Asheville is a cute town. It has a old school and neo hippie element but also has retired and tourist folks milling around. There is an excellent bookstore, lots of little B&B's around town. healthy food co-op, yoga, a farmer's market, animal wellness center ;-) vegetarian restaurants and a store that handmakes sandals - just to give you an idea. I saw a few "Keep Asheville Wierd" bumper stickers on cars - it's THAT sort of town. I'm aware of Portland, OR and Austin, TX having those movements too - to keep unique small business and the crafts thriving with a citizen watch on big chain corporations. Like Santa Fe, it clearly has strong zoning, for example, the McDonalds has a small 'tasteful' wooden sign.
The Biltmore
That said, after looking around town in morning, I spent the ENTIRE afternoon at The Biltmore - a mansion built in 1895 by George Vanderbilt - I didn't anticipate to spend so much time there but the house was just enormous. They are REALLY set up for tourists too. The audio tour took about 3 hours alone - and was very well done and very interesting. It has a full size swimming pool underground and in Mr. Vanderbilt's room he had the walls covered in burlap (for texture) then actual gold. I believe they said the house alone is 4 ACRES! As many of you know, I gave house tours in San Francisco on Victorian architecture and customs so there were many extreme examples Victorian lifestyle - like the two story butler's pantry. Here's a few more pictures of outside, unfortuately you can't take pictures inside the house!
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