Tuesday, June 24, 2008

A Full Day In Asheville

Good morning, Bloggy Friends (considering it's morning where you are).

Yesterday was our first full day in Asheville. We all got up early(ish) to take as much of it in as possible. We kicked off the morning with a delicious brunch at one of Asheville's favorite morning eateries, Early Girl Eatery. Unfortunately we were a little late for breakfast, (ok, we didn't really get up that early), so we had to settle on the lunch menu. Alan and I split a delicious homemade, grilled pimento cheese sandwich and a crisp garden salad. It was so good. Nothing says "the south" like a pimento cheese sandwich. After brunch we went back to the room to pick up Galileo, so he could stroll around downtown with us for a while. We took him to one of the many puppy bakeries in town, Three Dog Bakery. Inside he enjoyed a heaping load of attention, few samples from the baker and picking out a few snacks to take home. I am amazed at the stuff they make for puppies. The baker let him try a piece of carrot cake, that actually had the consistency of cake. It all looked so good - I wanted to try a piece for myself! We also picked up a few little things for Abigail and Mary Todd, who are surely enjoying free roam of the house while we are gone!

In the later afternoon we drove to Asheville's biggest tourist destination, you guessed it, The Biltmore Estate! I have always wanted to see it. My mother and my Aunt Robin have been before and still rave about how amazing it is. I love old mansions, and the history that belongs to them. I once read a biography of the Vanderbilt Family, so that helped to peak my curiosity even more. We bought our tickets so we could separate our trip into two days. I hear it takes that much to see it all. So, we reserved the first day for the winery and the River Bend Farm, which is located on the premises. The winery excursion was fun. We watched a short video on the production of their wine, and then we were welcome to a free tasting. We walked away with three bottles, so we must have liked it a little. My camera battery died sometime around this point, so I have few pictures of our day at Biltmore. Sigh...

The River Bend Farm was very nice. It was the functioning Vanderbilt farm back in the day when the mansion was a residence. It has now been turned into a museum that displays all the farming equipment, and various demonstrations on how things were done. My favorite part was the herb and vegetable garden. It was so neat to see what things like ginger and peppermint look like before it is processed for us to use at home. We also enjoyed the petting zoo, where we saw some smaller animals like goats and sheep. The best part is coming today, however, when we get to tour the mansion and the gardens that surround it. I can't wait!!!

In the evening we returned home to freshen up, cracked open a bottle of our Biltmore wine, and then headed to find some dinner. What we found just so happens to now be my favorite restaurant in Asheville. It is a vegetarian place I heard of before come here called, Rosetta's Kitchen. It was so good! The restaurant was totally laid back - the kind where you order at the counter and have them bring it out to you later. I thoroughly enjoyed a bowl called, Buddha Belly. It consisted of tempeh, brown basmati rice, peanut sauce and vegetables. It was soooo good!

We called it a night pretty early. The combination of a full day of walking, and a pretty long trip in general had us all pretty worn out. We also have another full day today that I am so excited about. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow!

Have a great afternoon. I'll talk to ya'll soon!

Love, Josh




2 comments:

Casey said...

Awww... that sucks about your camera battery, but I know you'll enjoy the Biltmore... It's been a long time since I've been, but I remember it was very cool. It's really neat to be there when they have all their Christmas decorations out.

Anonymous said...

I'd just spend the day in the pool!

More cute Galileo pictures ... he has really taken over your hearts hasn't he :) Sounds familiar ...