last sunday-wednesday we celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary (a month early) in asheville, nc. after 14 months of grandparents asking us to keep henry overnight, we finally caved and ended up leaving henry at home with my parents and gary's mom (they split the time). it was a very romantic and enjoyable vacation ... it was so nice to spend the time together and be on our "own" schedules so to speak. but, we also really missed henry and couldn't wait to see him by the time we returned home.
on the way up we stopped in
greenville and had lunch with my sister
stacy and her family (no pics though). our drive up was foggy and rainy.
we stayed at the Inn at
Biltmore in
asheville. it was extremely nice and the service was excellent. would definitely recommend it. the mountain views were gorgeous!
we had a lovely dinner at the Inn ... truffle mushroom risotto, bison
carpaccio, short rib, striped bass, a cheese plate and pumpkin creme
brulee, all accompanied by some very tasty vino. again, the service was fabulous. the next night we had dinner at the
Fiddlin' Pig ... which is a BBQ joint that has live bluegrass every night. I had been excited about this place for a couple of weeks before this trip. it was great! the food was okay, but the music (cane creek) was incredible. I have some sound bites I'll post later. they also had local brews on tap. as much as we thoroughly enjoyed our "elegant" dinner, I can say we loved this casual food/brew/entertainment as much as the other. that is one of the things I love about
gary-he can roll along with my wide variety of tastes/interests because he is the same way. the last night we ate at Bistro 1896 in
asheville and had some delicious trout. we headed to barley's tap room afterwards for more bluegrass (wise apple) and local brews. we had breakfast each day in downtown
asheville (sunny point cafe and over easy cafe)-all very good.
asheville is a really quaint, fun and artsy city. we really liked it!
the
Biltmore Estate is 8,000 acres with lots of trails, so we took our bikes. the day we rode the high was 46 and rainy but we had a blast. it was a great way to see some of the estate.
french broad river
the
Biltmore Estate, former home of George Vanderbilt, in the distance.
the conservatory
neither
gary nor I had ever been to
asheville and thus had never toured the
Biltmore mansion. it was very overwhelming. beautiful and mysterious. hard to imagine/grasp actually living there. no cameras were allowed inside.
mountain views from the terrace of the mansion
plants inside the conservatory
we did have one day of sunny weather - that was the day we went
horsebackriding. we had a great guide and it was another unique way to see more of the grounds.
gary on "Leon" his wild stallion.
several movies have been filmed at the
Biltmore, notably Patch Adams and one of my all time favorites, The Last of the
Mohicans.
at the end of the ride ... if you are wondering why we are so far apart, this other crazy lady at the stables was afraid our horses would fight if we got too close together (even though our guide had told us our two horses were good old dependable and agreeable horses). thank goodness she wasn't our trail guide.
the
biltmore also has a winery ... so one day we did a tasting. there were some okay wines, some good wines and some excellent wines (Antler Hill). we had a really, really nice time. would certainly recommend asheville as a vacation destination.
also, congrats to Doug and Nancy who found out they are having a little girl! exciting! 
