We had a great day one and planned a pretty busy Saturday. It involved exploring along the Blue Ridge Parkway. We basically had to be at a wedding at 1:30- and it was a good hour plus from our hotel. We decided to take this scenic route and make lots of stops to take a lot of pictures like this:
Hiking in North Carolina
Mountains of North Carolina.
Do you see fall??
Driving through the mountain clouds in North Carolina.
My goal for the day was to find a waterfall. They do call this area the “land of waterfalls” so I’m not totally crazy. We found this one area with a sign that indicated we may see something cool.
Let’s go for a nice scenic hike.
So we set out on the .8 mile trail thinking that’s not too bad. We were wrong. This should have been my first sign- I turn around after hearing a weird noise and I are my husband holding his Starbucks cup. Hi!! We are from the city!!!
Hiking with Starbucks.
Seriously.
So we hiked for about a mile. Throughout my husband kept asking if I was sure I wanted to keep going. I was determined. At about the mile mark the trail split into a new section. There was nothing to see.
Should have noticing the difficulty sign…hmmm
So we turned around. And it was sad. But no as bad as when I had to admit defeat. See, hiking down was easy. Going back up nearly killed me. Between not being in the best shape and my asthma, it almost killed me.
We may be dying.
After lots of breaks, we made it. My fitbit says we climbed 57 flights of stairs. According to my runkeeper- we climbed over 500 feet. Not bad.
But still no waterfall.
We drove and drove and look a lot more pictures of really pretty trees and mountains. It’s amazing how many pictures you can really take of these things.
And finally from the road I spotted one- a water fall!! This spot had a ton if cars, unlike our last spot. And this said the hike was only .3 miles- so we still had time to make our wedding.
If I didn’t have to go to the wedding, I would have stayed here all day. The water was so cold, the rocks so easy to climb on and the temperature outside was just perfect.
Through more winding roads, a quick change and hair fix and it was wedding time!
My friend Jeff (who I met at Michigan State and went to the Disney College Program with) was getting married to Emily. They are such a great, adorable couple. I have felt for a long time like he’s a brother to me. It’s so great to be able to be there for such a big moment.
And there wedding was at an amazing location, surrounded by family and friends. And it had the perfect theme, the movie UP.
The most amazing wedding cake ever. The house from UP, complete with balloons.
Signatures of wedding guests surround this amazing Star Wars inspired Up picture.
After the wedding, we were able to hit up a restaurant Scott found on Yelp that sounded right up our alley. It was described as a dive bar serving gourmet food. It was totally perfect. The Admiral in Asheville was totally perfect for us. We had some excellent whiskey drinks with their homemade ginger ale. And we split three different small dishes, a fried quail, an iron skillet steak and the fish and chips. There are no words to describe just how good the food was. I wish I had room for dessert, but I was stuffed.
The Admiral fire place, perfect for the 65 degree night!
Fried quail with grits & biscuit from the Admiral in Asheville, North Carolina.
Such a great, amazing trip. But also so happy to be home! We will be planning a vacation back to the area perhaps next year with our children because we enjoyed it so much!
Have you ever been to Asheville? Any must do’s??
