Asheville Magic

I had a conference in Asheville at the end of last week, and the whole family decided to tag along! Brad was the lead photographer, and compiled another photo album of the trip! We also have a much larger album that includes all of Issa and Evan's pictures, too.

We drove up Wednesday afternoon, and our first stop was the Asheville Outdoor Center, where I conned the family into a picture:

The kids had been begging to go panning for gems, and the AOC did not disappoint. The kids found all kids of gems, and they each found an arrow head, which was pretty exciting!

Brad had done some restaurant research before we left, and we knew we needed to make an afternoon snack shop at French Broad Chocolate. However, I punched in the wrong info into the GPS, and in a fortuitous oops, we ended up at their factory. We were able to tour to learn how they go from nibs to chocolate bar, and then we sampled way more types of chocolate than we really should have before bringing home some lovely truffles. From there, we checked into the hotel, ate dinner at a local burger place, and then went for the obligatory hotel swim.

Thursday, I was in the conference all day, but the kids and Brad explored downtown Asheville and spent the morning at the Earth Museum. They learned more about gems and minerals and came home with their very own geode! They were able to have it split on site and loved being the very first people to see inside. They spent the afternoon seeing the Minion Movie, and we all met up for an Italian dinner before the obligatory hotel swim.

Friday was the highlight, though. We ate breakfast at a phenomenal biscuit place before spending the day at the Biltmore. We opted for the audio tours, which was brilliant! The kids' version was told by the family dog, and they learned different things than we did about each room. It made for great conversation and we all thoroughly enjoyed the house tour. The home is truly remarkable, and it was beautiful to see everything green and in bloom! We ate lunch at the Stable Cafe, and then toured the gardens. I think the Italian garden with its statues and lily ponds was the highlight for the kiddos, but I fell in love with the conservatory. I really felt like I was in a Wilde novel.

We ended the trip in the Village, where we all enjoyed the winery tour and tasting. The kids declared it the best grape juice ever, and Brad and I found a few bottles of wine we really loved. We visited the farmyard and sampled the famous ice cream before heading for home.

It really was a perfect few days, and it was nice to come home to a weekend to unpack and recover before jumping in to another busy week!