| Cherry Chocolate Snickerdoodles from the Inn on Mill Creek B&B |
We had a lot of fun being part of the Visions of Sugar Plums Christmas Cookie Tour for the third year in a row. The Christmas Cookie tour is a public tour of B&Bs and Inns in and around Black Mountain, NC, and funds raised from ticket sales are donated to charity. As is our tradition, we chose a chocolate-based cookie for the Inn on Mill Creek’s 2013 cookie. Enjoy!
The winners of the 21st Annual National Gingerbread House Competition were crowned earlier this month at an awards ceremony at OMNI Grove Park Inn. There were more than 150 entries this year, made of entirely edible materials!
| Carmel’s, one of several local restaurants open for Thanksgiving 2013 [Photo Credit: Carmel’s of Asheville] |
Coming to the Asheville/Black Mountain area for Thanksgiving this year? If you want a great meal without having to cook, leave the hard part to fantastic chefs and support a local business in the process: Check out this list of restaurants that are confirmed open on Thanksgiving, November 28, 2013, and let us know if we can help with making a reservation. We’ll update if we receive word that more Thanksgiving dining options are available and will add to the list.
| Mathilda Tanner, one of several local artists featured during BLUE to BLACK Art Weekend [Photo Credit: BLUE to BLACK Art Weekend] |
We’re really excited to share that one of our favorite Black Mountain art events is just around the corner: the Fall 2013 BLUE to BLACK Art Weekend (formerly known as the East of Asheville Studio to Tour – E.A.S.T.) is November 15-17. It’s an art stroll and studio tour, celebrating our local artists from east of the Blue Ridge Parkway to Black Mountain, hence Blue to Black. We are a proud sponsor of this event.
While we’re not quite ready to break out our Christmas decorations and sing carols, we’re definitely looking forward to 2013 Christmas at Biltmore beginning November 2, because, well, they’ve known how to do a spectacular Christmas celebration ever since George Washington Vanderbilt opened his Asheville home to family and friends on Christmas Eve of 1895.
Exciting news: Four-time Grammy award winner David Holt will be performing in a special live concert, along with Will McIntyre, on Saturday, October 26, 2013, in Old Fort, NC, at the Old Fort Elementary School. Tickets are just $10, with proceeds benefiting the Mountain Gateway Museum and Heritage Center.
| Locally-made flatbread crackers at the Black Mountain Tailgate Market |
From spring through fall (and even sometimes in the winter), a trip to the western North Carolina mountains is not complete without a stop at a local tailgate or farmers market, or a roadside produce stand. If you’ll be in our neck of the woods this fall season, here is a list of tailgate and farmers markets in western NC that are not far from the Inn on Mill Creek B&B:
| People enjoying the rocking chairs in front of Black Mountain shops [Photo Credit: Ray Mata of Blue Ridge Pictures] |
Black Mountain, a ridiculously adorable small town just east of Asheville that’s chock full of locally-owned shops and restaurants, is currently raising funds for renovations to its Town Square. The Black Mountain Town Square is located right in the heart of downtown Black Mountain and plans are to transform it into a gathering place for the community and visitors, with an open lawn for outdoor concerts and other outdoor events, extra parking (always nice in a small town that welcomes a lot of visitors each year), and space for farmers’ markets and special events.
Chimney Rock State Park not only offers visitors “gorge”ous views of Hickory Nut Gorge and Lake Lure during fall, but you can also catch live performances by local musicians on weekend evenings in October as part of Chimney Rock’s Beats, Brews & Burgers music series.
