You could always visit the Biltmore Estates.  It’s America’s largest home, a national landmark, and a beautiful wonderful place to imagine how the fabled gentry lived in years past.   But if you’ve been there, done that (or if you’re not interested in somebody else’s 75 acre home and garden), here are a few fun things to do instead:

1. Eat at the Early Girl Eatery.  They have the BEST hand cut french fries, and, as an added bonus, they serve breakfast all day!!  On historic Wall Street in downtown Asheville. 

View at Picasa 27-Jul-2009 12:46, 4.5, 52.0mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 400

2. Visit Mast General Store.  The Asheville store has been a retail landmark in downtown since the mid 40s when it was built by Fain’s . . . and even before that when it was Mears Bros. General Mercantile (but in a much older building).Inside, this downtown emporium has been restored to its 1940s heyday featuring fixtures from the era and other mementos from the past.  Mast’s signature items can be found in the Mercantile Department, which is just jam-packed with cast iron cookware, pottery, baskets and other crafts, old fashioned toys, and a candy section featuring over 500 old-fashioned hard-to-find candies. 

3. Visit Woolworth Walk to see beautiful works from over 150 local artists, and have an ice cream soda at the renovated soda fountain!  The Old “F.W. Woolworth Building” was built in the 1930′s and was restored in 2001.  It has received two Griffin Awards for historic appropriateness.  It’s definitely worth the walk!