First family vacation and long road trip since having our baby who is about to be 11 months

We left Baton Rouge on Friday around 3pm and stayed in La Grange, GA at some hotel. We woke up Saturday and made our way to Asheville, NC taking the scenic route. It took about 4.5 hours or so. We stayed at the OMNI golf club resort on Saturday night.
Would recommend this hotel... has 4 or 5 restaurants on site and few bars. We didnt really take advantage of anything due to having a baby with us plus we were only staying 1 night.

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After we got settled in, we went to explore Asheville river art district since we wanted to eat at the White Duck Taco joint for a late lunch. The shrimp taco was my favorite and possibly the best shrimp taco i have ever ate.

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When it was time to head back to Omni to watch the sun set, we stopped at A Souls Pizza joint for pizza's to bring back to the room. It was terrible for lack of ingredients!
Pizza Margarita on left... not sure what the SO got

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We woke up Sunday and ate the 5 star buffet the Omni offered. Great views from our table and excellent breakfast buffet.

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We only stayed at Omni 1 night. Sunday through Tuesday we were staying downtown at the Renaissance. Before checking in we drove the Blue Ridge Parkway

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After about 3 hours of driving the BRP, we decided to head back to downtown to Asheville to get a little bite to eat before checking in. We stopped at King Daddy's and the fried chicken did not disappoint. The gravy was lamb gravy.

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Due to poor time management, we got dinner delivered to the room from Strada Italiano. It wasnt terrible but nothing special either.

Monday we woke up and ate breakfast at Over Easy Cafe. I forgot to snap a pic but its a very popular small breakfast cafe. I wish we chose biscuit head but oh well! We decided we were going to watch the epic eclipse at the Biltmore. We ended up having thick cloud coverage right when the full eclipse happened

However, the Biltmore is freaking incredible. Its a must see in person. We kind of hurried through it with the baby and drove the grounds

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We went to Buxton Hall for dinner after the Biltmore. They are known for their pulled pork. I am not a fan of the vinegar based sauce which is what they do. The pulled pork was excellent. The potato salad was delicious... It had a white gravy pepper taste.

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Tuesday morning finally came

but first we had to eat breakfast at Tupelo Honey. By far one the best places we ate at in quite some time. Both brunch & lunch menu were available to choose from. I got the chicken and bisquits and the SO got the Southern Shakshuka (two baked eggs*, goat cheese grits, avocado, creole sauce). We got some fried okra for an app and it could have very well been the best FO I have every tried

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After we check out, its time to head to Blue Ridge, GA. I have been waiting for this half of the trip! It was a beautiful drive from Asheville to Blue Ridge taking about 3 hours. While en route, we got caught in traffic on some scenic road in the Nantahala forest due to a train hitting a tour bus.
minor collision

We ate lunch at Rib Country which was between Asheville and Blue Ridge. We got the brisket platter. Brisket had good smoked flavor and far from being dry!

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We finally arrive in Blue Ridge, GA. The cabin rental place said our GPS would not give us the correct directions to get to the cabin... Not sure what they are talking about but the GPS led me to the cabin every time (thank god). You end up having to take a 3 mile gravel road to the cabin. The first time we were driving to the cabin, the SO almost had a panic attack thinking this was way to secluded

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nothing special but perfect for 2 and a baby

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Deer were all over the drive back to cabin each night

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the Taccoa River 30 feet from the back porch

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i fished (spin) each morning and afternoon.. caught a few of these and ZERO rainbow trout

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So our cabin was on the Taccoa "tailwater" which is below the Blue Ridge Dam. It released every day we were there around 430-5pm. The river would rise up about 3-4 ft and the current would be moving

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Downtown Blue Ridge is pretty badass. Reminds me of the ski towns in Colorado

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My favorite place was Joe's B'que. Joe is a super nice and greets you at the door wanting to know where you were from. We each got the sampler (chicken, ribs, and pork). The ribs were awesome. The pork was just as good as Buxton hall. The mac was fire.

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We took a train ride from Blue Ridge to McCaysville which was incredible. There was a spot on the river that was estimated to be 500 years old. Apparently the indians built these V structures. The men would go about 100 or so yards upsteam to flush the fish into this V trap for the women and children to catch them

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McCaysville is complete shithole compared to BR. I bought this painting

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