This weekend in Asheville...

On Friday, step back in time...

• ...simultaneously to the days of folklore and Thomas Wolfe. Listen to local folklore from storyteller Marilyn McMinn-McCredie at Thomas Wolfe's house. She was born in Henderson County and weaves her Appalachian heritage and personal experiences into her storytelling material.

Thomas Wolfe Memorial
7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
Admission $6

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Update: AM from MyWeaverville commented to let us know about another Friday event! It sounds like a lot of fun too.

The Secret Garden in Weaverville is hosting a Summer Evening Concert Series starting this Friday. Tickets are $12 or 2 for $20 if you buy in advance, or $15 at the door. Doors open at 7 p.m. and shows start at 7:30 p.m. They'll have a cash bar with wine and beer, and you can bring lawn chairs and/or blankets if you want. To reserve tickets or for more information, call 658-9317 or visit www.secretgardennc.com.

August 8 - The Sireens
The series kicks off on Friday, August 8 with The Sireens, a 1920’s and 30’s style Jazz vocal group backed up by members from the Firecracker Jazz Band. The ladies sing in three-part harmony, reminiscent of the Boswell Sisters with the fabulous sounds of stride piano and styling swing guitar.

See the full series schedule here.
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On Saturday, make a choice or choose to do it all...

• Morning:

Shop with a Chef at Asheville City Market. Local chef Mark Rosenstein (of the MarketPlace and Bar 100) performs two cooking demonstrations, providing samples, advice and answering questions. Don't worry, if you can't make it this time, it happens on the 2nd Saturday of each month.

Cooking demonstrations at 9 and 10:30.

• Afternoon:

Hang out in quaint Black Mountain, recently written up in the New York Times as a "haven" to escape to, for the 31st Annual Sourwood Festival. According to the Explore Asheville Web site, the festival "is named after the regions important honey source, the Sourwood tree, which blooms in mid to late summer each year. Two hundred booths and areas of crafts, food, games and fun attracts over 30,000 visitors from all over the country."

10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

• And, of course, at night:

Get a dose of traditional local music and dance at Shindig on the Green. String bands, bluegrass, ballad singers, big circle mountain dancers and cloggers entertain you outside on the lawn at Martin Luther King, Jr Park. Bring a blanket and/or a chair, a light cover up (hey, it cools off after sundown in the mountains!), and of course a little bit of cash for the concession stands.

Starts around 7:00, winds down around 10:00 p.m. - the timing is laidback to fit the lazy mountain summertime!


Enjoy! And as always, share things I haven't mentioned, or if you decide to attend any of these events, let us know how they go!

Asheville, Thomas Wolfe and Orson Scott Card

Photo from www.wolfememorial.com

Lately we've been talking about the Thomas Wolfe House and Memorial at Carolina Mornings. We love packages, and guests love packages, so we're trying to come with something related to the Memorial house (suggestions are welcome). Anyway, one thing we thought of is a book sold in the gift shop: Asheville, and Thomas Wolfe. It gives you an idea of some of the places in Asheville that Wolfe featured in his writing.

When Googling the book, I discovered that Orson Scott Card, a somewhat known author (hah! by "somewhat known," what I really meant was Very Well-Known Among Sci-Fi Readers Across the Nation), actually reviewed the book, the memorial, and Asheville itself - back in 2004 in a Greensboro, NC publication called the Rhinoceros Times. The review is an entertaining read (it is Card, after all) and says some spot-on things about the Memorial and Asheville in general.

So, other than sharing the Orson Scott Card article about visiting Asheville, I'd also like to recommend you take a trip to the Thomas Wolfe Memorial. It's just $1 for adult admission, and only $0.50 for students. Where else can you look inside a historic place for $1? Plus they do some pretty cool events in the Thomas Wolfe house, usually for about $6 (still unbelievably cheap for cool events).

While you're in Asheville or Western North Carolina for summer vacation, Bele Chere weekend, to see Biltmore, or even if you live in the area and have never been before - go check out Thomas Wolfe's old house located right in downtown Asheville.