Sweet Asheville.

November 2, 2010

Sweet Asheville.

Asheville is one of the jewels of North Carolina. It’s a cool, eclectic little mountain town peppered with artisans and musicians, a University, and rolling mountains as far as the eye can see.

We were in town to visit my mom and to go to a music festival that brought thousands of people into town.

Evie, as usual, was along for the ride on dada’s back and wearing an awesome pair of patent leather kicks I brought her from Toronto. (On a completely separate note: can someone smack my hand the next time I purchase something striped for my family. Good gracious, we’re all starting to look like a bunch of prison inmates)

Tash and I took in the pretty fall leaves as we roamed about.

We also visited a fun little playground with the girls and got a bit silly and Beatles inspired while crossing the street.

It has become blatantly obvious to me that one of the greatest perks of fatherhood for Brent has been that he now has a completely valid reason to run around on playgrounds and across monkey bars and down slides. Evie just stood there watching him from the Ergo carrier as he zipped back and forth between the structures. He will forever be a little boy trapped in a man’s body.

The weekend ended with brunch at the exquisite Grove Park Inn. It’s an Asheville landmark with one of the prettiest views around. It also had the best brunch I have ever eaten in my life - crab legs, buttermilk friend chicken, silver dollar pancakes, french onion soup, an incredible cheese display, gingerbread cake, and an entire pan of hot caramel sauce to drizzle over ice cream (and so many other amazing things that nearly put us into a food coma). I must have said “This is heaven” between bites of food about 20 times.

I’m leaving out a lot - but to be honest, so much of the weekend was a joyful blur. What I do know - it sure was good to spend time with my mama and our best friends and take in big lung fulls of that fresh mountain air.

Life is busy. Often stressful. Mostly chaotic. but escaping somewhere like Asheville for a few days is always a good reset for the soul.

Love,