Asheville itself is like a trashy version of Boulder. Lots of hippies, mountains all around, but not much of the charm. And a lot of art....but not all good art. We saw a guy buy heroin. We were offered pot (ok, I have no problem with this - the guy was nice and when we said no left us alone.) There was also Rapunzel Barbie...a woman dressed as a princess, who had tied a shit ton of Barbie dolls into her hair, all the way down so they were dragging in the street. It must have been heavy for her poor head! The best part of the city was visiting a bunch of microbreweries, most of which were out of the beers we'd normally drink so I did have a very fancy version of Bud Light. But we found a nice one that I was able to purchase in VA - Highland Brewing Co, Gaelic Ale. Get some.
After a day of just exploring the city, drinking beer, eating fried green tomatoes (oh so many friend green tomatoes!), getting lost in the River Arts District, ect. we went out to the mountains.
Chimney Rock is a nice high rock formation that's become pretty touristy. They built stairs to the top instead of a trail for easier access. I hate stairs. But we took a real trail from the parking lot and to Hickory Nut Falls before taking the stairs to the top. Beautiful views all around. Also, parts of The Last of the Mohicans (love that movie!) were filmed here. I may have annoyed John a few times by hugging rocks and saying Daniel Day-Lewis probably touched this rock!" We didn't find any familiar places, but we made up stuff, including the cliff Alice jumped off of. Which is probably not it at all.
