Hendersonville, North Carolina

Well, it's Friday folks, and it seems that Friday is almost always my travel post day.  You might think, in reading my blog, that all we do is travel -- or that we travel a lot.  Not so.  We have been fortunate enough to take some big trips, which I'll be sharing on my blog in the future.  We usually go to the beach once during the summer and to the mountains for about four days during the summer.  And speaking of the mountains, that's what I'm writing about again today.  Last week I shared with you our trip to the Blue Waters Mountain Lodge, in the western North Carolina mountains.
On our way to the Blue Waters Lodge, we make a point of stopping in the mountain town of Hendersonville in the late afternoon, and we have dinner there before continuing with our journey.  This year, we were able to get some pretty good pictures of the little downtown area before the sweltering heat and humidity turned to rain. Downtown Hendersonville is full of unique (and pricey) shops with colorful flowers everywhere.

When we visited this year, they had these bear sculptures lining the main street, and they're all painted to match the various shops where they stand.  The bear in this photo advertises the upscale little pet boutique called "Wag."  A few years ago when we visited, they had apple sculptures painted in this same colorful fashion.  Hendersonville has lots of apple orchards, and they have an apple festival every Labor Day weekend.

Notice he's painted with dogs, cats, paw prints, and pet toys.  It's certainly a unique way to advertise.   You can see the pet boutique in the picture below.

A pretty garden shop below.

A lot of our pictures turned out dark; you can see by the sky that it was about to rain.

I love, love these gates below.  This was originally a bank building which has been turned into law offices on the street level.

When the gates are closed, they form a coach, reminiscent of a Cinderella coach.  I've never seen anything like this before.  Here's the other side of the gate...

Below, a florist shop with a bakery to the left.

"Narnia Studios" -- cute name for a florist and gift shop.  :)

This was a neat, old-fashioned hobby shop.

Check out these little airplanes fashioned from soda cans.  They're so colorful and whimsical!

I also love these airplane whirligigs...

...and the weathervane.

The building with the green awnings is "Hannah Flanagan's Irish Pub and Eatery," which is where we usually go for dinner.  They have good food, and the prices are reasonable.

Another pub.

The town soda and sandwich shop.

This last shop is possibly my favorite; it's the most unique storefront I've ever seen.

The English Bobby...

And the Scotsman in his tartan kilt.  I'll leave you with a last few images of Hendersonville.

 I'm joining Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for Pink Saturday.  I'm also linking to Seasonal Sundays, hosted by The Tablescaper and Mosaic Monday, hosted by Mary at Little Red House. Thank you, ladies, for hosting; wishing you all a relaxing Labor Day weekend.

Thank you to everyone who visited my blog this week and was kind enough to leave a comment.  I appreciate and read each and every one of them!

Denise