Archive for July, 2009

Lovers’ Loop Retreat August Muse-letter

July 30, 2009 at 4:39 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville B&B, Asheville activites, B&B alternative, B&Bs, Lovers' Loop Retreat, newsletters, vacation rental ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

            August in Asheville, N.C., is a month of quilts, crafts, comedy, outdoor music events and street performers of all stripes downtown—plus the outdoor recreation that draws hikers, cyclists, rock climbers, kayakers, photographers and other visitors to our two rivers, national forests and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Guests at our Lovers’ Loop Retreat Asheville vacation rental are within 10 minutes or less of all of this fun.

            The best part is that most of this entertainment is FREE! One of the August headliner events in Asheville each year is Goombay, the free street festival of African-American and Caribbean cultures that features live music, dance, food and a great diversity of people. This year, Goombay will be Aug. 28-30.

            Our Asheville bed and breakfast alternative is stocked with information about restaurants and what to do when you’re here, and guests comment on how helpful our resources are. We also have wireless, so you can search the Internet and do e-mail while you’re here.

            Visit our Web site at www.loversloopretreat.com to see a list of events we update regularly. We’ve posted events through December, so you can see what’s going on whenever you plan your trip to Asheville and Lovers’ Loop Retreat. You can link to our blog, http://loversloopretreat.wordpress.com, on the home page.

            The Asheville Antiques Fair, one of the region’s largest and oldest, will be July 31-Aug. 2. The fair draws dealers from many states with a wealth of wares to sell. The fair, at the Asheville Civic Center downtown, has been offered for 60-some years.     

            The annual Village Art and Craft Fair, Aug. 1-2 in Asheville, is an upscale, longtime event that draws vendors from a wide area.

            Asheville’s bimonthly art gallery walk will be Aug. 7, and it’s fun to stroll among the many diverse galleries downtown and enjoy free refreshments. On the other end of town, the Asheville Quilt Guild will host its annual show Aug. 7-9 at the North Carolina Arboretum. We’ve been to this show, and it’s worth checking out, with a great array of quilts from multiple states exhibited.

            The popular and free Shindig on the Green, an outdoor music series in Asheville, continues every Saturday night in August—bluegrass and folk music and cloggers. It might be hard not to do some dancing yourself.

            Downtown After Five, another outdoor music series, continues in Asheville on Aug. 21. This is a free street festival that offers a range of music: rock, blues, jazz, world.

            And on Aug. 22, Asheville’s own Blue Ridge Roller Girls, a roller derby team, will shake things up at the civic center downtown. This is always an eye-opening event.

            If you need to get your laugh on, a late-night comedy series continues through Aug. 29 at Asheville Community Theatre downtown, and for more laughs, the Feral Chihuahuas perform in Asheville on Aug. 1, Aug. 14 and Aug. 15.

            The Asheville Tourists, a minor league baseball team, play through Sept. 3. And an interactive butterfly exhibit with hundreds of the winged creatures is at the WNC Nature Center, just around the corner from Lovers’ Loop Retreat, through Sept. 7.

              One more note: for Indigo Girls fans, the talented duo will play at the Orange Peel in downtown Asheville on Sept. 17. We’ve attended concerts at the Peel, and it’s a great venue for the Indigos.  

            All of these events and more are listed on our Web site. Please pass along our muse-letter to your friends. And join us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat! See you in Asheville!

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Watch our friend Gina on the Asheville stage this weekend

July 27, 2009 at 3:41 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville B&B, Asheville activites, B&B alternative, Lovers' Loop Retreat, NC, vacation rental ·Tagged , , , , ,

We’ve written about the many live theater happenings in Asheville, most of them offered year-round. This week, we’re looking forward to watching our talented friend Gina perform a lead role in “The Playboy of the Western World,” which will be staged this coming Friday, July 31, Sat., Aug. 1 and Sunday, Aug. 2 at 2:30 p.m. each day. We plan to catch a performance.

When you stay at our Lovers’ Loop Retreat, an Asheville bed and breakfast alternative, this would be a great activity to add to your itinerary. The production will be offered Friday and Saturday at 35below, the intimate theater beneath the Asheville Community Theatre downtown and on Sunday at UNC-Asheville. The show is only $5, and Gina’s performance alone should be worth the money. We’ve seen her perform memorably with the Montford Park Players, the Shakespeare theater company that stages free outdoor shows near downtown Asheville.

 In “The Playboy of the Western World,” Gina will impress audiences with her Irish brogue, which we’ve heard her use in readings, and you’d swear that she’s a lass from Ireland. The comedy is set in an Irish pub in the early 1900s, and it promises to be fun. Check it out this weekend when you visit our Asheville vacation rental! For more information, go to www.ashevilletheatre.org.

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Enjoy your peddle and paddle power for free in Asheville

July 25, 2009 at 5:49 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville B&B, Asheville activites, B&B, B&B alternative, Lovers' Loop Retreat, free things in Asheville, vacation rental ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

 Asheville is a popular place to kayak on the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers. And the Blue Ridge Parkway, a stone’s throw from our Lovers’ Loop Retreat, an economical Asheville vacation rental, is a great place for cycling. The moderate climate here allows these pursuits for most of the year.

Some guests at our Asheville bed and breakfast alternative bring toys to explore our waters and roads. Our guest suite is great for that because you can leave your bikes, kayaks and canoes safely here when you’re not using them.

The best part is that you can kayak and bike for FREE. Long stretches of lovely river await you, and the many scenic miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway attract many cyclists to check out the wonderful vistas.

Come activate yourself in Asheville from Lovers’ Loop Retreat.

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Be free as a firefly, blissed as a bird in Asheville

July 21, 2009 at 5:44 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, B&B alternative, Green Living, Lovers' Loop Retreat, free things in Asheville, nature, vacation rental ·Tagged , , , , , , , ,

One of our summertime treats at Lovers’ Loop Retreat, our Asheville bed and breakfast alternative, is the free firefly festival performed here each night. Our large yard is a stage for these blinking, winged firecrackers.

The guest porch at our vacation rental is a perfect place to sit at dusk and relax with the silent light show. Do yourself a favor, and check it out when you visit. We enjoy crashing the firefly party in the annual neon mating ritual. Our acre is deep with the dreams of the fireflies as they look for their perfect match. May we all be so lucky!

Another treat at Lovers’ Loop Retreat for much of the year, morning, noon and night, is the bird calls we hear. Mourning doves, crows, sparrows, chickadees, nut hatches, cardinals, finches, woodpeckers and more. The different species don’t have to compete for the airwaves – they just get their songs out there. It’s great to feel connected with nature at our guest suite, and most visitors comment when they arrive on what a refreshing refuge it is.

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Free Asheville Art Museum

July 17, 2009 at 5:41 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville B&B, Asheville activites, Asheville art, B&B alternative, free things in Asheville, vacation rental ·Tagged , , , , , , , ,

If you enjoy art museums, explore the Asheville Art Museum when you visit us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat, our Asheville vacation rental. You can get in for FREE on the first Wednesday of each month, 3-5 p.m. It’s a nice way to get a peek at their collection.

The museum, which is observing its 60th anniversary this year, is in the middle of downtown.

On Aug. 5, we’ll check out the museum’s exhibit of Cherokee wood and stone carvers. Most of the artists represented in the exhibit live at the Cherokee reservation west of Asheville. We’re looking forward to this one because there are some great artisans in the Cherokee tribe.

We went to the museum’s free Wednesday gig on July 1 to catch an exhibit of photographs by George Masa, who took pictures of mountain landscapes around Asheville in the 1920s and 30s. Many of his photos are of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, west of Asheville.

Keep your eyes open, and take advantage of one of the free things to do in Asheville when you visit our Asheville bed and breakfast alternative!

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Be crafty in Asheville this weekend

July 13, 2009 at 6:10 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville B&B, Asheville activites, Asheville art, B&B, B&B alternative, Lovers' Loop Retreat ·Tagged , , , ,

One of Asheville’s biggest events happens this coming weekend, July 16-19. Do yourself a favor, and check this out when you visit our Asheville bed and breakfast alternative, Lovers’ Loop Retreat. It’s the heralded Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands at the civic center downtown. This is a wonderful gathering of more than 200 crafters from around the Southeast. It’s impossible not to be attracted to at least some of the crafts displayed. The variety is huge, and this is a juried show, so you won’t see flimsy offerings here. There also is live music by local musicians throughout the day.

 This is a twice-a-year event, sponsored by the Southern Highland Craft Guild. The next show will be Oct. 15-18. One of the cool things about this event is that the craft guild is one of the oldest in the United States. The guild is based in Asheville and represents artists in a bunch of Southeastern states. The guild’s main gallery is on the Blue Ridge Parkway just five minutes from our Lovers’ Loop Retreat. The gallery is worth a visit, too.

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Don’t miss the Bele Chere festival in Asheville

July 8, 2009 at 6:23 am · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The belle of the ball in Asheville in July is undoubtably Bele Chere, the annual street festival downtown that’s one of the largest such events in the Southeast. Join us July 24-26 this year for this rocking party, and for the first time, every musical event is FREE this year. When you visit our Lovers’ Loop Retreat vacation rental, we’re an easy five-minute drive to a shuttle stop, where a bus will take you downtown, so you can walk around without having to bother with parking and streets that are closed for Bele Chere.

Bele Chere is people and crafts and food and lots of energy. Locals mix with visitors. There’s a pulse in the streets and comraderie in the air. For refreshment, locally-made beers and many restaurants sell their selections at booths. Oh, there’s fresh lemonade, too. And lots of local crafters have an amazing range of goods for sale.

The live music varies, so you’re bound to hear something you like while you’re there, from bluegrass, Americana and rock to reggae, world and blues— local, regional and national bands. Come check it out and enjoy one of the best festivals in the region.

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Lovers’ Loop Retreat July Muse-letter

July 2, 2009 at 4:58 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, Asheville art, B&B alternative, Lovers' Loop Retreat, free things in Asheville, nature ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

If it’s July, it’s festival time in Asheville, N.C., so guests at our Lovers’ Loop Retreat vacation rental in Asheville have plenty of fun adventures waiting. A few of the area’s biggest annual events occur in July — Bele Chere, supposedly the largest street festival in the Southeast, the Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands, and Folkmoot, an international folk dance and music festival.

            And to top it off, the fireflies are back at Lovers’ Loop Retreat for their summertime mating ritual. Yes, we’ve learned the wisdom of finding pleasure in small things, and so we peer outside at the nightly light show in the yard. It’s a beautiful spectacle, and it’s yours to watch for free when you stay at our Asheville bed and breakfast alternative.  

            Visit our Web site at www.loversloopretreat.com to see a list of events we update regularly. We’ve posted events through December, so you can see what’s going on whenever you plan your trip to Asheville and Lovers’ Loop Retreat. You can link to our blog, http://loversloopretreat.wordpress.com, on the home page.

            July 4 kicks off the annual Shindig on the Green free outdoor music series near downtown Asheville with folk and bluegrass and dancing. It’s held on most Saturday nights through early September, a real community event.

            The weekend of July 10-12 will offer a bunch of activities: the Asheville women’s roller derby team bout, the annual bamboo festival, an Asheville Puppetry Alliance performance, the Big Crafty art show.

            The following week, July 16-20, is busy, too. There’s a comedy festival, Folkmoot performances and the Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands, which fills the Asheville Civic Center with work by crafters from multiple states.

            July 24-26 is the Bele Chere phenomenon, which features large amounts and varieties of music and food and lots of blissed people.

            The Mountain Dance and Folk Festival July 30-Aug. 1 is a big deal for those who enjoy bluegrass and folk music and clogging.        

            All of these events and more are listed on our Web site. Please pass along our muse-letter to your friends. And join us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat, where the lovely lavender hostas are starting to bloom! See you in Asheville!

          

 

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