The Great Smoky Mountains...

So here's the 'however many' degrees of separation. Drew's housemate Dob has a friend called Tracy. Tracy knows a girl in Asheville called Pickles (it's her nickname). Tracy contacted Pickles to see if we could stay with her. It turned out Tracy was away, but her next door neighbour Patrick was on couchsurf and she recommended we message him. He accepted, and we drove through the pouring rain and arrived outside his house.

Next morning, we set off at 9am, got in a great local breakfast, popped into a local store to get some long johns (it would be cold up there) and started our journey towards Cherokee to visit the Smoky Mountain Visitor Center [sic]. We went through some astonishing surroundings on the drive there, found the Visitor Center, and with maps in hand, we headed towards the Kephart trail and went for an hour long hike into the Smoky Mountains where we found a little shelter, and relaxed there for a while. The rest of of the day was spent driving through the mountains, stopping at various spots and taking in the quite spectacular views and awesome scenery. Words won't describe it. And pictures barely portray the beauty I witnessed. But here's a selected few...

It just so happens that Asheville has the second most number of Microbreweries per capita, only behind Portland. Now there's a fact for you. We celebrated our long day in the mountains with a couple of Asheville speciality beers, and I raised a toast to the first night of Hanukkah...