Travel: Blue Ridge Parkway with a Side of Asheville

Visiting Asheville, North Carolina has been on my to-do list for a very long time. Looking back at some email correspondence between me and a friend, it looks as though I've been thinking about going to Asheville for a solid five years! 

Amber and I finally made plans to make the drive over the weekend. "Fawne does not go anywhere in a straight line!" says Amber. So of course, I decided to do some adventuring along the way and looked for some interesting sights. 

There are plenty of neat things to see in North Georgia/North Carolina area but we only had a small window of time for exploring. I saw that the Blue Ridge Parkway lead directly to Asheville and determined that it would be our best bet.

After entering the Parkway we saw a sign that said Asheville - 53 miles. We can make that drive in NO TIME! ...or so we thought.

We stopped at the first few overlooks, super excited to see the beautiful scenery.

Five miles into the Blue Ridge Parkway. Looking at Steestachee Bald. 

And then we decided that if we continued to stop at every lookout point, we'd never make it to Asheville.

We continued to climb in elevation. Ears popping galore!

But we made it to the top! The highest point in all the Parkway!

It's about 12 miles into the Parkway, if you enter from Hwy 74. We were not prepared for how cold it was going to be! My phone said it was 43 degrees but with the wind it felt much colder.

Hello! The usual touristy photo op.

Then we had to make the decision to not stop at any more overlooks for the rest of the ride. If my calculations are correct, then the Blue Ridge Parkway added about two hours of travel time to an otherwise 5 hour drive. Still, with these kinds of views, we consider it time well spent! Well worth it!

As for Asheville...I took a total of ZERO photos. What? We mostly hung out with friends we hadn't seen for a long, long time. Amber and I agreed to return with the intent of doing more tourist-y exploring. 

We did get the chance to try out some AWESOME food! We had tapas at Zambra, drinks at Asheville Yacht Club, then breakfast at Sunny Point Cafe. 

Wicked Weed and The Black Bird get a shout out because our friends work there. (Adding these two places to our to-do list for next time!)

Asheville, we'll be seeing you again real soon! This time, with a specific to-see list. And more time to explore!

Inktober! - The First Half

October is my most favorite month! It got even better when I found out about Inktober in time to participate (usually I discover cool group projects after they started). What is Inktober?

Check out this link: http://mrjakeparker.com/inktober

Every October, artists all over the world take on the InkTober drawing challenge by doing one ink drawing a day the entire month.

Sounds easy enough, right? It definitely has been. But of course, life gets in the way and I haven't been able to make a drawing every day... just almost everyday. 

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

I started off with a crystal drawing obsession. And then quickly got tired of them.

Day 5

Day 7

I take that back...there's the crystal drawing popping up again.

Day 8

Then trying to figure out a mermaid drawing for a commission.

Day 10

Day 12

Now it looks like I'm in a under the sea phase. 

As you can see, I haven't been able to draw every day and I'm not sure if I'll be able to make up for those missed days, but I'm drawing more than usual so that's nice. 

So many artists are participating! If you're on Instagram, check out the hashtag #inktober to see a HUGE variety of styles and abilities. It's always fun to see all the creativity being shared and celebrated. 

Here's the next two weeks of drawing!