Smoky Mountain high

A couple weeks ago I got the chance to escape the summer heat that was lingering over la la land a bit past its welcome when I flew out to the pleasant little hipster haven of Asheville, North Carolina to visit my dad and his wife in nearby Franklin, about an hour and a half southwest and a few thousand feet skyward from where I landed. In recent years they’ve taken to escaping the brutal late summer months of Florida by renting homes in that region, where temperatures and pace of life are both a few notches lower. Though I arrived a few weeks before the colors began to change, the landscape was still a gorgeous series of green and blue layers, the mountains high enough to be majestic but not so high as to shed the trees. Most of our time was spent seeking out several of the areas great waterfalls, for which it is known. Some of them require miles long hikes to reach, while others are viewed simply by pulling your car off the road and looking out the window. Most were somewhere in between. Besides that we spent time exploring the other thing the area is becoming known for…beer. Asheville in particular is quickly becoming a magnet for beer aficionados, which, if put in karate terms, I might be an orange belt. There are numerous local microbreweries in the area, including Highland Brewing Company, French Broad Brewery and The Wedge, a small operation situated in an old warehouse in the city’s River Arts District. We only visited The Wedge, but still managed to sample the others along the way. Most notably, west coast(ish) breweries Sierra Nevada and New Belgium both recently chose Asheville as the home to each of their new east coast locations, which will surely add some clout to the city’s status as a hophead hotspot. Overall a fantastic little getaway, though next year I’m waiting until October!