So our favorite way to travel is with a laid back plan. This means I have some ideas but if we don’t make them, then no biggie. If we see something better, we stop. So our first stop is at the bottom of the page. Blue Ridge PKWY. I want to drive the whole thing one day, but that takes days and today was not that day. We did get our National Park stamp and learned about the parkway. Highly recommend and it’s free!
We were going to drive on the Parkway for a little but it seemed to be warming up and decided to head to the city. We live in the mountains and needed a little city life. So I didn’t think the kids would enjoy the graffiti but they loved it. They enjoyed looking at it, pointing things out, laughing at the inappropriate, and climbing everywhere. They want to go back, so I’d say it was a hit.
So it was about lunch time and came across this food truck! Melt Your Heart! Mmm we got the Fire on the Mountain and The Heartbreaker. The kids did not like the Fire on the Mountain, but I loved it! I think it was the walnuts. The Heartbreaker was absolutely incredible. So good I’m going to gather the supplies to make the Raspberry mustard so we can recreate this at home. Such a good stop! I highly recommend.
In Ashville they have a free walking tour and it scavenger hunt! I think my kids would be more into it, if it wasn’t freezing. It was so cold, like the wind was trapped in between the buildings.
So while searching the first one, we saw this! I think the angels were calling out to us. We needed a warm drink. So because we were curious, we went inside. While the man was making the Applaca Chai Tea, I told him about our faux food tour. Since we were trying new weird foods he gave us a free donut! That was awesome! The donut was a Hibiscus and the free donut was a lemon curd! Super cute place and I’ll definitely go back. The chai was spicy and the kids hated it. I loved it and got to drink the whole thing without them. Win win!
Just outside the Underground cafe was was some of the scavenger items. I think before the cafe the kids thought I was making it up, proof I’m not insane.
While the excitement of finding scavenger items, we looked up and saw the most glorious thing ever! A noodle shop! We lived in Asia for eight years and this is better than gold. We went in, we ate and it was everything. I forgot to take a good photo, because we just dug right in with excitement.
When we left the noodle shop, just around the corner was a Japanese restaurant. We were full and we actually going to skip it. Ken noticed on the sign they had a Japanese pancake. Because we are doing a faux food tour and trying weirdo things... pancake sushi is a must! I will say I was expecting an actual pancake. I was expecting something sweet! This was non of that. It was like a pizza, a spicy pizza with eel sauce, mango, fish eggs, the sauce they put on dragon rolls and salmon. I think maybe on a puff pastry of sorts. It was 13.50 of awesomeness! As gross as all that sounds! It was amazing.
The above was spicy for the kids so they wanted something sweet and it a faux food tour after all. So across the street was the French Broad Chocolate Factory. They do tours but had none available when we went, so we will have to go back and do that! There is two sides. A restaurant side that seem to always have a line and a store front. The store front was also busy but it was inside. Jack got Buttermilk Lemon Ice Cream. It was so good, I was a little annoyed I didn’t get it. Ken got Vanilla and girls got cookies.
The addresses we used for the graffiti art is:
336 and 339 Old Lyman St.
476 Haywood Rd.
You kinda just have to drive around and look. The best place for graffiti was where Melt Your Heart was located. So if you want easy, just head there.
The Restaurants we ate at were:
Information on the Ashville Walking Tour/ Scavenger Hunt.
Money Spent
(Not including tips and gas)
Blue Ridge Parkway - Free
Browsing Graffiti - Free
Melt your mouth - 18.00
The Underground- 8.00
The Noodle Shop- 19.85
Wasabi Japanese - 14.00
French abroad - 13.00
Parking - 5.00
Total- $77.85
So for around $120 we had an epic day! Planning another trip in the summer to do more outdoorsy things when the kids are out of school.
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