In typical fashion for us, we took our itinerary for today and put it in the shredder this morning! HA! We still ended in Columbia, SC, but the journey here was somewhat different than planned. We accidentally missed a car museum that Jason and Lena wanted to see yesterday, so instead we drove 30 miles up into Asheville, NC to visit the Estes-Winn Antique Car Museum. Vansen soon rolled up into the Historic Greenwood Village (which we accessed via residential roads in a very posh area). Established in 1966, the museum was founded by local legend Harry D. Blomberg, Asheville’s Cadillac-Pontiac dealer for over half a century. It features Harry’s prized collection of antique and vintage automobiles, including a rare 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham and Asheville’s own 1922 American LaFrance fire truck. It also has a 1959 Edsel Corsair which is similar to an Edsel Lena and Jason will rebuild back home.
While they visited the car museum, Caroline, the kiddos, and I walked around the other buildings which used to make up the weaving and woodworking operations of Biltmore Industries, a force in American craft that was originally backed by Edith Vanderbilt. We were soon in the Grovewood Gallery, a great place for local art. Not only were there great handmade crafts, glasswork, and art, but the furniture was amazing!
For the remainder of the afternoon, we were on a timetable because we had scheduled a pointe shoe fitting appointment for Lena at 5:00 pm. After Grovewood, we headed to the Folk Art Center just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is kind of like a pilgrimage for us. I have several pieces at home that were purchased here. Today I picked up a really cool spoon holder.
We soon headed south to Hendersonville and its Mineral & Lapidary Museum. Sylvia is fascinated with rocks so we made a little detour for this nice, small, local museum. The kiddos picked out geodes and had them cracked open on sight. We got an amethyst one, a white crystal one, and one filled with red. The museum was located downtown and the local townsfolk (and maybe tourists) were certainly out and about in this happening place. We picked up another local meal, this time from Mike's on Main, and we were soon headed east.
About an hour and half later we arrived in Charlotte! We pulled into the parking lot at The Sock Basket at exactly 5:00 pm. I've only ever visited Charlotte's airport, so this was a rare treat to visit a new city. Lena picked up some really cool new pointe shoes that she can't get in Arkansas and had the best salesperson (a fellow dancer) help her. The smiles were huge, for sure.
The nice folks at the dance store suggested we try Viva Chicken for dinner. Before heading there, we popped into REI. I'm on the hunt for a blue Tilley hat, but looks like I'm just going to have to order it online. After shopping a bit, we loaded up and headed towards the south part of town. Viva Chicken is a fast casual charcoal-fire Rotisserie Joint specializing in the authentic Pollo a la Brasa found on the streets of Peru. We picked up our order and headed to a small residential park nearby and enjoyed a summer evening picnic. The chicken was some of the best I'd ever had. To wrap up our meal, we picked up shakes from Shake Shack (I'd only seen these on TV).
On the way out of town, we spotted a Carvana vending machine. If you don't know what that is, Carvana is an online car marketplace. They'll deliver a used car to you at home or you can visit a vending machine to "pick" your car. Franklin was entranced and he took several selfies plus video to capture the moment. Next up, we jumped back on I-77 and soon crossed into South Carolina, arriving at our hotel in Columbia much later than planned, but wow...what a fun day! Tomorrow we spy the Atlantic for the first time and our beach time begins.
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