north carolina: asheville

The advantage to where Nancye lives (in Bristol, TN/VA,) is that it's close to a lot of other places worth visiting. A lot. One day we decided to do a day trip to Asheville, NC.
The drive to Asheville was only two hours or so. How awesome is that? We drove through the mountains, there were some wonderful views. So many places I would love to stop and hike for the day.
Since I was riding shotgun, I got to decide our itinerary for the day. My tripadvisor/triposo apps both suggested Asheville botanical gardens, which sounded nifty to us. The gardens are just outside the city, easy to get to. Follow the signs on the roads, don't rely on google maps directions, as those will take you to the wrong entrance.
We started in the visitors center to get maps and information about the gardens. There are some landscaped areas, and some wild areas. We also found a water fountain to fill up our water bottles. I wish water fountains with decent drinking water existed in more places. This area of the country in late July is already/hot and humid. You need a lot of liquid to stay properly hydrated.

We decided to stay with the landscaped areas, they were very nice. My favorite garden was probably the bonsai (pronounced bone-sai) garden. Quite a few of the trees were arranged in a small area, with descriptions of the trees as well as some history of this art.
We also saw a big model train, a garden arranged like a quilt, a quilt exhibit, and more. I bet the gardens are great in all four seasons. Nancye ended up buying a year long pass, I hope she gets to see the gardens in all the seasons. 
We drove into the city center and found parking, totally affordable :)
Nancye has been there before so she knew of a parking garage with a good location.
Our first stop in the city was called Lexington glassworks. We got to see guys blowing glass, making it into cups, vases, bowls, etc... Really pretty, I loved the bright colors. As the guys were working with the glass, they were also explaining what they were doing, and how it all works. They must've been so hot with the open furnace right there. I wish I had the money (and space to put things,) to buy pretty house stuff.
At that point we realized we were hungry. Asheville is full of restaurants. Heaps of them. It's a 'hippie' town, with a lot of focus on organic, healthy living. As we walked down the street there were cafes and restaurants everywhere, all of them independent.

A little further down the street we came to the park in the city center and found a festival of some kind in full swing. Yay for festivals and the food trucks that come with them. So many choices, we walked around all the trucks to see what was available. I ended up with a catfish sandwich and fried pickles. The sandwich was good, the pickles had too much breaking.
After people watching and eating, we continued walking. I wanted to find postcards, and ducked into a few stores, but totally struck out. Visiting a town like Asheville on a Sunday has one drawback: many stores and offices are closed. Oh well.
We did find a big church, but a mass was just starting so we didn't go in. It was pretty on the outside, I had to be satisfied with that. We also walked through a small park, it reminded me of people's park in Bloomington, IN. A bit on the sketchy side.

At that point we felt as though we had seen what we wanted to see, so we went back to the parking garage. On our way out of town we made two stops. One at Trader Joe's, because Nancye loves their sourdough bread. (And since I don't spend a lot of time in the states, I can always find something to eat/buy from that chain.)
The second stop was at a burrito shop. Neither one of us was hungry, as we had eaten just a couple hours ago, but one of nancye's friends said we had to try this place, so we got our burritos to go. BIG BURRITOS.
A couple hours later we were back in Bristol. I love day trips :)