Mountain Getaway

This weekend Brent and I pooled all of our Christmas money & gift cards and took a trip to Asheville, North Carolina!  We've been wanting to go there for a while.  We did miss the fall leaves and the Christmas decorations, but January means off-season prices and fewer people!  We had a great weekend staying at a bed & breakfast, visiting the Biltmore, relaxing and reading, and eating really nice food.  As a bonus, we picked a place that welcomed dogs, so little Blazer got to join us.  I'd say he enjoyed himself.  In other news:  I discovered "Instagram" on the iPhone this weekend (as you can tell), and I'm in LOVE.  All these pics were taken on my iPhone, and Instagram is a very fun app to play with.  If you like pictures on blog posts... you're in luck!

Road trippin!

Blazer says, "I am smiling because I am the most spoiled dog in all of North Carolina.  Make that the whole South.  I stay at bed & breakfasts and ride on my daddy's lap.  Whatcha gonna do about it?"

We arrived at our bed & breakfast, and it was lovely.  Thanks, Julia & Darrell, for the gift card!  Blazer checked it out, and it met his approval (he has high standards).

(This basket of locally made dog treats might possibly have swayed his opinion.)

But really, the room was lovely for people and dogs alike.

Yes, please.

Gotta have the front porch rocking chairs.  It's pretty much required.

On Friday night, we enjoyed a wonderful meal at The Marketplace.  The atmosphere was amazing - dim lighting and cozy decor with a live musician playing jazz (but not too loud!)  We stayed for almost 3 hours talking and having a great time.

Oh... just some beef tenderloin, duck fat fries, creamed spinach, and homemade thyme ketchup.

Brent's Parmesan mashed potatoes, braised greens, and glazed pork chop.

I think a little champagne with Limoncello was called for, don't you?

We managed to get up the next day and be fed a three course breakfast.  Then we headed out to the Biltmore!  I have been really excited about going to the Biltmore for a while now.  When you live in North Carolina, there are commercials for it all the time.  It was touristy, but tasteful. 

I'm quite sure the gardens are beautiful anytime but January.  Ooops, it's January.  They were ugly, sorry.  I know they can't help it.  They did have the foresight to plant these "flame" plants.  This is not photo-shopped - they are actual sticks that grow neon orange and yellow.  It was pretty much all there was to see in the gardens.

We did find some green in the greenhouse.

Oh North Carolina, how I love thee.

The tour of the actual house was much better than the gardens.  The house was pretty much amazing.  It's FOUR acres under one roof - over 200 rooms.  I usually get disappointed on these kinds of tours because I feel like they don't show you everything, but I really felt like I got my money's worth on this one.  We walked around the house for a good 3 hours - basement, main floor, bedrooms, servant's quarters... we saw it all.  I think we saw and heard about 40 rooms in all - everything from the most AMAZING library I've ever seen to the indoor swimming pool to the butlers pantry to the regal bedrooms to the laundry facility.  It really was fascinating how all this was built for one man and his family back in 1895.  We got pretty interested in the Vanderbilts after that and spent the rest of the day reading about them on Wikipedia.  Pretty cool stuff.  No photography allowed inside the house.   Bummer.  But the outside is pretty spectacular too!

On Saturday night we ate at Cucina 24, and I ate one of the best pasta dishes I've had in my life.  Didn't take a pic - sorry!  Sunday morning we came on home - relaxed and refreshed.  It was just right for a getaway.  All in all, it was a WONDERFUL weekend with my sweet hubby and puppy.