HOME, CHURCH, FOOD AND ART

We managed to visit the Thomas Wolfe Museum, Asheville Basilica, have lunch at a nice brewpub called Chestnut, go to the Asheville Art Museum, and still have the afternoon and evening free.  

The Thomas Wolfe Museum is in a house his mother ran as a boarding house.  

She was a good businesswoman, her husband was an alcoholic, and she wanted her own money.  The house was built in the 1890s, as a single family home, but when she became get it, it came with 19 boarders.  I was amazed at how much furniture in the house looks like ours.  This piece is just like the dresser in our guest bedroom, but it's painted.  

The basilica was very interesting.  The builder we a contractor at the Vanderbilt mansion as it was being built, and he didn't like the fact that the Catholic Church was so small, he often had to stand up during the mass.  

We had a very pleasant and funny guide.  I favorited undo it the differenc between a cathedral and a basilica is that a cathedral "belongs to a bishop" and a basilica "belongs to the Pope."  This one has the biggest unsupported dome in the U.S.  He is buried in this church.  

The tour of the museum was awful.  We left after the first twenty minutes when we were still staring at the second piece of art.  I don't think they ever got upstairs, nor did we, because we didn't know there was one.  This has been the only bad thing on this whole trip.  I did see this beautiful glass piece in a back room where we weren't supposed to go.  

We spent the afternoon going to Tom's Shoes, an amazing place that has a myriad of sizes and I got a nice, cute pair of sandals.  They are cute and they are snug enough to actually walk in!!  Then we checked out a few art galleries, shops, and all the other usual stuff.  Had dinner at Cucina 24 which should urges all its food within 100 miles.  We walked back to the hotel from downtown.  I think it only took about a half hour.  This is the first day I have walked more than 10,000 steps, and most days, I didn't even make it up to 10,000.   I want one of these clocks and this dress. 

Tomorrow we go to the River Art center, Pisgah national forest, the Highland Folk Art Center, and having dinner at the Grove Park Inn, which has a wonderful museum of Roycroft furniture