Our next destination was Charleston, South Carolina, but we wanted to split the 8 hour drive and make a pitstop in Asheville, North Carolina. Once we arrived around afternoon time, we saw what was a clean, hippie, artistic community. There were art galleries, gluten-free restaurants, cafes called The Green Sage, and alternative looking clothing and fashion. Chris and I parked in the Renaissance parking lot (a 5 star hotel) and explored the city.

We stopped in a hippie shop and picked up motivational stickers or our laptops, went to Green Sage for our Macha Green Tea lattes with soy milk, picked up a slice of gluten free strawberry cake, and enjoyed the local graffiti art. We were living the stereotype :) The place where we bought the strawberry cake, called Saute, would sell meals of simple beans and rice at $2-6 depending on how much you could afford. Their action was to help feed the homeless, which I thought was an awesome idea.

It soon became dark and we went back to our car at the Renaissance. We set up camp there because… when else are we going to be able to say we stayed at a 5 star hotel. We had a peaceful calm night.

The next day we went back to Green Sage to boost our caffeine levels and explore the city before we left for Charleston. We then walked around the city and started looking through the many art galleries that were available. There were beautiful pieces. These were some of my favorites:

Although our time here was quick, we really enjoyed the alternative mentality the city had. It was refreshing to see such an artistic free minded city like Asheville. It was time to go and hit the road to Charleston where I had some big expectations of a beautiful city people had been telling me about.