Tropical storm Alberto didn’t stand a chance when we came into Asheville with our friends. We met up with two other couples, one coming from the Philadelphia area and the second from Roanoke. Our AirBnB was in the heart of Asheville, allowing us to walk pretty much everywhere we wanted to go. Our first evening braved the rain and walked to Bhramari Brewing Company for a beer before our dinner reservations at Bartaco. We got an assortment of tacos and churros for an appetizer (obviously).

The next morning we woke up early for our food foraging tour that was outside the city. No Taste Like Home has been in business for the past 23 years. Asheville has the second richest temperate ecosystem on Earth with over 300 wild edibles, so, there was plenty to eat! Our friends from Virginia told us about the tour and we were instantly hooked on the idea! How cool to be able to walk around in the wild and find edible plants with a trained guide?! The weather was dreary and drizzly but that didn’t get our group down! Our guide, Jillian, led us lazily through fields and forests talking about each plant we passed, nibbling here and there on leaves and twigs. It sounds like a joke doesn’t it?! But that’s truly what we did! We drank tea made from Sweet Birch twigs and snacked on Wood Sorrel (which tastes like sweet tarts!). At the end of the tour we came to a covered barn and Jillian sautéed us up some of our foraged finds paired with black walnuts and wrapped in a Sassafras leaf. I highly recommend this amazing experience, it was so interesting!

After we dried off from our rainy foraging tour, we explored downtown Asheville on foot, getting to as many breweries as we could! We went to Green Man Brewing, Wicked Weed Funkatorium, Burial Beer, and Bhramari Brewing Company (linked above). Our group wandered back home and put our feet up after a long afternoon of walking .. and drinking. It was ‘boys night’ to cook dinner at the AirBnB, so the ladies sat back and watched both the Stanley Cup game and the NBA finals while yelling at the guys to bring us snacks and drinks while they yelled back about the scores to the games. Dinner was pork chops with roasted veggies and a salad made from our foraged greens that we got on our tour!

On Tuesday we had a brewery tour at Sierra Nevada. This was by far the most beautiful brewery I have ever set foot in. The building is Platinum LEED Certified, meaning its about as eco friendly as it can get when it comes to buildings! Learning about all the amazing things the engineers thought of to make the place to green was probably my favorite part of the tour, well, and the 12 beers we tasted. We ran to the car in the pouring rain and headed for .. wait for it.. the Biltmore.

The rain let up for about an hour and a half, which was just enough time to walk around the gardens looking at the first ever art exhibit at the Biltmore. Chihuly graced the vibrant green scene with his colorful orbs and squiggly firework-esque sculptures. Being a Chihuly fan since I could practically walk (his work stands 43 feet high in the Indianapolis Children’s Museum, and has for as long as I can remember) , I was over the moon getting to see his works in such an amazing space! We hurried back to the Biltmore Estate huddled under our umbrellas so we could explore the many rooms inside! We opted to purchase the Daytime ticket as well as the audio tour. To save on money, each couple opted for 1 audio tour. We thought we were being smart by thinking we could all just share a set of headphones, one bud in one ear and walk close together. Turns out the audio tour is on a phone like device.. so just imagine all of us head to head walking through the house. It was quite the scene. After the first few rooms my neck started to hurt so Brian listened and just paraphrased the information he heard. My most favorite rooms were the gym and the pool which were both in the basement.

Even for such a short amount of time, we had a blast in Asheville! I felt like we explored a lot of the city, plus the ‘must do’s’, and experienced some unique things as well! We left on Wednesday afternoon after enjoying a coffee at Trade & Lore and walking around the city, peeking into shops and bookstores that looked interesting! Brian and I will certainly be heading back to Asheville, maybe the sun will join us for that trip!

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