We spent our July trip in Asheville, NC with some friends and it was so much fun.

Get ready for a ton of pictures!

A couple of months ago, our friends Justin and Ashley asked us if we wanted to join them on a trip to Asheville. We had never been and thought it would be fun to hang out with them. Ashley’s parents were coming with us too.

We left after work on Friday.  Since the drive was 8 hours, we figured we’d go for as long as we could and just stop for the night.

We made it to Charleston, WV and crashed for the night.

We’ve never been to Charleston before, but it was actually really nice.

We finally made it to Charleston and met up with everyone.

Our first stop was to have dinner at Wicked Weed. For some reason I took no pictures of our food – but take my word for it, everything was delicious! 🙂

After dinner, we headed to the grocery store for food for the house and we realized that since Justin was riding in the trunk, he would have to sit with the groceries.

Whoops! 🙂

At least he had some good snacks!

On Sunday morning, The Hubster and I had booked a 4 mile paddleboard tour down the French Broad River. We have paddleboarded before and it was pretty fun, so I was looking forward to the day.

Since we didn’t take anything with us on the boards (like phones that could fall in the river), this is the only picture I have of us during the tour.

We had a blast and got to get some exercise too.

I’m just happy I didn’t fall off!! hehe

After we got out of the water, we got changed and headed out for tacos. Because why not.

I can never say no to nachos and queso.

And why would I ever want to? hehe

And then after tacos we got some ice cream.

This one reminded me of Coldstone…you picked your ice cream and then your toppings and they would mix them together.

I picked mint ice cream and added snocaps.

It was amazing.

After we had some food, we walked around downtown Asheville.

I found this shirt in one of the shops and found this amazing shirt.

The Sandlot guys on a shirt!?! I think my brother needs this for his birthday or Christmas.

We found Paul D wine!!

It’s funny because we talked to the guy at the shop and said that The Hubster’s (and his dad) is Paul D!

We bought a bottle for my father-in-law!

On Sunday night, we got tickets to the Biltmore Estate and saw the Chihuly Exhibit.

I’m not an art exhibit person, but this one was awesome.

Each art piece is hand blown pieces of glass. When the pieces arrive at their destination, the art installer can put them together however they think they fit. So what we saw at the Biltmore, isn’t what you would see at the next location. I like that it’s unique each time.

I’m glad we got night tickets. Everything was really cool all lit up!

And can we talk about how gigundo the house in the back is.

And the Vanderbilts were a family of 3!!

It’s crazy.

You know when I’m around art, I feel compelled to take as many selfies as I can! 🙂

No big deal…this is their breakfast room!

Never mind it’s larger than my dining room and kitchen together.

The beautiful view from the back porch of the main house.

It was more amazing in person.

Can you imagine having book club in this library?!?!

This is a 3 level chandelier.

Like every level of the large spiral staircase can look at a new level of this chandelier.

It’s amazing.

I took a picture because it looked awesome.

The Hubster commented on how amazing the engineering is hold up such a structure.

The whole gang! Me, The Hubster, Justin, Ashley, Claire, and Tony.

These were so cool!

I’m so glad we saw them!

And just so you don’t think I’ve lost it – I took some selfies with the sculptures around the mansion too! 🙂

We learned a lot about the Vanderbilts too.

• They only had 1 child, which is a really small family for the early 1900s.
• The entire family had tickets to be on the Titanic but they decided to take the Olympic a week earlier, just because. One of their servants died on the Titanic – she had stayed behind to gather up their things.
• Their only child, a daughter, divorced her husband in the late 1920s and he got the estate in the divorce. Crazy right!? It was her family!! He did keep the house in working order and basically started it as what it is today.
• The Biltmore Estate employs of 2000 people today!

Okay – that seems like a lot!

I’ll get the rest of the trip soon! 🙂