Perfect Summer Weekends—Your Travel Guide to the Mountain South
Stop watching the grass grow. We’ve scoured the Mountain South in search of summer fun, divvied up some of the region’s hottest attractions and activities, and packaged them neatly into half a dozen recommended experiences for 10 discriminating “personalities” commonly found among Marquee Mountain South readers. Some recommended experiences could fill an entire weekend, while others are designed to be just a fun break in your week. Here is a double handful of online bonus weekends to get you started. So pick a destination and get out there; you have no excuse for being bored!
• Art Smart Destination: Churches of the Frescoes.
Trained under painter Maestro Pietro Annigoni of Italy, North Carolina native Ben Long is renowned for his frescoes. The paintings that are arguably his best work are located in St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in West Jefferson, N.C., and at Holy Trinity Episcopal in Glendale Springs, N.C. Both sites are worth the trip for an art-loving soul.
• Connoisseur Destination: Play through.
Golf Digest rated Tri-Cities Tenn./Va. as the second best place in the United States to live and golf in 2007, ranking it tops for weather, value, and access to and quality of golf. TriitiesGolfGuide.com and WesternNCattractions.com offer good lists of area courses, so it’s easy to find fine new places to play for those who look for only the best.
• Family Destination: Old-school goodies.
Whether you’re a Baby Boomer or Gen X-er, it is possible to share your favorite childhood treats with everyone while on a family outing. Mast General Store has locations in Knoxville, Tenn., Asheville, N.C., Waynesville, N.C., Hendersonville, N.C., Boone, N.C. and Banner Elk, N.C.—though the very best location is undoubtedly the original store and annex in Valle Crucis, N.C. These nostalgic hotspots provide the chance to enjoy old-school treats like soft drinks in glass bottles, more than 500 old-fashioned candies and even wooden folk toys.
• Hipster Destination: Classic Gatlinburg kitsch.
In Gatlinburg, Tenn., there is more diversity to the shopping and tourism experience than ever before, with upscale shops right alongside classic Gatlinburg companies. It’s still all in good fun, and perfect for a lover of quirk. You can book a “Sleep with the Sharks” overnight party for a dozen friends at Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies, for example. Or go all out—take a carload of friends and see how many samples of fudge you can eat. Compete to see who can get the most innovative item airbrushed with a wacky design. Rock an old-school tintype photo. This is the prime place to make a hipster dream happen.
• History Buff Destination: African American Heritage.
Find out more about the hidden history of the Mountain South. The Appalachian African-American Cultural Center is located on Leona Street in Pennington Gap; you can visit by appointment. It’s in a building that once served as a one-room schoolhouse and the only primary school for African Americans in Lee County, a 437-square mile, tobacco and mining-dependent county named for the father of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The center houses historic photos, documents, artifacts and oral histories of life as a black resident of Appalachia.
• Music Lover Destination: Downtown Knoxville.
Throughout the summer, downtown Knoxville, Tenn., hosts live concerts on Thursday nights through the “Sundown in the City “ series and Friday night concerts at the Knoxville Museum of Art through the “Alive After Five” series. The Thursday series has been known to draw up to 10,000 attendees and host popular groups like the Gin Blossoms and George Thorogood. Meanwhile, the Knoxville Museum of Art’s series has swing, reggae, Latin jazz and eclectic musical guests along with two cash bars.
• Outdoor Enthusiast Destination: Mile High Swinging Bridge.
At Grandfather Mountain in the North Carolina High Country, there’s a huge draw to the Mile High Swinging Bridge, a 228-foot long suspension bridge located 5,305 feet above sea level at Linville Peak. You might feel the bridge shift a bit on windy days. On a clear day, some visitors have been able to photograph the Charlotte, N.C., skyline from nearly 100 miles away. While you’re there, visit the Nature Center to see films by Hugh Morton, the park’s patriarch; displays of model plants and animals as well as real gem and mineral samples; and the outdoor animal habitats for the cougar, bears, eagles and otters.
• Shopping Diva Destination: Tri-Cities Downtowns.
Many downtowns in the region offer specialized shopping encounters. Downtown Elizabethton, Tenn., offers high-end furnishings at Park Avenue Fine Furniture and Accessories, as well as a handful of boutiques and shops specializing in country antiques. Downtown Kingsport, Tenn., and Bristol, Tenn./Va., offer more entertaining mixtures of dining destinations and specialty shops. Downtown Johnson City offers Massengill’s elegant clothing, Atlantis’s ethnic tunics and accessories, funky splurges at Razzle Me Dazzles, and gorgeous locally-made jewelry at Beadworks.
• The Literati Destination: Thomas Wolfe House and the Montford Area
The childhood home of Thomas Wolfe, author of Look Homeward, Angel; Of Time and the River; The Web and the Rock; and You Can’t Go Home Again, is located in downtown Asheville and maintained as a North Carolina State Historic Site. Make it a full day of literary adventures by heading to the Montford Area Historic District, to the Riverside Cemetery and the simple graves marking the final resting place of both Thomas Wolfe and William Sydney Porter (known as O. Henry), and to Zillicoa Street, the site of the old Highland Hospital. Now occupied by commercial businesses, it’s where Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of author F. Scott Fitzgerald and herself an author of Save Me the Waltz and a play, Scandalabra, died during a 1948 fire at this former mental institution.
• Thrill Seeker Destination: Outdoor Adventures of the Smokies.
Located on the Parkway, Outdoor Adventures of the Smokies is open seven days a week. For $10 to $20—depending on whether you want to ride in the front or the truck bed—you can take a Monster Truck ride around its dirt track. The company also offers ATV rentals, white water rafting, and hot air balloon, helicopter and horseback rides of varying lengths and distances. It’s one of the few truly one-stop adventure experience shops in the region.
For the complete story, please read the Summer 2008 issue of Marquee Mountain South.
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