Day 21 - Asheville's Gardens and the Blue Ridge Parkway

Friday, May 27, 2022

Weather - Partly cloudy and 74 degrees, but it got cold on the Blue Ridge Parkway (all the way down to 58 degrees!) and it rained a bit on our drive home

Steps - Shaun: 10,018, Shannon: 7,586 (but her watch died part way through the day)

Varmints - Another semi-gargantuan gaggle of goats but in a different place, several more bunnies and turkeys, a deer, and three lizards. One of them was an Eastern Fence Lizard and the other two were skinks; one was a 5-lined skink and the other we can't really tell (but Shaun thinks it's a Little Brown Skink).

This was a four-part day. We started out by driving into Asheville to a restaurant that had been recommended by several sources called The Early Girl Eatery. They had vegan stuff for Shaun and the obligatory homemade biscuits for the both of us, and they even had a few locations to choose from, so we pointed the Jeep down the mountain, and away we went!

As a little bit of an aside, we must report that due to the last 36 hours of rain, the road out of the cabin was very muddy, and it actually had a river running along one half of it. This is a little concerning because it's a very rough road to begin with, so we're going to be really careful these last few times we have to drive on it. Also, once we got into Marshall and saw the big river (called the French Broad River), we realized just how much rain the area had gotten because that bad boy was REALLY high.

Anyway, back to breakfast...while we waited for a table, we checked out a cool store called Mount Inspiration that was a combination hiking store and t-shirt shop. Both of us bought a few things, and then off we went to grab our table. Both of us got really good orange juice, Shannon had multi-grain pancakes and sausage, and Shaun had a tofu scramble with spinach, onions, and peppers. It also came with tomatoes that Shaun had asked them to leave off, but they didn't. When the waitress asked how everything was, Shaun pointed out that the tomatoes didn't get omitted but said it was no big deal because she just scraped them off. The next thing we knew, the manager came to our table and told us that they'd discounted the meal because of the mistake. It turns out that they took off 50%, which we thought was more than generous. We also got molasses-glazed cornbread to have for breakfast tomorrow, so all in all, it was a good meal.

After breakfast, we checked out a few more shops on the same street as The Early Girl Eatery, and they gave us some good ideas for Sanctuary, but we didn't buy anything. Our next stop was just a few minutes away at the Botanical Garden of Asheville, which was a small non-profit garden dedicated to preserving the local plant life for future generations. Unfortunately, we happened to visit in between major blooming cycles, so there wasn't a whole lot to see. The garden had been left very natural, so it was a bit wild, but we did our best to find fun stuff to comment on and take pictures of. The little river flowing through the property was pretty cool, and it was also rushing along at a good clip due to the rain. The good thing is that it was free, and the walk was welcome after our meal, so we had no complaints whatsoever.

Directly from one garden to the next, we went to the North Carolina Arboretum, which happened to be located on Frederick Law Olmsted Way (remember him from the Biltmore Gardens?). It turns out that Freddy Baby's 200th birthday would have been this month, so they were having a celebration to thank him for his contribution to landscape design and for the numerous public green spaces he created around the world. We talked about the one in Central Park and at the Biltmore previously, but he also did the Allee at Smith College where Shannon went to school, as well as the Emerald Necklace in Boston, which is a 7-mile long series of green spaces that begin at the Arnold Arboretum (one of our favorite gardens) and ends at Boston Common. Along with his impact in Massachusetts, Olmsted also did the grounds of the US Capitol and White House, Washington Park in Chicago, and a bunch of other gardens across the country. He was truly the father of landscape architecture, but he didn't see himself as a gardener. He saw himself as an artist, and we totally agree with that assessment!

The North Carolina Arboretum was a much bigger operation than the botanical gardens, and they were even having an outdoor plant and gift sale. Unfortunately, we decided to wait until the end to check that sale out, and it was closed by the time we thought about it again. The arboretum has only been around since 1986, but in that 30+ years, they've really created a beautiful space. It had everything from a bonsai exhibit to a quilt made out of plants, and what really impressed us was the number of and the quality of the signage in the garden. Their goal is to help educate the average gardener, so one area had about 15-20 trees in pots that will grow in most home gardens, along with how and where to plant them. It was really interesting.

There was also an 8-foot-tall statue of Frederick Law Olmsted in an area with a fountain backed by the Blue Ridge Mountains.  It was very impactful. We were lucky because, unlike at the botanical gardens, these gardens were fully curated and the plants had a lot more sun to work with. This resulted in lots more plants being in bloom, so it was a much more exciting visit. The whole garden is over 400 acres, but we concentrated on the central section, and once we were finished with that, we stopped and had lunch at a little café within the arboretum itself. After we finished lunch, we hit the gift shop and headed out to our next destination, which was the Blue Ridge Parkway.

We had only been on the Parkway one other time on this trip, and we really wanted to do it justice, so we decided to go backwards on it towards where we'd traveled on it a couple weeks ago.  As you can see from the map, we covered about 50 more miles and saw a bunch of really beautiful vistas.

Once we had our fill of the Parkway, we decided to head back to the cabin, have dinner, and get ready for tomorrow. We also got to drinking our homemade strawberry lemon/limeade which we'd made last night. It was delicious, if a bit chunky. Neither one of us complained about the chunks, and between that and the strawberry shortcake made from the cat's head biscuits that we had last night, we used all our strawberries from Bryson City. We actually ate a total of 3 quarts of strawberries, so we are completely blissed out with berries this trip. We also bought 7 fresh peaches, so that'll be our fruit of choice for the last couple days. Nummo!

Tomorrow, we've decided to go to Grandfather Mountain, which has a mile-high swinging bridge we can actually walk across, and visit Black Mountain, an artsy-type community east of Asheville, so stay tuned! 

Day 19 - Biltmore Part Deux and Asheville

Wednesday, May 25, 2022

Weather - Cloudy, with a high of 74F

Steps - Shaun: 17,127, Shannon: 17,090

Varmints - bunnies again, downy woodpecker, turkeys, and a gargantuan gaggle of goats

Such a good day today! We returned to the Biltmore Estate to explore the gardens to their fullest, and then we ventured into Asheville to shop til we dropped! Along the way we had some awesome food, saw some pretty things, and walked A LOT.

We started the day out right, with breakfast at Biscuit Head, a well-known restaurant that serves cat's head biscuits, or drop biscuits so big they are the size of a cat's head! Shaun was really pleased because not only did they have vegan biscuits, but they had vegan gravy and sausage as well. So, she got vegan biscuits and sausage gravy, while Shannon got a breakfast biscuit with egg and cheese and a side of loaded potatoes (potato hash with gravy, bacon, and chives). All were delicious, and we got biscuit donuts (that look like beignets) along with more regular biscuits to go to enjoy later.

It's at this point that we should probably mention that Shaun forgot her wallet after changing purses, so Shannon was playing Miss Moneybags all day. That didn't hinder either of us in the slightest, and we still did our part to support the economy of Asheville.

Leaving Biscuit Head fully fed and watered, we returned to the Biltmore Estate. We were able to bypass the house parking areas and go directly to the gardens, which have their own parking lot. They also have a really nice store, though we didn't end up buying anything there (Shaun thought about buying a beautiful wood, turquoise, and copper lamp, but it was over $300, so....nope). 

Like many botanical gardens, the gardens at the Biltmore are broken up into rooms, with some appearing very formal, while others feel more naturalistic. All were meticulously planned out by Frederick Law Olmsted (who also designed Central Park and the Smith College campus), just as the forests and streams and lake were also placed according to his design. The land on which the estate sits used to be overworked farm land, so Olmsted basically started from scratch. Most everything we saw in the gardens today was planted after the house was built in 1895, and much of it more recently, yet still according to Olmsted's plan. It's incredible what beauty they were able to create almost wholecloth, isn't it?

We visited the Conservatory first, which had cool, hot, and dry rooms. It was a multisensory experience, with the explosion of colors and textures, the sweet smells, and the sounds of water falling into fountains (often drowned out by screaming children). We were amazed at the displays of plants they put together, including an orchid room and a bed with canopy made entirely from plants. The only bad thing was the aforementioned screaming children; there were multiple school groups on the grounds today, so we had to dodge flocks of kids roaming around more than once.

Outside the Conservatory was the Rose Garden, and we timed our visit perfectly because all the rose bushes were in bloom. Boy did it smell wonderful! Every variety of rose you can imagine, including climbing, miniature, old fashioned, and floribunda, were in that garden.

From there we wandered up to the Walled Garden, which is where they put in their seasonal flower displays. We were between plantings, as the spring tulips are gone, but the summer plants aren't established yet. The perennial borders were pretty spectacular, though, mixing purple, chartreuse, and red with pops of white and lots of different textures to make quite a statement.

We continued up the hill toward the house, through part of the Shrub Garden, and found ourselves at the opposite end of the Italian Garden, which we had seen from the house the previous day. This section was cool because it had three large water gardens stocked with water lilies, irises, and koi. We walked the length of the Italian Garden, which borders the huge lawn in front of the Biltmore, and ended up back at the house. Rather than revisit the ground we had covered yesterday, we turned back into the Shrub Garden, but this time found ourselves under a beautiful wisteria-covered pergola. There were statues along the path and a fountain and it looked like it had been there forever.

Cutting through the Shrub Garden toward the Spring and Azalea Gardens, we saw lots of old favorites, such as flowering honeysuckle vines, Japanese maples, and a lilac tree. The Spring Garden was on its way out since North Carolina is much further along in the growing season than we are, but there were still some azaleas and dogwoods blooming. This continued into the Azalea Garden (obviously), with the addition of rhododendrons, mountain laurels, and deutzias. 

These areas were much more naturalistic than the more formal Italian, Walled, and Rose Gardens, and it felt almost like being on a hike. We took a gravel path through the woods along a stream, occasionally going over rock or wooden bridges, and it was a more curated version of going on the nature trail in the national park. 

We ended up going a bit further than we had intended on that gravel path, walking most of the way to the Bass Pond, so we decided to just continue on and check that area out too. It ended up being worth the extra walk, with a very cool rustic boathouse, beautiful reflections in the still water, and a waterfall where the pond spills out and continues its course as a river.

We were tired of walking by that point, and luckily the way back was shorter since we weren't taking a meandering course. We got to our car in good time, and we left the Biltmore Estate, well pleased with our experiences.

The gargantuan gaggle of goats—the Biltmore folks
use them as lawn mowers

From the Biltmore, we once again drove into Asheville, found a place to park, and set out to find a lunch spot. Shannon, our tour guide, found a wonderful Mexican restaurant that had both vegan “meat” and vegan queso! Shaun was in heaven, so we ordered a guacamole/salsa/queso appetizer plate, and then Shannon ordered some empanadas and Shaun ordered avocados stuffed with vegan chorizo. Our favorite of the three appetizers was the salsa. The guac was kind of tasteless, and the queso was made with sweet potato and carrots, and it just didn’t meet the cheesy taste and consistency need. Oh well, the meal still filled us up and got us ready to attack the city.

We really didn’t have anything in particular we needed to shop for except for some gifts for Shannon, but we knew we wanted to get chocolate chip cookies from a store we heard about on a podcast a couple years ago and to visit the Malaprop’s Bookstore, so off we went. Naturally, we got distracted right off the bat and went into an Asheville gifts store called MTN Merch, and it was all downhill from there. We found all kinds of cool stuff in there including some gifts that Shannon bought, some food items (including the peach rosemary jam Shaun had wanted from Biscuit Head at breakfast but forgot to buy), a t-shirt for Shan, and a bunch of stickers.

The biggest (and certainly most important thing) we bought, however, was a glorious picture of the Smokies at dawn printed on metal. We’ve been really interested in metal pictures since the Southwest trip, but they tend to be more expensive than canvas ones, so we’ve never pulled the trigger. However, when we were in Bryson City, we met a couple who owned a gallery that had a ton of metal pictures, and it rejuvenated our interest. There were some shots Shaun liked at that gallery, but at MTN Merch they were featuring an artist who had an absolutely incredible eye, and Shaun just couldn’t resist. And she definitely tried! She had taken the beautiful shot at the top of this blog in the morning, and it’s similar to the metal picture that was her favorite. She tried to talk herself into just printing her own picture, but she used her phone, so it just won't work. Needless to say, she bought the picture, which is about 2 foot wide by 1 foot tall, and she love love loves it! It perfectly captures the essence of our trip, and she can’t wait to figure out where to put it at her house.

Once we’d dropped all our loot off at the car, we decided to go to the chocolate shop (which wasn’t the one with the cookies we wanted because they were closed, so we made the supreme sacrifice and visited another one and had gelato. Shannon had a weird combination flavored with knot weed (a bit like rhubarb), strawberry, and cardamom, which tasted good and was refreshing, almost like the feeling left in your mouth after you've brushed your teeth, and Shaun had a vegan blueberry lavender sorbet.  Every restaurant we’ve been to in Asheville has had specific vegan offerings, so that should tell you a bit about the type of folks who live here. They’re definitely on the hippy side of the spectrum (which Shaun loves, of course!).

One of the many metal sculptures we saw around Asheville

We did make it to Malaprop’s, but it was only 20 minutes before they closed. Shannon found a book to buy (shocker!), but it wasn’t a very exciting store. It was one more data point for us as far as what to do and what not to do with Sanctuary, so it was a worthwhile stop.

We wandered around a bit more, but the city was starting to shut down. Shannon had one more person to buy for, so we brainstormed and figured out a place to visit (we can’t divulge the specifics to protect the surprise for this person). We actually spent a considerable amount of time there and had a ball with the proprietor. He was one of the creators of the products, and we really liked his wares, so we bought several things that included stuff for both of us, plus Shan's gift recipient. It was super fun, so we can’t wait to see if we like the stuff as much as we thought we would.

Once all the gifts were bought, we headed back to the car and drove back to the cottage in Marshall.  We had to make a quick stop to buy ketchup and whipping crème at WalMart (seriously, don’t ask).  After unloading our treasures, we ate dinner and settled down to write this blog. Tomorrow we are taking the day off and staying at the cottage. It's supposed to be a wash out rain day, so we decided to just take it easy and regather our strength for the last two days of our trip.