Asheville 2020

We had big plans to go to California with the Skoniecznys before everything came crashing down, so all of a sudden our summer vacation mindset had to change. Despite all that was going on we decided to take advantage of the North Carolina mountains and the numerous outdoor activities that Asheville has to offer. We have been there before, and we had some ideas for new things to do, but couldn't pass up repeating some of our old favorites. Tubing down the French Broad River was top of the list of repeat activities. Since we have done this before, we brought our cooler so we could fully indulge in food and beverages on our leisurely float.

It was a beautiful day, and the floating was just as much fun as we remembered it to be. Because travel was up in the air for most people, it wasn't crowded and we even had the opportunity to go for a second float at a reduced rate. We jumped at the chance and spent another couple of hours on the river. It was fun, relaxing, and great to be outside and not in our house.

We rented a apartment that was right over a bakery and some restaurants. Unfortunately the restaurant was closed and the bakery only had to go orders on a limited schedule due to Covid. But that's alright because we weren't planning on spending much time inside anyway. However, it did rain a couple of days so we had to be creative indoors until the rain passed. An artistic photo shoot fit the bill.

We had the goal of trying to hike every day. On the drive down we actually stopped at Big Creek in the Great Smokies to do what turned out to be a really cool one. Our next stop was Dupont State Forest that had a number of great hikes that took us to several different waterfalls.

Tbe hikes weren't all that difficult, and it is always nice to be in the woods in the summertime. 

One of the claims to fame of this particular area is that it is also a place where scenes from the Hunger Games and Last of the Mohicans have been filmed. This picture of us at the Triple Falls should be familiar to those who have followed the life and times of Katniss Everdeen.

Each waterfall gave us something different. Here is Reese at High Falls, soaking it all in. We had to do a little scrambling to get to the base of it, but the effort was definitely worth it. Both of the girls enjoyed any opportunity they could get to do some rock hopping.

As always, Sarah did her best to document the trip so we would know where we had been and what we had done no matter how long afterwards we were looking at the pictures. Out of all of the waterfalls we saw that day, Hooker Falls was actually the least impressive, though we didn't stick around to see what happened to the guy who appeared to be preparing to go over it in a kayak. 

One place we knew we had to go to this trip was Sliding Rock in Pisgah National Forest. On a typical summer day there are crowds of people who line up to experience this natural water slide. If you go at 10am on a cloudy day during a pandemic, however, you don't have a problem with long lines.

First of all, it's really cool and you need to try it out. Second, the water is really cold. Like, really cold. Reese went down only once because it was that cold. You slide down one of three different routes down the rock and land in a natural pool. The hardest part is trying to keep your body straight so that you don't enter the pool backwards. John never mastered that part.

The next day we went on another short hike before we did some white water rafting on a different section of the French Broad River. In this picture the girls didn't know what fun awaited them.

Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of the white water rafting because we were afraid to bring our cameras/phones on the boats. In hindsight, it would have been fine. But we also had a great time just enjoying the ride, which didn't have crazy rapids, but still wasn't the Zen Tubing we had done earlier in the trip.

But our fun wasn't done. To bring our trip to a rousing conclusion we left Asheville and headed to Black Mountain to meet up with the Abrahams. Kelly was already there with Ella, and Kirk and Claire were on their way down. We were excited to spend a couple of days with them exploring Montreat. We did get one cool hike in to Lookout Point before we met up.

Much to the girls' chagrin, our planned activities involved more hiking. But at least this time around they got to be with Ella and Claire, which tends to make everything better. We never get tired of taking pictures of this foursome.

In between our hikes we stayed at the Assembly Inn in downtown Montreat. Because of the pandemic we were literally the only guests there. We took over the lobby like we owned the place. It was quite an experience.

When all was said and done, our trip to North Carolina did just what we needed it to do. It got us outside and out of Kentucky. And between the family time with just the four of us and the quality time with the Abrahams it recharged our soul.