For the past several years, Kristi and I have celebrated our October anniversary week by vacationing somewhere new and different. I’m not sure Kristi’s idea of a romantic anniversary getaway was to visit a National Park, but she knows how important this mission is to me. So we headed off to Asheville, NC for the start of our visit to Great Smoky Mountains NP. Now, that is love!
To decrease our exposure to airports and planes, we drove from our vacation home in Maine, took a flight from Boston to Charlotte, picked up our rental car and arrived in Asheville two hours later! This was our first flight together since the outbreak of Covid-19, and we had a few conversations about whether we were still game to take the risk. I can imagine many folks would not have made the decision to travel, but we decided to go for it.
As I always say, Carpe diem!
Asheville, North Carolina
Asheville, 2nd largest collection of Art Deco Architecture, next to Miami
Kristi and I spent Saturday evening and Sunday morning walking all over downtown Asheville, enjoying the city’s historic character mixed with a young, hip vibe.
Asheville retains its period architecture for an embarrassing, economic reason: after the Crash of 1929, the city could not afford to demolish and modernize its buildings, as it had the highest per capita debt level in the nation at the time. It would be another 50 years until the city repaid those obligations, and so its historic structures remained. Today, Asheville boasts the second largest collection of art deco architecture in the U.S. after Miami. Now, there’s a silver lining to financial catastrophe!
We were pleased to find that Asheville takes COVID precautions very seriously. In the downtown area, everyone wore masks both outside and inside. Given that it was the height of tourist season, this was important, although we did not find the streets crowded as they might be in normal times. A number of cocktail bars and music venues were not open, as social distancing requirements were too impactful; however, we did enjoy several excellent restaurants for dinner.
Another silver lining: we now know that we absolutely must return to this awesome town, post-pandemic, to enjoy its night scene.
Tip: This is probably where I must embarrass myself and admit that throughout the entire week I told every restaurant that it was our anniversary. Hey, it’s anniversary week! In Asheville, we were treated to free dessert at The Blackbird Restaurant (excellent farm-to-table menu) and complimentary awesome margaritas at Limones (upscale Mexican-influenced cuisine). Servers seemed delighted to hear of our 34 years together – and we certainly enjoyed excellent service. I highly recommend this “broadening” of the anniversary concept!
Biltmore Estate
Biltmore Estate is truly so incredible that I put it to you this way: you can’t credibly say you’ve visited Asheville if you didn’t visit The Biltmore. Clear? First, we toured the grounds (8,000 acres in total) with its numerous gardens of roses, flowering plants, shrubs and grand trees – all designed by renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.
Then, we walked some of the many trails, making our way around Bass Pond and its waterfall.
Our visit ended with the self-guided, audio tour of the House, probably better characterized as a chateau-style mansion, completed in 1895 at the height of the Gilded Age. At 250 rooms and nearly 180,000 square feet, it is the largest private home in the U.S. My favorite room was the three-story, wood-panelled library with fireplace – and a mere 22,000 books. Clearly, George Vanderbilt was passionate about his reading!
We did as much exploring of Asheville as we could under the circumstances. The area has a fantastic live music scene, with cool cocktail lounges and numerous nightclubs – most, sadly not operating during quarantine – and a vibrant arts community with working studios and galleries. We took a “Ghosted Walking Tour” after dinner one night because there was no live music.
Can’t wait to visit again post-pandemic, and will opt for music!
For more on my Great Smoky Mountains National Park trip check out my blog Highpoints of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Beyond!
