These Are a Few of My Favorite Things: Asheville, NC

Hello all,

Our first trip is in the books for this summer. We headed over to the beautiful mountains of North Carolina to spend some time with our family for the 4th! We had a great time! We've been over to the Asheville area before, but mostly to see the Biltmore and for our first anniversary we had gone to Lake Lure which is about 40 minutes south of Asheville. On this trip we kind of went all over the place in the area. Here were our favorite things that we highly recommend doing while in the Asheville area!

1. Rent a Boat with Lake Lure Adventure Company
My family went boating a lot in Florida, but nothing compares to the beauty of Lake Lure. It seriously is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The mountain view while on the clear water, it's awesome. And sorry to spoil the surprise but it is a man made lake, so it's not super marshy. The bottom is soft sand. Nike LOVED the water (not so much the boat) and we had a great time taking in the views that Lake Lure had to offer all over again. Making the 40 minute drive from Asheville for the day is well worth your time. Read more about our favorite things specifically in Lake Lure from our last trip here .

2. The Biltmore Estate
If you haven't been here and are going over to Asheville, this is a must do while in the area. It's an amazing house, but the gardens in the spring time are even more spectacular. The price is a little steep now-a-days but if you've never been it's worth the price. You can pay a little extra for the headphones and audio recording that tell you about each thing as you go through the house if you want, but you can also just read the brochure. We didn't go there this trip but have been three times in the past.

3. Sunny Point Cafe
This place... it's bomb. Seriously so delicious. It is BUSY so get there either right when it opens or be prepared to wait. Madi and his basketball coach said that their oatmeal banana pancakes were the best pancakes they have ever eaten. My french toast was bomb also. So were the home fries Madi ordered on accident. YUM!! I would have eaten there multiple days if we knew about it sooner, but we went on our last day.

4. Downtown Asheville
Lots of cute little boutiques, restaurants, coffee shops, and an old school movie theater too. Worth going there just to walk around and see the area. They have touristy shops, but also just regular cute eclectic stores too. It's undergoing a lot of renovations, but seemed to be doing pretty well overall! If you like drinking, they have a LOT of local beer and cider (because Asheville has a lot of local breweries). Unfortunately the winding and turny roads in Lake Lure got to my stomach and I did not think trying local alcohol was a great idea while feeling nauseated. But I have heard it's delicious!

Overall Asheville was beautiful and we were blessed with good weather. However if we had to choose between there or Lake Lure, in the summer or fall I would definitely pick Lake Lure just because of the amazing views of the mountains and beauty of the lake. We went ziplining again at Canopy Ridge Farms (same place we did before) and it was just as great of an experience the second time. They seriously get a 10/10 in my book! Next is our big two week vacation where we will be going all over the place with a cruise in the middle. Can't wait for you all to see the pictures!

Thanks for keeping up with us,
- Olivia