Travelling Lore

After our scenic drive down the Blue Ridge Parkway, we finally made it to Asheville, NC and checked into our roadside hotel for the night.  Hotels are pretty expensive during leaf peeping season, so definitely plan in advance if you want to save a few dollars by booking your hotel early.  Asheville is a city in western North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains that, aside from the iconic Blue Ridge Parkway drive, boasts the Biltmore Mansion, music heritage, and a great food and beer scene. As an early Christmas present from my fiance's parents, we were able to visit Biltmore Estate .  The Châteauesque Biltmore House was built between 1889 and 1895 by George Washington Vanderbilt II and is currently owned by a Vanderbilt descendant.  The entrance fee is pretty steep, but I thought it was pretty interesting to walk through a house that was more or less advance for its time, such as installing a 70,000-gallon heated swimming pool and one of the nation's first...

A couple of years ago back when my fiance and I were still a relatively new item we decided to take a weekend to go explore Asheville, North Carolina.  In order to get there you can drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway , which is known for having overlooks and pull offs to small hikes so that you can explore and find spectacular views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  The drive is extremely popular during autumn when the leaves are changing colors. There are a ton of overlooks between Virginia and North Carolina.  Since it was a 7-hour drive from northern Virginia to Asheville, in the interest of time we opted to stop at Rough Ridge Overlook , one of the most well-known trails along the parkway. The hike isn't very long, but some parts are steep and you have to navigate over some small boulders, which can be slick depending on recent weather.  There's also a boardwalk to climb, which was built to keep hikers from destroying the ecosystem.  Once you get to t...