Tim and I just got back from our final trip to Asheville before we move down there for good!

Every time we go down there, we kinda have the mentality of, “Hmm, is Asheville really that great? Do we really want to move here?” By the end of the trip, it’s always a resounding YES! It’s like we were born to live there! For so many reasons…

Yes, the beer culture is pretty sweet in Asheville. Seems that everywhere you look, people of all shapes and sizes are drinking beer. Local beer mostly. Which will be great for us, for obvious reasons. But that’s only a small part of why we love Asheville.

First, there’s the mountains. While they’re not quite as enormous or breathtaking as the Rockies, the Smokies are truly beautiful. We’ve gotten really into hiking the last couple of years (thanks to our friends in Colorado), and there’s plenty of mountain to explore down there. Plus, you can see the mountains from almost anywhere in western North Carolina — driving down the highway, sitting outside downtown, and, judging from many of the houses we drove by on our scouting expeditions, right from your own backyard!

There’s something about that feeling you get when you’re gazing at a mountain. Or gazing at other mountains while sitting on a rock on top of a mountain. It’s just… ahhhhhh…

Then there’s the music scene. There’s live music everywhere! The amount of talent present in the city of Asheville is staggering. It seemed like every place we walked into had live music. Just walking around town, you come across some really talented street musicians, seemingly on every corner! (Okay, maybe not every corner, but we saw them every day!) Again, there’s something about the feeling you get when you’re listening to live music. Combine that with the mountains? Yeesh, forget about it.

Another bonus: dogs and babies seem to be welcome everywhere. Pretty convenient for us, seeing as we’ll have one of each by the time we move down. No one seems to be uptight about barking or crying, at least not in the places we went to. Dog- and baby-friendly places means we’ll be able to do more stuff out on the town without worrying. Definitely a plus.

And finally, the people. The people that live in and near Asheville are pretty much awesome. At the bars, restaurants, and breweries we visited, there were different kinds of people everywhere — young, old, “normal” folks, “strange” folks, hippies, nerds, parents, children… you name it. And everyone seems perfectly comfortable with that.

Take the Wedge for example. Probably one of the most entertaining places to people-watch. The Wedge is a brewery in the River Arts district, located in the same building as an art studio. It has a small tap room, and a large outdoor area with some benches and chairs. It’s kinda grungy looking to tell you honestly. Not the kind of place you’d really find in the northeast, and if you did, you probably wouldn’t want to hang out there. But this place was hoppin! Families, groups of friends, young couples, old couples, babies, dogs… All different kinds of people, and on a Sunday night no less! The atmosphere, coupled with the live, mellow guitar tunes that night was just perfect.

Oh, and did I mention that people are nice down there? That’s right, nice! For no reason at all! They’re just nice for the sake of being nice. My fellow people of the northeast can understand how crazy this sounds. It’s so refreshing to go out in public and interact with smiling strangers.

So that, in a nutshell, is why I freakin’ love Asheville. It’s just… fun. You feel happy when you’re there, and you can tell everyone else feels happy too. It’s totally bitchin’.