10. Great local music and venues.
9. It is just as easy to go out and be crazy on the weekends, or stay in and be lazy.
8. Small town appeal; metropolitan attitude (kinda).
7. You can get anyway in or around town in 15 mintues. Period.
6. The area is a haven for creativity. It must be the crystals in the bedrock.
5. The liberally-minded oasis of the South. And it ain't Atlanta.
4. The beautiful beautiful mountains!!
3. Swimming in the coldest water holes supplied by fresh mountain water. And jumping off rocks.
2. Crisp, chilly, foggy summer mornings.
1. Local food. Buying fresh figs and blackberries from the gentleman farmer that comes into the downtown restaurants. And then eating said figs for breakfast with yogurt, honey, and walnuts. YUMMMMM. And making blackberry cobbler with orange essence in the crust. Oh yes. You know you want it.
If you aren't from here, or aren't familiar with the area, you really should check it out. And this coming from a person that silently curses the stupid tourists, especially when they attempt to parallel park for 15 minutes before just giving up and driving away, all the while you've been sitting behind them, waiting, because they can't get their big freakin' SUV into the space, or out of the way enough for you to scoot by. And this is NOT a hard town to drive in. AT ALL.
But seriously, if you haven't visited, you should. I hear the leaf change this year is going to be glorious.
YOU ARE TRYING TO BREAK MY HEART
ReplyDeleteYou broke mine first! :)
ReplyDeleteHere are the top 11 things I miss:
ReplyDeleteSeeing my friends play music at bobos, speakeasy, orange peel, & house parties
Eating at salsa’s, mamacitas, wasabi, rosettas
Snuggling up to sleep at the bottom of town mountain every night, feeling protected and hidden
Eerie misty mountains
Hiking and camping
Running into five people you know randomly downtown (not always 5 people you like, but still comforting)
The women. A-ville has some of the most powerful, creative, funny, unique women in one place
Being in a place where you're encouraged to be creative more than anything
Everyone blaming weird occurrences on whatever phase the moon is in
My old job
Boo!!!!
The produce alone sounds like it is worth the visit. Fresh figs and blackberries. I can almost see the blue plaid ribbon tied over the little basket they are in. I'm officially jealous now.
ReplyDeleteTrade me some fresh figs for some of my local produce (apples, strawberries, pears, cranberries, etc. All New England type of stuff). It'll be like and exchange program for produce. Maybe we can call it cobbler across the nation or some such :P
You're making me seriously miss the mountains. The only thing about coming up for the leaf change is all the Floridians and their unbelievably bad driving. It's beatiful, but you take your life in your hands being on the same roads as those people. But there ain't a damn thing like Appalachian summers.
ReplyDeleteSorta gonna be hard to visit if you don't tell us where it is. Knoxville? Athens?
ReplyDeleteNot to mention some seriously tasty eats.
ReplyDeleteAnd a swanky ass hotel/resort built from boulders that has an awesome spa.
This tourista parked her SpaceMobile in the deck behind the library. Where all the panhandling wackos hang out, apparently.
I wanna go baaaaaack.