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    A Winter Trip With The Chirren To Asheville, North Carolina

    by Dewan Gibson January 4, 2023
    written by Dewan Gibson
    Gibson family at Looking Glass Falls near Asheville, North Carolina.

    Last year’s holiday vacation was to an unseasonably warm Carolina Beach, North Carolina. Great trip; we saw dolphins, played football on the beach, and returned home with just mild covid infections. This holiday season, the sun took a week off for Christmas. The temperature reached a “feels like” low of negative 33. We had ice on the walls of our Central Ohio home and our yorkie had to be thawed after trying to boo-boo outside.

    Fortunately, mild temperatures returned and we squeezed in a New Year’s Eve trip with the kids to Asheville, North Carolina. This after five years of repeatedly saying, “We gotta check out Asheville!”

    My surface-level impressions after just three nights in the area: 1) For a city that ain’t really that big, there are a lot of breweries and drinking holes. And they’re unpretentious. Bring your dog! Bring your kids! Dressed like you’re in a Patagonia ad? Even better! 2) Locals seem welcoming, and there’s no anti-tourist vibe that you feel in other cities that have blown up in popularity. 3) It’s the ultimate city if you enjoy living in nature, yet also appreciate modern necessities like tacos with kimchi. 4) Asheville is sorely missing recreational marijuana.

    We went on a muddy 90-minute hike in Moore Cove Falls Trail, about 20 minutes outside of Asheville. We took a picture near a waterfall (Looking Glass Falls) that generated a lot of Instagram likes. If our social media popularity continues to increase we may get a TV commercial deal portraying an affable biracial family that uses environmentally-friendly household products. There was also a giant boulder that looks like a troll/Marvel Comics’ The Thing if you stare at it from a certain angle.

    Giant "troll looking" boulder at Moore Cove Falls Trail near Asheville, North Carolina.
    Moss-covered tree at Moore Cove Falls Trail near Asheville, North Carolina
    lichen growing on top of leaves

    Our little ones aren’t the biggest beer drinkers, but we brought them to two of the more kid-friendly breweries in the Asheville area: New Belgium Brewing and Whistle Hop Brewing. There’s a big ol’ outdoor space at New Belgium. The boys played soccer with other junior drinkers and scarfed down the smallest $25 pizza (from a nearby food truck) I’ve seen. Man, you can’t beat Domino’s large one-topping for $7.99 deal.

    If you stop by New Belgium Brewing, or find it at your local store, try the Honey Orange Tripel. As for Whistle Hop, they had mini-golf, an actual train car for the kids to run around in, and some other activities that we didn’t do because it was raining.

    kids smiling at New Belgium Brewing in Asheville

    We didn’t get the full Downtown Asheville experience. Our middle child was “middle-childing” and the youngest gave up on walking and just sat down in the middle of the sidewalk. Downtown’s mostly for larger humans (bars and restaurants galore), but the kids enjoyed playing board games at Well Played Cafe and asking to buy everything they saw at the little shops.

    playing board games at well played board game cafe
    street art from Indigenous Walls Project in Asheville, North Carolina
    tired kid sitting on a downtown Asheville sidewalk

    We spent New Year’s Eve at the North Carolina Arboretum’s Winter Lights. It was “epic,” as the kids say, and featured half a million lights. Of great controversy was the mushroom below, which Amber insisted was a jellyfish…in a gnome garden?

    Mushroom light display at North Carolina Arboretum Winter Lights

    We stayed in a bungalow in Hendersonville, about 25 minutes outside of Downtown Asheville. It was one of those rare Airbnb homes that doesn’t charge you crazy cleaning fees while also requiring that you do the cleaning. “The Sweet Retreat” was stocked with free wine, snacks, tea tree shampoo and conditioner(!), and seasoning to make sure our New Year’s seafood buffet was Negro-appropriate. We hope to abandon the kids and stay there again during our next trip to Asheville.

    -Dewan Gibson

    January 4, 2023
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  • Parathyroid Surgery: My Throat Got Sliced, But I Feel Great

    by Dewan Gibson October 19, 2022
    by Dewan Gibson October 19, 2022

    I see a doctor once a year and I’m in-and-out within 30 minutes. I answer a few questions, get my blood screened, and hope they compliment my resting heart rate.…

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  • A Short Family Trip To Chicago To Quiet Our Complaining Kids

    by Dewan Gibson August 15, 2022
    by Dewan Gibson August 15, 2022

    Amber and I went to Chicago in June to see Coldplay, and our “neglected” kids were like, “Take us! You said we would all go to Chicago!” Two months later,…

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  • The Struggle To Move On After Being Betrayed By Your Hairline

    by Dewan Gibson August 10, 2022
    by Dewan Gibson August 10, 2022

    I just turned 43 and my edges ain’t right. To be fair, my hairline struggle is not new. I was born with a large cerebral cortex that resulted in a…

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  • Ever Save A Baby Fox That Has A Jar Stuck On Its Head?

    by Dewan Gibson May 27, 2022
    by Dewan Gibson May 27, 2022

    I opened the blinds this morning and saw what I thought was a faceless dog. I ran outside in my sexiest morning outfit and realized the animal was a fox…

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  • My Parents Are In A Commercial About Weddings At McDonald’s

    by Dewan Gibson May 8, 2022
    by Dewan Gibson May 8, 2022

    A couple-few years ago, I wrote a blog post about my parents’ wedding at McDonald’s. The story went viral and McDonald’s contacted us about being part of a print ad,…

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  • Our Move From California to Ohio: A Five Year Check-In

    by Dewan Gibson February 12, 2022
    by Dewan Gibson February 12, 2022

    In 2017, I moved my family from San Diego, California to Pickerington, Ohio, a ho-hum city outside of Columbus where deer will eat your shrubs and shit in your yard.…

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  • A Good Ol’ Winter Road Trip To Carolina Beach

    by Dewan Gibson January 13, 2022
    by Dewan Gibson January 13, 2022

    We started the 10-hour drive to Carolina Beach late Christmas morning, a couple of hours after the boys opened their latest brain-draining device. Unlike our other winter trips, this wasn’t…

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  • Help! My Runts Are Already Asking About ‘The Birds And The Bees’

    by Dewan Gibson June 26, 2021
    by Dewan Gibson June 26, 2021

    My 7-year-old, all grin but no front teeth, had an important question. “Mama, did you do sex?”  Where’d that come from? Well, we “did” sex often and our little ones…

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  • Got A Vaccine And A $50 Flight to Miami…Can’t Tell Me Nothin!

    by Dewan Gibson April 19, 2021
    by Dewan Gibson April 19, 2021

    I said months ago “Give me all the vaccines!” Either God reads this blog (very few humans do), or I spoke it into existence, but I’ve since received two Moderna…

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  • Sledding Is Family Fun, Much More So If The Kids Crash While You Get To Relax

    by Dewan Gibson January 2, 2021
    by Dewan Gibson January 2, 2021

    Here’s video from our recent sledding trip to Simsbury Park Disk Golf Course in good ol’ Pickerington, Ohio. Well, “trip” is too strong a word since it’s just down the…

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