My kids, mom and I went up to Asheville because my cousin was getting married. Due to the events I had to attend and only being there for two days, I did not get to really truly experience Asheville. We drove around and explored the town and we went to a few restaurants, but a lot of our time was spent in the hotel.
If you have followed any of my reviews, you know I'm a country mountain girl through and through. I don't do cities or urban areas, but I don't mind visiting them occasionally. Asheville is not a huge place, and it was actually incredibly easy to navigate around. The traffic was not that bad (except we encountered an irate crazy driver that was weaving all over the road and then rode our tail so close to us that we couldn't even see their headlights. He then pulled up to us and started yelling. My mom clapped for him and asked if he felt like a man now hahahah). Besides that though, driving through the area was not bad. The buildings were all so cool to look at. You had modern buildings, artistic colorful ones, historic ones and a beautiful pink Victorian B&B.
Asheville is a very artsy and musical place. Murals and art were all over the town as well as multiple art museums. The River Art District unfortunately took a major hit in Helene and most of it is gone/closed, but it used to be a beautiful artistic place. If you want to drink and listen to live music, finding a brewery was a dime a dozen. There are breweries and bars on every corner. If you like to eat at chain restaurants, there are a few options for that, but Asheville has so many individual restaurants. There is SO much to choose from. A lot of them are very expensive though. I personally would not want to live here but this is the perfect town for college students who want to party a little, have a town with a lot to do and who are into art and music.
Most people come to Asheville for the Biltmore house and as much as I would love to tour it one day, we were not able to on this trip. We did however get to see the Douglas Ellington house because that was where the wedding was at. It was like a storybook fantasy. The grounds and home were so beautiful and we got to see a couple of bears on the way back.
This was my first traditional Indian wedding and with the ceremony lasting well over 3 hours, it was actually okay to go walk around the grounds and enjoy the firepit and not just sit through the ceremony the whole time. The food was traditional Indian food, which I have never really had and it was so good. They were all so beautiful in their Suris and the bride was carried in in a basket. It was a very neat experience.
Although our stay was great and there were amazing things to see, the destruction from Helene along the river banks was so heartbreaking to see. I was a part of cleanup in New Orleans after Katrina and those are things I will never forget seeing, but I did not see cars crumbled to pieces where people spent their last moments. You can tell people have been doing their best to recover and a lot of roads are repaired and businesses are open. I actually felt weird at first coming here for a wedding because I felt like 'how can I vacation and have a good time in the midst of people's absolute heartbreak?' But I have been told that these communities and towns actually want tourism because they depend on it financially and in order to rebuild fully and get back on their feet, they need the tourism. So I highly encourage you to go visit the towns of western North Carolina and shop at the small businesses and privately-owned restaurants.
