Asheville - Mama's weekend off

Last weekend CJ sent me off to the NC mountains for a fun, relaxing weekend off. It is part of his "get mom used to not being with baby 24/7" program... So far, I've not been away from Katherine for more than about 4 hours at any given time. I certainly haven't been away from her overnight. We're pretty attached, her and I... haha...

So CJ booked me at a nice hotel in Downtown Asheville for an overnight stay, and he stayed with the little munchkin all day Friday and Saturday. So in total, she was without me from the moment I put her to bed on Thursday night, to the time she woke up on Sunday morning.

Here is a little photo summary of what I did in Asheville. I was taking pictures and sending them to CJ as I was going along. He's my best bud so of course I wanted to share every step of the way with him... This closely mirrors my texts to him haha...

I started off by popping over to the Mooresville Cracker Barrel for a yummy breakfast...

Then in the way out I spotted this adorable dress. Katherine would be so cute in it. But it was expensive so no go.

First hint of the mountains.

Btw this was the temperature for most of the time. Awesome!

And I made it to the hotel without problems. It was literally 2 minutes walk from downtown.

I was planning to walk the Asheville Urban Trail, which sounded like the Freedom Trail in Biston. I did the entire Boston walk back in the summer of 2009 and LOOOOVED it! I had high hopes for this one.

A memorial to US armed forces.

Can't remember if this was the Courthouse or City Hall...

And then everything went downhill from there. The 'ladmarks' and monuments are totally nor marked. Nothing on the city signs for general landmarks that would point you to the spots. Plus their map sucks and the spots themselves are for the most part small and hidden from view... I was really disappointed. I must have looked like a total lost tourist beause on two occasions homeless people asked me for money...

This is some of the few landmarks I was able to find after much walking around.

Then I stopped at Ten Thousand Villages and browsed for a while. This is Katherine's fave instrument from Gymboree music class. If it was not $30 I would have bought it for her.

Some cute animals...

I sniffed every single soap in the store (normally CJ cuts me off after 3-4 because it gives me a headache).

Then I startedback in the trail...

The next two are pretty famous so I found them faster, but again, the map led  me astray even then.

Then I spotted St. Lawrence's Basilica from a distance. I was planning to stop by there later.

I popped into every little knick-knack store that looked interesting and found some gems...

Accidentally found a couple more landmarks... By this time I had officially given up trying to complete it.

I spotted a reataurant with French dish names on the door. Poulet roti was one of our faves back in Geneva.

Then I decided to take a break for lunch. I went to the Green Sage, a very earthy, all natural, lotsa vegan type of place. I had a smoked salmon sandwich and sweet potato fries. Both were delicious! Highly recommend that place if you're in Asheville.

Started walkig around again and spotted another landmark by accident. I swear the moment I gave up, they started showing up by themselves...

And another one

Then I headed over to Mast General Store. Always have to visit one when you're in a town that has one. Spotted some cool baby pack packs (idea for future).

And saw these gigantor keys. They are fakes BUT they look like the keys we had in Geneva for our attic. And those were fully functional...

No explanation necessary...

I wonder what type of girl Katherine will grow up to be. Right now she loves both Hello Kitty and Elmo. And she's a total Curious George so who knows...

I pondered getting $100 Patagonia vest...

And a &150 Patagonia jacket... Didn't get either.

If I lived in Asheville I would probably wear hippy clogs like this... They were super comfortable!

Then I headed back to the hotel to check in. This was my room.

Oh, btw, the entire week leading up to my trip as well as during the trip the Weather Channel kept saying 60-70% chance rain, and every time I checked it said it would rain within the next hour or so. But in reality this is the weather I had the whole time...

Later in the afternoon I headed to.... Yes, a chocolate shop called The Chocolate Fetish. Yumm!

And got some fabulous chocolates for myself and as a gift for CJ.

I also spotted this clever mug...

 

Then I visited the Grove Arcade, one of my all time fave spots in Asheville. It's funny, Asheville is kind of like Charleston... It just never gets old, no matter how many times you go.

Found this card at one of the shops in the Arcade.

Then on the way back to the hotel I stopped over at the Basilica. They were running a wedding rehearsal.

At the hotel I relaxed and read the promo materials they had there and found out that we now have SmoLey Mountains, not Smokey....

Later on I headed down to the hotel restaurant for dinner. I had a cheeseburger (which was like a lump of charcoal...) and yummy sweet potato fries (yeah I have a thing for those). I wasn't impressed with service either. Oh well.

After that I headed back to my room and read books in bed and watched tv and just n general relaxed. It was awesome!

In the morning I woke up at the usual time, around 7. Wish I could have slept longer but I guess the body is used to that so no helping. I lounged in bed for a while (all moms know that you NEVER get to do that at home!) and then I went down to have breakfast downstairs. It was included in my stay. Score!!

I requested late check out so I had time to go out and explore Asheville some more. I went back to the Basilica to take pics without the wedding party... They came out great.

And after that I visited two historic sites but they will get their own posts since this one is getting just a bit too long... Haha... What a fun relaxing weekend!i really love Asheville! I would go back in a heartbeat.