For Dennis’ birthday (he’s 29 now!) we decided we really needed to get out of the city for a little bit. We had been hearing great things about Asheville, North Carolina, and decided, why not? We booked a room on AirBnB, loaded up the car, and off we went.

 Monday, April 28

Washington, DC to Asheville:

12:00 PM

On the road! Dennis drove first

and after an hour we were already looking for somewhere to stop for food. D was feeling Mexican so we stopped at Ricos Tacos Moya Restaurant. D ordered a Mexican dish called huaraches, a homemade tortilla topped with chicken, beans, cheese, lettuce and green sauce. I got a chicken taco and a pork taco. The pork was really fatty but the the chicken was great. Lots of cilantro and onion.

1:30 PM

Our next stop was the Potomac Mills Mall. The forecast for Asheville all week was rain and more rain and I needed a new rain jacket (thank you, Columbia Sportswear). I also took the opportunity to pick up a coffee (venti Pike with s/f vanilla and a splash of half & half) from Starbucks since it was my turn to start driving.

2:45 PM

On the road again, this time we weren’t stopping until we reached Richmond. The rain started in earnest just after we got started. Along the way we listened to podcasts. Particularly memorable was a This American Life called Death and Taxes. It was well done and I must admit to choking up through parts of it.

4:15 PM

With only 45 minutes until closing, we arrived at the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, a beautiful free museum in Richmond, Virginia. By the way, here’s a photo of our trusty steed, Bullet.

Although it was raining, I had my new rain jacket so we were able to walk around the grounds a little bit.

A waterfall that follows the stairs to the museum.

Heading into the museum:

We only saw a small portion of the museum in the 45 minutes we were there, but I quickly found some favorite pieces. This mosaic is from the late second to early third century and was once a part of a hallway floor in a house near Antioch, in Roman, Syria. The mosaic is made of stone and glass, and depicts the four seasons:

I really enjoyed all the color throughout the building and I’m hoping to steal this idea of painting individual doors and door frames in bright colors when I have a house of my own: More of the beauty of the building:

This piece really grabbed me, mostly because I am a sucker for bright colors. It’s called “Negative Optic Electric Force, Positive Optic Electric Force” by Alfred Jensen, 1975. Oil on canvas:

“Adam and Eve (Expulsion from the Garden)”, 1982, Roger Brown: This next one was quite creepy. I turned around and there she was: “Woman Facing Wall”, 1978, John De Andrea: There was also a collection of faberge eggs that were interesting. I liked this one because it has art within, on a little spinning gallery. This is part of a collection of Imperial Easter Eggs that were created by Fabergé for the last tzars of Russia. I love this barbershop sign that hung in a store window in Ghana in the 1990’s. So much fun! After the museum we headed to Monument Avenue, a beautiful tree-lined street with stunning homes and grand monuments memorializing Virginian Confederate participants of the Civil War.

5:20 PM

Back on the road to Asheville! The rain disappeared and the roads were clear and peaceful.

 5:20 PM

 8:10 PM

We drove through Durham without stopping and pulled over at Taza Fresh Indian Bistro in Burlington, NC, for a late dinner. D and I both love chicken tikka masala so we split an order and added some naan and potato cakes.

 9:10 PM

Refueled and then an hour later we stopped again to switch drivers. The road was pretty empty and we listened to podcasts of Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me and Radio Lab.

12:05 AM

After 12 hours of travel we finally arrived at our AirBnB room. We were so tired I completely forgot to take photos so I’m stealing some from the post on AirBnB:

We had arrived in the midst of a thunder and lightening storm, with a tornado warning flashing on my weather app. The thunder and lightening were right on top of each other (and very loud) but we were exhausted and were both asleep before 1 AM, excited to see Asheville in the morning.