"Asheville is the Shit, Y'All!"

Well Howdy,

Fancy meeting you here. Well maybe not. But thanks for checking in anyway.
So as most of you know On the weekend of July 16th I traveled to Asheville North Carolina for my cousins wedding. And so here's the story.On the morning of July 16th I rose from bed at 3 a.m. having not slept a minute during the night, to go to the airport for my flight at 6:00 a.m., I arrived at the airport at approximately 4, to discover that none of the line ups had opened to go through security. Anyway, after a bit of a wait I was able to go through since I opted not to pay an extra $25 each direction to have a piece of checked luggage.

While I waited in line at the passport desk, which again hadn't opened yet, I met my first interesting group of people. One was a professor from a University in Kentucky who I believe studied agent history in the Middle East (Turkey and Syria) and a fellow who worked for the Dept of National Defense who knows my friend Josh's room mate Cale. Small World.

I was a bit nervous getting on the plane in Ottawa as the plane which had 13 rows of four seats was the smallest plane I had ever been on (it was a rapidair jet). To my surprise the flight went quite well. There was no one sitting directly next to me but the couple across the aisle were friendly and going on their honeymoon.
My stop over was in Detroit, which contrary to popular belief is not a ghetto airport. In fact it has this amazing tunnel that plays relaxing music and fills with light which move in time with the music.
While I was in Detroit I decided to get Breakfast and, not recognizing any of the chains I decided to go the restaurant with the longest line up which happened to be called "Einstein's Bagel Brothers" or something to the effect. I got a breakfast bagel which was potentially the most disgusting thing I have ever had in my mouth. And I've eaten cow intestine! (Okay it may not have been as bad as the cow intestine, but it was close!
On my flight from Detroit the Ahseville I wondered whether the pilot had perhaps stood in the above tunnel to long as he proclaimed at the beginning of the flight that it was going to be a smooth flight, and then we encountered significant turbulence, and then told us we were going to land in 5 minutes and then we circled the airport three times and landed 30 minutes later. In any case my seat mate on that particular flight was very interesting. A lawyer who represented municipalities, including Asheville. He told me all about Asheville which was really nice.

When I landed I waited for my aunt and cousin who were landing on a different plane 20 minutes later and then we got a cab to the hotel. I have to say the Hotel Indigo is the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in. I couldn't really afford it, but it was at a reduced cost and only for two nights so I put up with the amazing service and King sized bed :P.
Later that afternoon my aunt, cousin (Laura) and I explored something called the arcade that was full of little niche craft and other such thing shops. It turns out that Asheville has a law prohibiting major chains from operating in the downtown area (except for some reason Urban outfitters) and so its primarily full of independent, fair trade, organic coffee shops, craft and clothing stores. So as you can imagine I was in heaven.

That night we attended the rehearsal dinner which was expertly catered and a good opportunity to catch up with my dad's fam. (Mom wasn't invited, I don't want to get into it), I went to bed around midnight and slept for 8 hours. I had gotten through the day on around 6 cups of coffee since I hadn't slept, so when I finally did sleep it was gooood.

The next day I went for breakfast with my aunt and Laura at a cool little place called Early Janes, that served local food and was really amazing. Laura then went off to a mall (she had specific orders to bring back something from Abercrombie for her husband) and my aunt and I went into what was called "the river arts district" at first the area was somewhat disappointing as a lot of the studios were closed but we eventually found this wonderful little group of studios, with a garden and everything. While in one of the studios I found a hand painted ceramic plate which I couldn't resist and also couldn't afford but there were also mugs done by the same artist. After some contemplation I went back and went to consult the vendor on my purchase. Well he (Greg Vineyard) and I got into the lovely conversation about his aspiration to be a children s author and illustrator, and we talked about the ways in which people often dumb down information for kids or won't tell the full truth of the world to kids for fear of negatively effecting them in some way. In any case I ended up talking about how I had been really proud of my mom's cousin when he explained to his daughter about the Rwandan Genocide. Considering I vowed that I would not have any political conversations while I was in NC that was a really great one.
I also ended up having a very politically charged conversation with one of my cousin Chantal's readers at her wedding (Sal). We started talking about the global market and fair trade and how capitalism wasn't working but communism also wasn't working and we talked about whether there was enough will for anything to change. I of course said there was and talked about South Africa because that's what I do.

Anyway going back to the actual wedding. The wedding was supposed to be outside at a place called Homewood which was in a suburb of Asheville. Unfortunately it had just started raining when we arrived on location and the wedding was moved inside. It was a good thing to since the rain became a thunderstorm which boomed while my cousin was reading her vows (she has more of a Type A personality than I do so this was very appropriate).
Afterward there was a light meal and dancing. I mingled and talked to the family a bit. We then went back to the Hotel Indigo where the younger crowd drank at the bar. Two odd things happened there, first my cousin handed me a redbull and vodka, which I drank despite protesting and later in the evening, someone through an egg at us from a car, which fortunately didn't hit Chantal. That night I only slept 5 hours (that's right between Thursday morning and Sunday night I slept a grand total of 13 hours, this was a mighty poor decision indeed).

The next day I had hoped to go on a hike. Unfortunately I had injured my ankle a bit at the beginning of the trip and decided I better hold off so I wandered around town. Upon returning to the hotel I found my Aunt Karen and cousins Chantal and Roshan. Chantal and her new husband Greg were just packing up to hit the road. After everyone dispersed I spent about 2 hours with my aunt which was nice. I think that was the first time she and I had ever spent any time together.On the way home there was major turbulence during both flights. The seatbelt sign stayed on the entire time for both. The first we flew around thunderstorms but the flight attendant was still able to get up and do drink service. The second we flew right through a thunderstorm so you can imagine the flight attendant didn't get up.

During my 3 hour stop over at Detroit this time I bought some poor quality, over priced sushi. I ended up sitting next to an author and motivational speaker who works on issues relating to demographics. It was quite nice to speak with him until he shared that he was a born again christian and started bible thumping. Not my cup of tea. Later I came upon a young man sitting in the middle of the floor video taping the tunnel so, after saying good bye to the born again christian, I returned and sat down with this fellow. It was really interesting to sit with him in the middle of the floor while people bustled around us. Frankly I was surprised airport security didn't come and hastle us.

Anyway, it was a great trip. I really feel inclined to go back to Asheville someday. The people are very warm and the mountainsides are beautiful. Plus there are fairtrade organic coffee shops everywhere!

Cheers