Post 29 Asheville, Greenville and Charleston

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 Asheville, Greenville and Charleston April 11-20

We've always wanted to go to Asheville and, being just an hour from Gatlinburg, we took the opportunity to spend a few days there.

Asheville suffered a lot of damage from Hurricane Helene back in 2024.  They are still recovering and are slowly making their way back and are welcoming visitors.

We hopped on the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Southern Highlands Crafts Guild's Folk Arts Center.  They have a fabulous display of beautiful local artwork and a gift shop selling arts and crafts by local artists.












Asheville has a thriving Riverfront Arts District that we spent a Saturday afternoon meandering through. Pottery, fiber arts, metal sculpture, painting......

The city is nicknamed the Beer City for the 30+ local breweries that call the city home.  We made it to five.  Our favorite was Burial.  Besides great brews, they had some interesting tap handles as you can see in the picture below.








Asheville is also the home of the Biltmore Estate, the 8000 acre country home of George Vanderbilt.  At 178,000 square feet, it's America's largest privately owned home, truly more like a castle than a house.  When it was built in 1895, everything in it was the latest and best technology.  The walls feature original works by Renoir and Monet.   






















 The gardens and greenhouse were large and in full bloom.













It had it's own farm and dairy and currently, it's own winery, where we did a tasting. 



As beautiful as it all was, honestly it's a bit much.  Who really needs 35 bedrooms and 43 bathrooms??

Greenville was not on our original plans, but we wanted to spend some time with our friends, Ellisa and Becky, who we met on our trip to Morocco last year.  They were anxious to show us around their city and when we got there, it was easy to see why they were so proud of it.

From the tree-lined Main Street to the miles-long pedestrian Riverwalk, there is green space everywhere here. We walked from one end of the city to the other passing waterfalls, the famous Medusa Tree, restaurants and local breweries and fabulous murals.

















We visited an old covered bridge and the brand new Unity Park Tower.





Thanks, Ellisa and Becky for showing us all the great things about Greenville!


After Greenville, it was on to Charleston.  On our way we made a short stop at Congaree National Park. The park protects the largest intact old-growth bottomland hardwood forest in the southeastern US. The boardwalk loop trail is 2.4 miles long. Biodiversity and champion trees, along with its wilderness area offers a quiet escape to see wildlife, the swamp and the great trees. The Champion trees here are the largest of their species including loblolly pines, sweet gum, American elm, three different species of oak and bald cypress. One bald cypress is 30 ft in circumference and estimated to be  500 to 1,000 years old!





Our first stop in Charleston was Fort Sumter.

The fort is out in Charleston Harbor and requires a ferry ride.  We learned all about the beginning of the Civil War, as the first shot of the war was right here at Fort Sumter. 







The ferry dock is at the Naval Museum where the USS Yorktown is docked.  You can take a tour of the ship, an aircraft carrier, and climb into the planes on the deck.





Our next stop was Magnolia Plantation, where we got a sense of what life was like on a rice plantation for both the owners and the enslaved people.







The walking trails and gardens were lovely.













On our last day, we walked around downtown Charleston- from the wonderful visitor center. 


down King St to Rainbow Row



to the Battery

through the historic neighborhoods and the Public Market.  






And we certainly couldn't end our visit without stopping by at one of the breweries.  Charleston's nickname is the Holy City because they have ALMOST as many churches as bars.😄  So we went to the Holy City Brewery for a pint of their Red Ale.




Many times along the way we have struck up conversations with interesting people.  Today in Charleston was a perfect example.  As we entered the visitor center gift shop there was a booth of beautiful sweetgrass baskets made by the Gullah people.  The Gullah are decedents of slaves living along the coast of the Carolinas.  They maintain their own Creole based language and culture.  On this day Mary Alice Parker was manning the booth.  She is 83 and no longer makes baskets but all her children and grandchildren do.  After asking her some questions about the baskets, she asked if one of us would be so kind as to re-pin her dress so that her slip didn't show at her neckline.  Cindy took care of that and we continued to talk about her life and family.  Thirty minutes later she sent us off with tiny little baskets, a big hug and God's blessing on us.  She was a sweetie.  I wish we had gotten a photo of her.  Below is what the baskets look like and the tiny ones Mary Alice gave to us.




As you can see from this picture, we continue to eat yummy food, sometimes adding local specialties to our regular fare.



We're off to Myrtle Beach to bask in the sunshine!



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