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Saturday, September 29, 2012

Asheville Cabin Weekend

Each year we get together with Eric and Keith's childhood friend Tyler and his family for a cabin weekend somewhere. Most years it is somewhere in Tennessee but this year in August we went to Asheville which I liked even better.

Everyone else arrived Friday mid-day and had lunch downtown and then hung out at the cabin. Due to work Eric and I arrived around 5:30-6. The cabin was about 20 minutes outside of downtown Asheville in an was an old barn refurbished into several bedrooms, a kitchen, large living room, game room, and deck with a hot tub and firepit out back.




The owners lived next door on a good amount of land and had some horses (and some dogs). Perfect photo op.


 


Friday night we grilled burgers and veggies and I made the avocado ranch dip. We just relaxed and watched the Olympics.

Saturday morning we watched some more Olympics and got ready for our big adventure of the weekend... ziplining! Tyler's parents opted not to go ziplining.

We ziplined with Navitat and had a start time a little after noon. They had great reviews on safety, satisfaction, and being well organized.


This was my first time ziplining other than something small as part of a ropes course/team building event as a kid. I was a little nervous, not about the heights or about safety but about going too fast and feeling motion sick. Rest assured there was no motion sickness since you are not in a confined space like a car and you always zip straight, no curves or swinging motion involved.

Eric had our waterproof/outdoor camera strapped into his harness so he could take some shots and they have a photographer there at one zip platform that you can buy photos or a CD from.

It was a blast! The first couple zips are shorter to get you used to it and teach you how to brake. I like that they have the handlebars you hold while you zip.

Keith getting hooked into one of the zips. See the handlebars

A bonus to being small is there is very little braking because you are not going at speeds as fast as a larger person. Several of the zips are quite long which is nice... there were 10 ziplines total.




This was one of the really long zips. Their photographer took this one.


Whitney taking off the platform.


There were also 2 repelling things but I would hardly call it repelling... basically they just hoist you down a short amount with the ropes.

1 of the guides getting Tyler ready to "repel"

There were 2 easy bridges to walk across at different points to get to another zipping platform that you couldn't just zip to.


In case you were wondering what they do when a branch gets in the way of the zipline..



The scenery is gorgeous with the blue ridge mountains in the distance as you zip among the trees. Even though this was August it wasn't hot since we were up in the mountains and mainly in the shade. There isn't a ton of walking/hiking involved throughout and the entire course takes about 3-3.5 hours so you get your money worth. Our guides were professional while still being fun and telling jokes. I would definitely go again!


One funny thing that happened.. of course you need shoes to zipline and hike. Well Keith forgot his and they had some there in the lost in found how you lose your shoes there I'm not sure  and they were hilarious velcro skater-ish shoes. Definitely not what you would wear ziplining or ever. So that gave us a laugh throughout the day.

velcro shoes

Then we got ready and went out to eat in downtown Asheville. This was my first visit to Asheville and I really liked the downtown. It had a lot of restaurants and fun shops and antique stores.



We had dinner at Doc Chey's I liked my dish and a few others did but a couple people thought theirs were just okay so it was a little hit or miss.


And then we walked around for awhile going into a couple of shops that were still open.



We headed back to the cabin to have s'mores around the firepit out back and hang out in the hot tub.

firepit during the daytime
Sunday we packed up to leave and went into Asheville to have lunch.

 
lovely day out

We ate at Salsa, Caribbean/Puerto Rican food. It was delicious. They change their menu daily based on what they get fresh. Definitely recommend a meal here!

These are making me hungry

 


After a great weekend with friends/family in Asheville, Eric and I cannot wait to go back! Next time we may have to check out a winery and maybe the Biltmore since I've never been there. It's only a 2 hour drive from Charlotte so would be a perfect weekend getaway sometime :)

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