Asheville: Part 2

Friday started bright and early at first...5 am...but thankfully Vivy came back into bed with us and she fell asleep until almost 7 am.  So happy she got some extra sleep.  Me, not so much, but her sleep is all that matters.  

B had meetings until early afternoon which left V and I on our own again.  Since she loves being outside so much, I took her to the botanical gardens.  The garden is on UNC-Asheville campus and free.  It was beautiful.  Vivian saw her first river.  She loved all the exploring she was able to do.

We had a wonderful morning at the gardens.  Afterwards, we made our way back to the hotel.  Vivian fell asleep, we again stayed in the car because I wasn't going to move her from the car to the hotel room and chance her waking up and not falling back to sleep.

 The wait was long.  Instead, we went across the street to the Well-Bred Bakery & Cafe. Very good.  I got half the chicken croissant sandwich with a side of pasta with pesto and fruit. Vivian gobbled up the pasta and fruit.  

After lunch we met Brian back at the hotel to spend the afternoon at Biltmore Estate.  The house was quite grand!

 It took about an hour to tour the inside of the house.  Sadly, you are unable to take pictures inside.  We didn't bother doing the audio tour since we had Vivian.  I carried her in the Britax baby carrier for a bit, but she wanted down to explore.

When you walk in, to the right is the garden room.  Basically a gigantic sun room with all the plants.  The windows were in the ceiling.  Massive.

We toured the billiard room, Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbilt's  rooms (their rooms were separate), their daughters room, the music room, the library (held 10,000 books.  Mr. Vanderbilt read 3,000 of them), huge indoor swimming pool, game room (they had their own bowling alley), fitness room, the kitchen (they had the largest rotisserie I had ever seen), servants rooms, servants dining room, their dining room, multiple living rooms, smoking room and basement.  

Pictures were allowed on the back balcony off the garden room.  The Vanderbilt's owned the land a mile past the mountains.

How amazing would it to be to have this view for your backyard.  Spectacular!

Back inside, Vivian wanted to climb up all the stairs we had to walk up.  Such a big girl!  Everything is roped off so no one can touch the furniture and what not and Vivian was swinging the rope on the second floor living room.  Of course they have staff standing around so no one jumps the rope.  Well, Vivian decided to run on the other side of the rope.  Mind you, she did not get far and the guard screamed "no, no, no!"  He was a little over dramatic.   She went back into the carrier unwillingly.

After touring inside the house we walked to the bass pond.  A little further of a hike than we thought.  We did take the back way instead of the pathed path through the garden.  It was beautiful.

  

We made it to the bass pond and stayed a few minutes.  We were hot and tired.  

 We went back to Biltmore house up the paved path.  Very beautiful.  They have huge fir trees along the path, oak trees, flowers galore.  We made our way through the garden to the front of the house.

We had a wonderful time.  A place everyone should visit once in their lifetime.  

For dinner we went to Moe's Original BBQ.  Very good.  I gave Vivy a bite of my bbq with the sauce and she made the funniest face, and spit it right out.  There was a guy a few tables down watching her and he was dying laughing when she did that.  So funny!  She of course, was all over the place.  Decided to have her in the booth with me instead of in a high chair.  Can't take that child anywhere!  I am so ready for her to become a little older so she knows how to act in public.  At least I pray this will happen!  She has so much energy and anywhere new she wants to explore.  Hard for her to sit still.  The joys of a toddler!

I called it an early night while Brian went to a reception.  We left out around 10:30am and headed to B's parents.  We spent the night instead of driving all the way back to Wilmington.  Little miss woke up at 3:50 am!  3:50 am!  She finally dozed off about 6 am for about 20 minutes.  She fell asleep on me in the bed.  Her tummy started growling loudly which woke up her.  It was a long morning to say the least.  It was nice sleeping in our own room and beds that night.

Asheville was a beautiful place to visit.  I definitely recommend going one day.  

Next stop, Townsend, TN to spend a few days with my parents.  Vivian is becoming quite the little traveler :)

 

Part 1: Asheville

We arrived at our hotel in Asheville on Wednesday afternoon after a not so terrible car ride with Vivian.  B had to work the registration table which left Vivy and I on our own for a couple of hours.

 

 Since being cooped in the car, we explored the hotel. Little miss needed to stretch her legs and burn some energy off.  Doubletree has a really nice garden terrace which Vivian loved.  She played with the plants and splashed in their water fountain. 

Our hotel room was on the main floor, thankfully.  Better than having to use the elevator hauling all our stuff upstairs. 

Vivian stopped every one that passed by us.  They all had to say hello.  She even stopped men dead in their tracks.  What can I say, she's just adorable.  

B finished up around 5 pm and we moseyed over to TGIF since it was attached to the hotel.  I did not feel like getting back into the car finding somewhere to eat.  Vivian had her some mac n' cheese.  Something kind of heavy to fill her tummy for a good night sleep.

The next morning, Vivian and I went to the Arboretum since B had meetings starting at 8 am that lasted until the early afternoon.  It was beautiful.  We arrived around 8:30 am  and stayed until a little after 10:30 am.  Vivian was a happy camper running loose and exploring.  The weather was perfect and you couldn't ask for a better view.  We love gardens!

Vivian fell asleep in the car on our way back in the hotel.  It was her nap time and little girl was exhausted.  We stayed in the car while she napped for a little over an hour at the hotel parking lot.  I wasn't going to move her from the car to our room.  

Brian was finished around 1pm which meant lunch time.  We drove across the street to Biltmore Village.  The area is really cute.  Great restaurants and shopping. We decided to grab something to eat at Village Wayside Bar & Grille.  It was so good!  I had the chicken gyro, Vivian had the pita pizza and B a burger.  Very good.  

After lunch we went to Biltmore and got our tickets for Antler Hill Village and Winery and to Biltmore House and Gardens.  We went to Antler Hill on Thursday and to the house and gardens on Friday.  So glad we were able to break it up in two days.  The one thing we had to do was wait until 4 pm to go to Antler Hill in order to visit the house the next day.  We got our tickets at 3 pm which meant we waited an hour to go in.  It worked out fine.  Vivian played with the flowers and acorns.

Tea party time!

Petting farm.

After an afternoon at Antler Village, we made our way back to Biltmore Village for dinner.  We heard good things about The Cantina Fresh Mex  and they were right.  I got the shrimp pineapple tacos, B go the pulled pork tacos and Vivian got the egg and cheese tacos.  Our waiter, Chris, was awesome!  Why you ask.  Well, after Vivian finished her dinner she wanted to walk around and play while we finished eating.  She was having a great time playing at the empty table next to us.  She came back over to me and got into my lap and started coughing.  Then the next thing I know, she went all 'garbage pail kid' on me and started vomiting.  It was horrible!  All I could do was catch it with my hands which didn't do any good.  Both of us were covered in yak!  We were sitting at a middle table next to the booth seating in front of patrons who were enjoying their meal.  B just sat there. I had to get him to go grab some napkins.  Thankfully, Chris got some towels and he cleaned the floor. He wasn't bothered by the incident one bit.  What an awesome guy! We bolted out of there quickly.  I took Vivy to the car and stripped her down to her diaper.  The smell was horrible!  What a great way to end a wonderful day!  The joys of parenting, ha!  

Overall, day one was great.  Stay tuned for day 2!