How to See Asheville in the Fall with Toyota

Southeast Toyota Distributors, LLC (“Toyota”) provided me with compensation and use of a Toyota Corolla SE for a short period of time. The opinions I have shared about this vehicle are my own.

This past weekend, I headed to the mountains for the weekend with my parents, their best friends, and DG to celebrate my mom’s 60th birthday.  My parents hadn’t been to Asheville since I was younger and their friends had never been.  We were meeting up with a set of friends we met at Ocracoke this summer, and we were all really excited.  I partnered with Southeast Toyota for our trip to Asheville and drove the ultra sporty 2017 Toyota Corolla SE.  Fun fact, my first car was a 1988 Toyota Corolla!  This car was so perfect for traveling to the mountains.  It had great room in the trunk for all of our luggage, had a fun sunroof, seat warmers that were perfect for chilly mornings, a USB outlet for charging my cell phone, XM radio for jamming out, and an awesome sport feature for when I was going up the mountain.

I picked up the car on Thursday night before leaving and we packed the car full of our stuff before leaving out early on Friday morning.

Love these overnight bags from The Flourish Market & Vera Bradley

The house we rented through Air BnB was actually outside of Asheville in the cute town of Swannanoa.  It’s really close to Black Mountain, so we explored the downtown area of Black Mountain once we got in.  I highly recommend Black Mountain and wish we had more time to shop!  We also ate at three delicious places in Black Mountain: Trailhead, Louise’s Kitchen & Blue Ridge Biscuit Company.

shirt (old) // vest // leggings // boots // necklace // tote (c/o) // sunnies // earrings

We had dinner and dessert at the house for Mom’s birthday Friday night.  She loves cheesecake, so our Asheville friends picked up the prettiest cheesecake, ever, from Well-Bred Bakery in Asheville.

If you’re making a trip up to the area, definitely take a look at Cori’s Air BnB listing!  Her house was built by E.W. Grove, who built the Grove Park Inn.  It was supposed to be part of a master community, and the house is over 100 years old.  It’s impeccably clean, conveniently located, and full of history!  I loved it and can’t wait to go back and stay again!  Just check out some of my favorite details from her house here.

My favorite slippers can be found here.

Saturday, we celebrated Mom’s birthday in style.  We had breakfast in Black Mountain and took an unintentional tour of the area.  The Corolla really came in handy and I can’t rave about the sport feature enough.  It was truly helpful when it came to getting up and down steep mountain sides, especially when we were touring Warren Wilson College.

And since it was Veteran’s Day weekend, we also took a stop at a cemetery to pay our respects to the military buried there.

After our mini tour of the area, we headed into Asheville.  We took a trolley tour around Asheville before ending at the Omni Grove Park Inn.  My parents hadn’t been in years, and some friends had never been.  We enjoyed watching the sunset on the terrace and appetizers at the Edison in the hotel.  DG and I had dinner at the Edison when we visited in the spring and their pimiento cheese & hush puppies don’t disappoint, y’all.

We had dinner at Buxton Hall BBQ, and y’all know I’m a BBQ snob.  This was some of the best BBQ I’ve ever had and I can’t recommend the restaurant enough!  P.S. How cute is my key chain from my girl, Sarah?

And just like that, it was time to head home.  We decided to listen to Christmas music on the way home since it was finally chilly and because the red cups are out.

I was so sad to give up the 2017 Toyota Corolla SE once we got back.  I really loved the heated seats and sun roof.  And the sport feature.  And XM radio.  I mean, you get the picture, right?

I hope you are having a great week!  I’m not going to lie, I’m counting down the days until Thanksgiving break for a little breather!

xx

Linking up with Jenn & Jessi