Loving Asheville with my whole heart

I always love Asheville with my whole heart. 

Thanks to some expiring points with American airlines and my desire to escape the annual Kansas wheat harvest, I decided to zip over to North Carolina for a few days in June. (Turns out those points were more of a curse than a blessings since unforeseen mechanical issues in Wichita stranded me for 6 hours in DFW. But in better news, I completely missed about 90% of the wheat harvest here. Since I am so, so, so allergic to wheat pollen, this timing couldn't be more perfect). 

My original plan for this trip was just to work remotely. But then my sister and nephew came down so those plans shifted and I just embraced the extra vacation days. Sunday was also Father's day, which meant that this was the 2nd father's day in a row that I got to actually spend with my Dad. Again, great timing. 

Highlights included basically everything Asheville, duh. But here are more specifics

1. Exploring the Carolina Hemlocks (and "toe river" which was so clear that we could see our feet. We didn't bring out swim stuff but we couldn't help but take off our shoes and socks and explore the rocks). There was also mica everywhere. Mica is a sparkly mineral that makes everything look like diamonds. It's incredible. 

2. Mt Mitchell. After exploring toe river, we headed to Mt Mitchell, which is the tallest point east of the Mississippi. A little bit, we regretted this since we ended up needing to take the parkway to get there, which took for.ev.er. But we did it! No one threw up and the views were breath taking. 

3.  Trying new places! Eating in Asheville is maybe one of my favorite activities. The problem is there are so many places to try and since I am not here very often, we tend to go back to the same places (because they are so delicious). This time, we tried a few new places: Vortex donuts, and Chai Pani.

We also did hit up an old fav: Ultimate ice cream

4. Hanging with my sister! Leah and I went to a movie, went shopping at my favorite boutique, Virtue, actually went to "early morning" yoga, and drank a lot of coffee. So good. 

 and hanging with my nephew too. On our last afternoon, we wondered into this place called "Well Played," which is a gaming cafe. I don't love games, so it wasn't my favorite; but it was nice to chill while Malakai was still having fun. 

5. Exploring my parents' garden. Their yard isn't very large but my Dad has turned into a mini-Eden. It's amazing. 

6. Exploring the North Carolina Arboretum! Even though the buildings were closes, the grounds did not disappoint at all. Plus, since we went close to closing time, it felt like we had the entire place to ourselves. It had also just rained but still hot out, so you could see the moisture evaporating off the ground. As Malakai said, it was very "mystical." We also met a turtle.

This past Saturday morning, back in Kansas, I was thinking about all my Asheville love and I wanted to cry. I really love it there and it's hard to imagine why I traded that place for here. Why can't I move there again? Maybe someday. In the meanwhile, I am trying to work on loving where I live. It's really hard sometimes. But I am grateful for this Kansas season of life (in the hopes that it's not the only season of life I have left). So for now, I go to Asheville as a guest and drink in every moment.