just roll over the mountain tops.

Just a few more pretty pictures from the day. As we were headed down towards the place to get off to take the state highway into Boone, it was raining so hard and the clouds were down on the road, like fog and we had a hard time seeing anything. It really almost defies description. We made it to Boone though.

The only thing we did besides have dinner there and spend the night, was to visit a little place that brews beer and make cider. I have to say it was pretty tasty.

After a good night's sleep, we headed for home, coming down the mountain from over 3000 feet to just over 800 feet in elevation. That was something else too. But all in all it was a nice little birthday diversion for us.

Talk to you soon.