We chose to make our next stop Asheville, North Carolina because we wanted to scope it out as a possible location for our forever home. It’s in the mountains, so we would get the nature we crave and from what we had read it also has good food, culture and plenty of things to do. It doesn’t hurt that it is also less expensive than other locations we were considering in the West. We admit our expectations were pretty high. Gary, researcher extraordinaire, dug into this city quite a bit and on paper Asheville ticked all of our boxes.
So, the first thing we did was a walking food tour to check out the downtown. Eating and walking off the calories at the same time… just genius! We did the “High Rollers” version of the Eating Asheville Tour. This meant we got a cocktail paired with our food tasting at each restaurant stop. Cheers to us!
Even though downtown Asheville was very walkable and had some great restaurants, it seemed a bit generic and what we expected…it just didn’t “feel” like us. But, luckily Gary had something in his back pocket. A much smaller town that was about 45 minutes away called Brevard.
Best thing we did?
Exploring the city of Brevard aka “The Land of Waterfalls.” Brevard is nestled in between the Pisgah National forest and DuPont State Forest.
Brevard is a city that is surrounded by natural beauty and has a fun quirkiness to it as well.
First of all, it is in Transylvania County. Sounds a bit creepy, but interestingly creepy. Like maybe they have a Twilight style family of vampires living there.
Second, they don’t just have your normal run of the mill gray squirrels there. Oh no, they have elusive white squirrels…
No, not just giant squirrel statues, actual real live squirrels. They seem more like they should be prancing around in a Disney movie instead of running around Brevard. Sounds like we made this up, right? Well, see them for yourself in this video by clicking here: Brevard White Squirrels
Lastly, they have house accounts. Not just credit cards or even fancy Apple Pay, but like IOUs. Yes, you read it correctly…IOUs! Check out the sign we saw in Bracken Mountain Bakery when we sat down to have our coffee and freshly made lime coconut danish.
Seriously??? Gary would be here every morning!
Best thing we ate?
Even though Asheville has some great restaurants, the best thing we ate was at a lounge…a CHOCOLATE lounge! When we walked into French Broad Chocolate Lounge we were overwhelmed by all of the yummy goodies they had. We chose several things of course, but THE BEST thing we ate was the Chocolate Pot De Crème with rose, cardamom and pistachio. Remember I said we became obsessed with cardamom in desserts. This amazing tub of yum is another reason why!
What we learned?
We had a bubble burst on us here. We think we are pretty active, getting out there and finding adventure. However, we definitely learned we are not as young as we think we are. When we showed up at a place called Sliding Rock (half waterfall/half waterslide), we noticed a cute young couple in their bathing suites. Now at the time it was right at 60 degrees. Sliding Rock is meant to slide down for sure, but in the middle of summer when it is super warm and the water feels refreshing not frigid. But these kids were here now and they were not waiting for summer for this experience!
We thought about doing it for literally one second (okay maybe that was just Gary not me). We were just going to have to live this moment vicariously through these young whippersnappers.
Another thing we learned or I guess you would say we “found” is a possible candidate for our forever home. It had the terroir we were looking for and a small town feel, with a big city, Asheville, close. There is hope for east coast living!
Next Stop: U-turn to Utah