{"id":1860,"date":"2013-09-22T11:49:59","date_gmt":"2013-09-22T16:49:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/updates.xephalon.net\/?p=1860"},"modified":"2013-09-22T11:49:59","modified_gmt":"2013-09-22T16:49:59","slug":"return-to-asheville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/2013\/09\/22\/return-to-asheville\/","title":{"rendered":"Return to Asheville"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/updates.xephalon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/2013.09.23.a1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1867\" alt=\"2013.09.23.a\" src=\"https:\/\/updates.xephalon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/2013.09.23.a1-100x100.jpg\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/updates.xephalon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/2013.09.23.b.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1865\" alt=\"2013.09.23.b\" src=\"https:\/\/updates.xephalon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/2013.09.23.b-100x100.jpg\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><\/a>This year&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nceyemd.org\/\">NCSEPS<\/a> and NCRC meetings were both held in Asheville, which gave me an excuse to get out of town for the weekend. I headed out after OR on Friday, arriving just in time for the Retina Club dinner at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.curatetapasbar.com\/#\">Curate<\/a>, where the salt cod puree and fried eggplant were still as good as I remembered. The constant drizzle on Saturday thwarted my hiking plans. So after presenting my poster in the morning, I returned to explore downtown, filling on dahi sev papdi and samosa chaat at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chaipaniasheville.com\/\">Chai Pani<\/a>, lamb gyro and fish tacos at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whiteducktacoshop.com\/\">White Duck Taco Shop<\/a>, and a big mug of oaxaca from the <a href=\"http:\/\/frenchbroadchocolates.com\/\">French Broad Chocolate Lounge<\/a>. I took an afternoon nap in the car for a couple of hours amidst the downpour, then awoke to notice a newly-opened <a href=\"http:\/\/ashevillepinball.com\/\">pinball museum<\/a> nearby. Intrigued, I paid the $10 admission and spent another 2 hours reliving childhood memories of my favorite coin arcade pastime (mainly because I lacked the button-mashing skills for <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Street_Fighter\">Street Fighter<\/a>). The collection ranged from retro machines dating back to the 1950s to fancier ones from the 1990s like the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Addams_Family_(pinball)\">Addams Family<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Simpsons_(pinball)\">Simpsons<\/a> games which I so fondly remember. The weather recovered beautifully on Sunday, which made for a pleasant morning drive to <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Looking_Glass_Falls\">Looking Glass Falls<\/a> before I returned to the meeting to pick up a first-place award for the poster competition. I planned the drive back home along scenic <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Blue_Ridge_Parkway\">Blue Ridge Parkway<\/a>, stopping first at <a href=\"http:\/\/ncparks.gov\/Visit\/parks\/momi\/main.php\">Mt Mitchell<\/a>, the tallest peak of the Appalachians and highest point east of the Mississippi River. The observation tower at the summit offered awesome panoramas, while the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hikewnc.info\/trails\/mount-mitchell-state-park\/balsam-nature\">Balsam Nature Trail<\/a> provided macro shots of moss and ferns. Sadly, I had to abandon the other stops from my itinerary due to bad internet directions leading me astray for 3 hours along tortuous downhill US-50. I consoled myself with a bowl of pho from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.yelp.com\/biz\/vanloi-2-vietnamese-restaurant-and-chinese-bbq-greensboro\">Vanloi 2<\/a> in Greensboro on the way back home. Despite missing out on the other waterfalls, my time with mother nature helped revitalize me for a busy OR at the VA tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This year&#8217;s NCSEPS and NCRC meetings were both held in Asheville, which gave me an excuse to get out of town for the weekend. I headed out after OR on Friday, arriving just in time for the Retina Club dinner &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/2013\/09\/22\/return-to-asheville\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}