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this one is a horrible blogger. she forgot to take pictures. well, she didn't, but she was too busy shopping to take any pictures. except for the one time she and mr. yum drove down blue ridge parkway and ate at top of mt. pisgah (under a lovely sunset and extremely full moon).

and this one forgot to include pictures from the APS Walk. Oops. Although you can find most of them at mricon's site, you can also find them at this site. the walk was fun, but exhausting (this one was up by 6 am, arrived at 8 am, worked until 1 pm, and promptly collapsed for a nap and then packed for asheville). this one did get to meet a lot of dogs and make friends with all of them (note: if you want to be really really popular with the dogs, sitting in the middle of nowhere with a jar of extremely smelly garlic and cheese biscuits is a very good idea unless, of course, there are more dogs than the number of fingers on your hands.)

so asheville. where does this one begin? let's start with the grove park inn, which rocks. well, it's literally rocks. this one's first reaction driving into the hotel was like uhmm... this looks like something out of smurfs. it looks like a stone hut. it's more impressive when you go inside because then it opens to an amazing view of Blue Ridge Mountains and has big fireplaces and of course, lots of rocks. The inn was built with rocks. It's rock-solid, being almost a hundred year old. even its spa has a rock-like motif, and this one had fun soaking under a rocky cove or two. this one thinks the readers get the "rocky" point.

time was spent mostly relaxing in spa, such as sunning/reading on deck, sitting in a warm pool while viewing the mountains and smiling at chilly winds, or floating around in balmy mineral waters. time was also mostly spent doing an obscene amount of shopping. asheville is such a great shopping town; it's all local stores in downtown asheville (the local starbucks near asheville literally got stoned, that is, had stones thrown at its windows, when it tried to open a store in downtown).

brief digression about local stores: this one strongly supports local stores, especially when they can provide simple items like coffee, food, clothing, books. this one does not have a problem with chains unless their main goal is to force these local stores, unique in their charm and less monotonous and mind-numbing, out of business, and also when these chains, particularly one that starts with the letter w, try to force their political and moral agenda on everyone.

anyway, some of the great asheville haunts (other than the bat cave a few miles away, yes, an actual bat cave, no, this one did not go, having extreme phobia of the dark) were:

1) the laughing seed, arguably the best vegetarian restaurant in the country and the best tasting restaurant, period, that even the non-vegetarians love it.

Asheville is one of the most vegetarian-friendly towns this one has been to. The best restaurants in this town are not the standard bistro fare (i.e. meat, potato, few slices of cooked vegetables, plus soup, salad, bread). Take Salsas, for example (Caribbean-Mexican fusion), and The Noodle Shop (odd mix of Asian noodles, ranging from Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese). In addition, there seems to be no shortage of cafes that open late at night (i.e. past 10 pm), particularly the small cheesy eastern european ones (Old Europe).

This one tried a caiprihina for the first time, and found it extremely yummy. This one also discovered that Asheville has a delish selection of local wines and beers, which she unfortunately did not try.

2)the chocolate fetish, which this one finally visited. no other place makes chocolate truffles like they do. most standard truffles have chocolate ganache; this one uses european buttercream. combined with the fact that they are very skillful at blending different varieties of chocolates (from all over the world) what you have is instant chocolate orgasm. this one is not kidding.

3) tops. that's the name of the shoe store that occupies like 75% of the building. note: do not get a pedicure, especially one resulting in bright red toenails, when trying on open toed shoes. everything will automatically look gorgeous and beautiful and lo and behold this one walks out with two pairs of shoes. with heels. which this one almost never wears. and comfortable heels, too.
Pair No 1: John Fluevog Bebe (discontinued, sorry gals, this one got probably the last pair)



Pair No 2: John Fluevog Meghan




4) Malaprops. Local independent bookstores rock. They're all different in their own way, and Malaprops certainly encourages you to browse and lose track of time. Also, they give you free coffee/tea/drink coupons after your purchase. They also have a lovely paper/stationery/misc store a few doors down, called M'Press.

And that's not counting the anti-Williams Sonoma store, ChefCargo, or the wonderfully Celtic My Native Ireland (which had a fabulous bodhran and torques), or Bow Wow Meow Meow, or the local jewelry, or the fabulous artists. Just walk around at whim and enjoy the view of the mountains.

*** Warning*** Boring Knitting Content Ahead, or An Insane Amount of Yarn Porn
This one also bought an obscene amount of yarn. most of it was in revenge for not attending any sheep and wool festivals. most of it was due to the fact that asheville has a strong arts and crafts tradition and has locally raised sheep, alpaca, and giant angora rabbits (yes, they are giant. they require giant lettuce and giant carrots...just kidding). so this one got a lot of local yarn, which is not really exciting to photograph (mostly whites/ivories) but have this wonderful-hold-it-to-your-cheek feel.

Some noteable yarn shops:
1) Asheville NC Home Crafts, which sells most of the local yarn (wool, angora, alpaca). They even have hand-dyed yarns.
2) Earth Guild (wonderful, wonderful place for every fiber/bead/art hobby imaginable.) They also had a catalog of courses taught by John Campbell Folk School, which sounds like a dream day camp for adults. This one kids you not. Where else can you learn about blacksmithing and playing guitar and baking bread and spinning all at the same time? This one cannot believe that she left with only a $5.00 pattern for felted clogs.
3) Yarn Paradise, where this one bought King Tut Cotton, Koigu, Big Kureyon for doggy bed
4) Purl's Yarn Emporium, which carries all the holy shades of Malabrigo Kettle-dyed Wool. This one got a gorgeous shade of orange for a cardigan, a blue-purple shade for a teacozy, and a blue-green shade for a sleeveless top.

Okay. This one will go to bed NOW.