Asheville is only a 3.5-4 hour drive away but there were several places I wanted to stop at on our way there and back. We didn't make it to one--Tallulah Falls State Park--because it was too rainy and cold to endure a 2.5 mile hike to the falls. Otherwise, we checked off most of our to-see list including several rather unique locations.
Our first stop was Babyland General Hospital located in Cleveland, Georgia. It's literally in the middle of nowhere, located at the end of a road that stops at this large stately looking building. But what it really is is a giant gift shop for Cabbage Patch Dolls.
That's right. It's home to your '80s childhood right here. Several of my friends had mentioned Babyland with a laugh and said it was totally worth the visit if you were in the area. My mom had given me several of my old Cabbage Patch dolls to play with and I thought it would be interesting to check it out especially since it's free to enter.
In many ways, it feels like it hasn't been updated since the '80s, at the height of Cabbage Patch's power. All the employees wear nurse's uniforms and scrubs, they sit in rocking chairs "burping" the babies, and there's even a station where you can watch a new baby being "born" in the cabbage patch and help them name it.
It's a totally surreal and amusing experience.
But they know their audience, so there's lots of stations to play with the dolls and lots of assessories, toys, and dolls to purchase. The kids had fun looking at everything and playing with the variety of toys they had available.
We managed to make it out of there without purchasing anything and then ate our pre-packed lunch in the car since it was raining and we couldn't use one of their picnic tables. They did have lovely bathrooms though.
So all-in-all, I thought Babyland was an amusing side trip but it wouldn't have been worth it to drive all the way there just for that. Luckily, it was only 15 minutes away from our second stop--Helen, Georgia.
Helen is a small town of 500 nestled in the Appalachian Mountains. It was formerly a logging town, but as that industry declined and the town started to fade in the late 1960s, they transformed their mountain town into a Bavarian village. All the buildings have adopted the look and feel of a southern German town.
Most of the restaurants serve German food and they are obviously a popular destination for Oktoberfest. They have several unique stores with hand-made, local items and of course a Hansel and Gretl Candy Store where we stopped for some treats, including a chocolate covered caramel apple which was quite delicious.
We wandered through the village and into several of the shops and up to their little hillside park. It was rainy with a constant drizzle so we didn't spend too much time there.
It was all pretty small with nothing really remarkable, but it was a fun little town to visit. I think I would have been disappointed by both Helen and Babyland if we had driven all that way just for them, but since they were on the way to Asheville, I thought they were fun little diversions and I'm glad we visited so that I can check those off our list.
After finishing up in Helen, we clambered back into the car for the mountainous drive through the Appalachians to Asheville. We arrived in Asheville around 5PM and went to their one and only Trader Joe's to pick up snacks and supplies for our stay. We opted to stay in another AirBnB for our trip because it's nice to have a whole house to ourselves with access to a kitchen and multiple rooms. It's easier to put the kids to bed that way and it saves us on food since we don't have to eat out every meal. Plus the AirBnB was just as expensive (if not cheaper) than most of the hotel options so it worked out well. We stayed in an Arts and Craft bungalow that was conveniently located near the Biltmore. The owner has a kid so the home had lots of toys for the kids to play with including an entire attic space accessed by a set of spiral stairs that the kids loved but which I hated. We ate some dinner and put the kids to bed and prepared for our next day's adventures--Biltmore itself.
