Catching up a bit on the stack of “things I meant to post earlier.”
With a “birthday of significance” as an excuse, Laura and I ran off to Asheville for a long weekend back in June. We stayed at Biltmore—it’s a whole thing. We stayed at the Village Inn—the less fancy place. The hotel was fine. In hindsight, it reminds me of a park service hotel: You’re not paying for the accommodations. You’re paying for the ready access to the grounds.
That access is quite ready. Walk out the door, and you’re steps away from being in the middle of 4,000 acres of park. That’s the half before you get to the French Broad River.
Friday
After checking in, we went to explore the “village.” There’s no shortage of restaurants, so we just wandered until we saw something we liked. On the way, there was a Patrick Dougherty installation, and the light was turning nice.
Saturday
The following day we started slowly with an easy trail circuit from the hotel.
It’s pretty cool staying on a working estate. The estate grows a good bit of their food and raises their livestock as well.
We spent way too much time chatting with the working blacksmith after Laura pretended to make off with a wagon.
Of course, the house proper beckoned, and we had a tour scheduled for the afternoon. It’s a big damn house, and I couldn’t stop taking pictures of the faceless mannequins.
Sunday
The next day, we got up early and headed back out on foot to check out the gardens at the house.
We were pushing it to get back in time to leave for our zipline adventure with Navitat Asheville.
Laura’s not super excited about heights, but she wanted to go for it. So we did the tallest and fastest lines they had—and had a blast. Highly recommend. The first three shots in the gallery below we bought from Navitat.
After that, we hit Highlands Brewing on the way back to the estate. Never stop AVL. Never stop.
