At the Asheville entrance to the Parkway there is a Craft Center that always fascinates us, and the second floor displays changes on a regular basis.

Another place where we have not stayed, but is highly recommended is the Richmond Hill Inn, and you can eat there even if you don't stay there. However, you must dress. Both the rooms and the meals are expensive.

Nearby is Flat Rock which is the home of Carl Sandburg and is very interesting. There are other such places in Asheville as well.

The Biltmore House is in Asheville and we finally went lst weekend. The grounds are fabulous, the house is very interesting--especially as Vanderbilt incorporated most of the luxuries we enjoy today in a house planned and built a century ago. I did not enjoy the crowds, so I recommend a week day for this excursion. The house tour is self guided and takes 90 minutes as you cannot leave in the middle. Our two grandsons were amazed at the huge furnace in the basement and the empty swimming pool.

Because we had them with us, we could not stay at the Treehouse, mentioned in the last post. The Treehouse is definitely on our list of things to do.

You may come from a great metropolitan place where all kinds of things are avaiable, but we do not--so the store Tops for Shoes, downtown Asheville is always popular with us. They carry brands and sizes only visualized by us in catalogs. We always come home with 2-4 pairs of shoes that we cannot find anywhere else.

There is a downtown restaurant that serves East Indian food and other unusual things and we ate there once. I can't remember the name of it, but can find it on a search, if you are interested. \

Charleston--There are many small inns that have been there for years, though we have not gone there. We used to stay where there was a large swimming pool when the children were growing up and now we have found our delightful new Inn that we enjoy so much. And, as I mentioned last night, we are going to stay at the Lodge Alley some day.

The new Hampton Inn and Embassy Suites, while beautiful, are too far from the Historic District to walk at night. Parking in the city is a nearly impossible as street parking is reserved for residents and a parking decal is required of those persons. There is one public parking garage near the Lodge Alley Inn that is convenient.

Savannah--I agree with all that has been said and I heard from others that the Hampton Inn is grand.

Ask any questions you may have.

Gretchen