Asheville Spring Break 2022 Part 2

Monday we decided to head into downtown for breakfast at a highly-recommended restaurant called Biscuit Head.  It was chilly out, but they had a heated patio section we could sit in with Luna.  Everyone enjoyed their breakfast and the homemade jams they made for the biscuits were a hit.  

We planned to spent the day in the River Arts District walking around to see the various studios and graffiti.  There was a dog park along the river that we went to first to let Luna have some off-the-leash fun.  Evan ended up loving the dog park as he found some old tennis balls and used a giant stick as a baseball bat and enjoyed hitting balls for the dogs.  

We then crossed the river and got a good parking spot in the Arts District and started by looking at a few studios and the glass center where we watched them blow glass to make a cup.

We walked to the next section of the Arts District and went in some shops where Evan found a piece of art he had to have!  A guy painted baseball cards and Evan found a Derek Jeter painting.  It was very affordable to we bought Evan his first official piece of art for his bedroom.  

From there we walked to the next section that had all the graffiti.  I made the boys a bingo sheet at home for this part of the day to keep them interested and looking at the art.  I think they had fun with it and their prize was a wooden bookmark from one of the studios we went into that featured woodwork called Foundation Woodwork.  

In this section of the Arts District is the restaurant 12 Bones Smokehouse that apparently Obama has visited a few times and likes.  So, we stopped and ordered a sample of the ribs and a sample of the pulled pork and mac and cheese to try as a mid-morning snack.  I loved one of the sauces and later on in the trip ended up buying a bottle of it to bring home.  

At this point, we were all cold and tired.  We walked back to the car and drove to find the "Stay Weird" mural, but it had been spray painted over.  It was still cool to pose by as the colors were so vibrant, but I was definitely bummed that it no longer said "Stay Weird".  We did a fun little photo shoot and decided to drive back to South Slope to try a few other breweries.  

This time we started at Bhramari where the kids had some food and I tried one of their sours called Baby Shark.  It was a blue beer!  We then went back to Catawba to sit inside with Luna.  We met up with my friend and co-worker, Erin, who was also vacationing in Asheville with her family.  And we ended with one last beer at a place called Hi-Wire that was fun.

It was time to head back to the house and relax.  The kids wanted to play a game of corn hole and we had a fire at the firepit with s'mores.  It was a pretty good day!

Tuesday I had quite a few hikes planned with the goal of making it up to Mt. Mitchell State Park, which is about an hour and a half from downtown Asheville.  We made a quick breakfast at the house, packed lunches, and got ready to head to the Blue Ridge Parkway Visitors Center to get Junior Ranger booklets and some information.

Unfortunately, many of my hikes weren't going to be an option because they had closed a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway for a pipe that had burst.  The ranger recommended Mt. Mitchell and having to take a different route because of the road closure.  So, we decided to make the voyage up.  And boy was it a disaster.  We were on a freeway for a portion of the ride and we should have gotten off to get gas, but we pressed our luck.  Then, we got onto a road that was 10 miles of switchbacks on a narrow lane, climbing.  The gas light came up, we lost our cell service, and the kids started to get car sick.  So, a half hour away from the state park we decided to turn around and go back down the mountain to find gas.  Both kids ended up throwing up, but we made it to the gas station!  At that point, we were all pretty discouraged and no one wanted to take that road with switchbacks again to get to the state park, so we decided to go back to Asheville and do a different hike on the BRP.  Ugh!

We ate our picnic lunch parked on the side of the road at the trailhead and we ended up really enjoying our hike.  The kids liked the little waterfall and decided that was a good spot to work on their Junior Ranger booklets so we sat down after the hike to work on those.  We had just enough time to get back to the Visitor's Center to turn them earn and get their badges!  They each picked out a souvenir at the gift shop too!

Back at the house we all enjoyed the hot tub, a game of corn hole, a home cooked dinner of pasta and grilled italian sausages, and we ended the night with a movie and me working on my puzzle.  We managed to salvage the day and still make it fun despite some setbacks!