Some of the neighborhoods in Asheville, North Carolina

My husband had a seminar to attend in Asheville North Carolina ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asheville,_North_Carolina., and http://www.exploreasheville.com/)  Asheville is one of those places where its just hard to fly  to from where we live.  It would have taken a couple of transfers and then renting a car and driving for an hour.  Since it would have been an all day of traveling my husband decided to drive instead.  Lucky me.  He asked if I wanted to go and help with the driving and of course I said yes.  So while he was in his seminar I got to play tourist and have a great time.
I got a Grayline Trolley Car ticket that was good for two days.  What I loved about this ticket was I could get on and off where I wanted to and it was good for 2 days so I didn't have to see everything in the one day.  This way I got a whole tour of the city and didn't have to drive in it and get lost or have to deal with the hassle of parking.  On the first day I sat on the left side of the trolley and on the next day I sat on the right side so that I could get the pictures I wanted that I couldn't get the day before.
     I took so many pictures of the area I decided to break have more than one post. So this is what I call the Burbs since its mostly about the surrounding area.
     The main thing about the area is everywhere you look you can see Mountains in the distance and it is so forested.  The mountains are the  Blue Ridge Mountains. (wiki/Blue_Ridge_Mountains).  They are beautiful. I did enjoy seeing them.

The Trolley tour started at the visitor center.  It first takes you into what I would call the suburbs or the neighborhoods of  Asheville, then it takes you into the downtown area and finally the Arts District/ industrial area and lastly the Biltmore Village.  One of the things I liked about the trolley too was it would pick up at certain hotels and let you off at them also.  The hotel I was staying at happened to be one of the stops which made it very convenient for me.
     So one of the first things they point on the tour is the local high school which was done in an art deco 1920's style. I tried getting a picture but the vegetation was so much it just did not turn out but I did think it was interesting looking surrounded by the trolley car windows.

Apparently in the 1920's the area had a lot of rich people moving to it and there was a lot of building built with the 1920's Art Deco style since that was what was in vogue at the time.
    The reason it was so popular was because of the Biltmore Estate and people coming to the area to visit it.
     George Vanderbilt came to the area back in the 1890's and built it.
    At the time Asheville was one of the places people would go to get the 'good mountain air'  and to help fight tuberculous. Apparently one of Georges relatives suffered from it and he accompanied them to the region and fell in love with the area.
      Since this was such a nice retreat spot the people would come and built these lovely old Victorian homes.  Some of these homes have now been made into Bed & Breakfast places.
Since there were so many to see on the tour I tried to only take pictures of the Bed & Breakfast places or places of commercial / historical interest.   Like the following:

I think one of the things I liked so much abut the area was how green it was and how pretty everything was.

I think this was the Chinese acupuncture place, where they actually teach people how to preform it.

This place I fell in loved with.  I just loved all the masonry in it and how it was made to look like a modern day castle.   I forgot what it is now used as.  At one point the owner used to teach piano there and had had some famous students.

Across from it was a park and there are a lot of weddings preformed there.

Here was another house that had some historical significance but I've forgotten what it was.  I just thought it was a pretty house.  It was across from the country club golf course.

This house was right next door and was for sale.  The guide told us the price and it seemed very reasonable.  This area had been economically depressed for a long time and the housing prices in the area had never gotten really ridiculous like they had in other parts of the country.

They did have a lovely park and Botanical Gardens right next to Asheville's local college.

Here is the golf course again and how lovely the area is.  In the distance you can see an interesting building that is a hotel.

We had to go up a steep hill to get to the hotel.  As we were going up, it was interesting to see the places that were tucked into it.  One of these photos was of the country club. 

The first day I sat on one side (left) of the bus and the next day I sat on the other.  I was so glad to be sitting on the 'right' side of the bus when we spotted some wild Turkeys on the side of the road. 

Here's a better shot of them that I've cropped to see them better.  I wondered how long these birds will be here with Thanksgiving just around the corner.

Wild Turkey, on the side of the road in Asheville NC.

Here was another interesting building that was built because of the view it had.

This was a little shop area that was for the locals.  One of the things that impressed me so much about Asheville was how 'eclectic' was and all of its 'artsee' things you would see. Like this shop area

I did like this statue that was in front of the one building.

We finally got up to the Grove Park Inn.  Most of Asheville was pretty green and the fall colors hadn't started but I was happy to see these trees near the inn and how they've started to change and the way the inn blended into the surrounding area.  Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the Grove Park Inn - Grove_Park_Inn

This in an image of the front entrance way to the inn.  A lot of people got off so they could see the inn and walk around the surrounding area. 

More views of the Grove Park Inn.

And another view of the inn.  I guess I liked it so much because the owner used such interesting rocks to built it. 

This is the view that the people in the Inn would have.  

Nest to the inn was these modern day condo's.  The guide jokenly said they were the "Million dollar condo's' since that's how much they cost to own one.

She much preferred the apartments that were across the street from them.  They were a lot cheaper especially since there was the landslide that had occurred right next to them. 

I think she said this landslide occurred on July 4th of this year.   The picture I took did not do it justice. It was impressive to see, because of how massive it was.  We were going by it too fast to get a good image of it.

At the bottom of the hill was another park.  This area did not have as great a view and you could understand why it was more residential.  But I still thought it was a pretty area.

This was in front of a local church.

Soon, I'll be showing the downtown but that's it for now.