Asheville and Durham

Took a few days to go down to Asheville, N.C. and from there went over to Durham to visit my cousins.  These pictures are mostly from the hiking trail near Asheville. I neglected to take pictures of the Biltmore estate while we were in Asheville, because I temporarily misplaced the camera.  Impossible to capture such mind-boggling extravagance, anyway.

 This is on the way up Mt Mitchell .  I later read that these trees with the red berries are Mountain Ash and the berries are a favorite food of the bears.

We hiked the "Old Mitchell" trail from the ranger's station to the top of the mountain.  Patches of snow were on the trail where it was shady.

This stream was on a different trail we took on the way down.

More bear food. There was a sign along this trail warning us of high bear activity.  It suggested making noise. Heh, heh. 

Over to Durham now.  This is at Duke gardens-  About the Gardens.  Beautiful place.  I really liked the way this path was built.  I've been to the gardens before but this is the first time it wasn't sweltering hot. My cousin was our tour guide and also took us around to some very nice gallery shops in the area.  It was fun to find some names I recognized from the N.C. pottery blogs I follow.  We also went to the musical Rock of Ages while there- very entertaining, and amazing talent. It's not for the kiddies, though.