Day 123 - Chilly last day in Asheville

January 3rd: at least it was sunny after snowing all night!

We woke up and this was what the windows looked like!

We all enjoyed the excuse to sleep in and stay inside a little longer, then went to meet Desiree at yet another amazing Asheville restaurant, the Sunny Point Cafe (ostensibly for breakfast but then we didn't get there until noon). I was debating between breakfast and lunch but then I found the breakfast salad - oven baked herb potatoes, bacon, and an egg on top of a spinach salad - the best of both worlds! (I know, an egg on a salad sounds weird, but somehow it still worked)

I really wanted a Gnome picture with these little houses! So on our way back to the house I convinced Alynn to let me out and then drive around the block and pick me up.

I'm telling you, there are murals tucked everywhere!

Most don't seem to have titles like this one, I wonder if "Chicken Alley" was inscribed when the mural was painted or after the fact by someone else?

On the side of one of the tattoo parlors, across from Chicken Alley

The underpass going into downtown was covered on all sides with these beautiful, vibrant murals

Some of the murals were indoors

Anyone recognize this guy? Is he famous?

Hi Aaron! Desiree and Alynn had to go home to work, so Daisy and I looked up the road conditions on the Blue Ridge Parkway

The road was almost entirely closed in this part of the state, except for the 1 mile stretch that allowed access to the visitor's center. Good enough for us! (photo by Daisy)

(photo by Daisy)

It was a very slow mile to the visitor center, but you could tell that this would be a beautiful drive in the summer (photo by Daisy)

I always forget how small black bears are until I see one like this

Panorama of the visitor center

They had a lot of information about how the Parkway was constructed, and had a little hands on activity to build an arch and then stand it up to see if it was stable. It took us two tries and a lot of tweaking to get it to balance properly - I imagine it's a pretty challenging for small kids, but it kept big kids like us entertained for a while!

The construction phase of the parkway looked pretty brutal to the landscape, but by now it looks like the road just fits perfectly into the trees and fields (at least looking at pictures!)

Icicle!

After leaving the visitor's center we drove back downtown to ZaPow!, and then drove around a bit before heading home to hang out with Alynn, eat cake/pie, and finish off our marathon of Orange is the New Black