Afternoon Around Asheville

Walking around the Biltmore gave us quite an appetite.       We had several friends who gave us a list of restaurants that they recommended in Asheville.   One of those was "12 Bones".    We decided to give it a try for lunch.       It was one of those great places found in a old renovated gas station.     All of the locals love this place and it was packed even after the traditional lunch hour.  

They have 2-3 different flavored ribs available each day.    On the menu was their award-winning blueberry chipotle bbq ribs.    We decided we had to try it.    I decided to get jalapeno cheddar grits and cucumber salad with mine and hubs picked baked beans and corn pudding with his.

Neither of us could eat all of that food.     The ribs were delicious.    The service was so great and friendly.    I am so glad that we ate there.

With a full stomach we decided to go exploring the area.     We decided to head towards Lake Lure.    Lake Lure was where the movie, Dirty Dancing, was filmed.    Their visitor's center had a lot of framed memorabilia up in the office.     So much of Lake Lure looked exactly the way I remembered it in the movie.     The tourist center was busy planning for the Dirty Dancing Festival which will be held in September.    

After leaving Lake Lure we headed to Chimney Rock Park.     It was where scenes from "Last of the Mohicans" was filmed.     This thing is high.     You take a 26 story elevator ride just to get to the hide to get up there.  

As we are climbing the steps I noticed a few steps that looked cracked.    Not small cracks, but BIG cracks.  The kind you could drop things through.     I wasn't scared until I saw that.     I refused to step on those steps and I am sure I looked hysterical.    This really short girl trying to skip steps up the side of Chimney Rock.

We finally got to the top and the first place hubs goes is to the very edge for me to take a photo of him taking a picture with this sign.  

To keep myself from hyperventilating about the thought of him plunging over the edge, I decided to take some photos of the views.     It really was gorgeous.

Then hubs asked if he could take a picture of me.    I told him that was fine as long as he didn't mind a picture of me gripping this tree. 

We started making our way down and I really got nervous about those steps.     When we got down to the bottom they announced that they were closing Chimney Rock down for maintenance.     They needed to replace DANGEROUS STEPS!      Hubs looked at the guy and said, "My wife can show you exactly which ones need to be replaced if you have any doubts."    

After a full day we wound our way back down the mountain, found a Redbox to rent a couple of movies and went back to our suite to relax.