Living the Life of Luxury...Asheville Day 2

We got up Sunday after getting slight 30 minute stretches of sleep (thanks to a sick Josiah) and went to breakfast. Now, I have to say that I was less than enthused about breakfast. The innkeepers told us on Saturday that breakfast for Sunday was Baked Eggs Louisiana. What that was, I don't know, but I knew that Louisiana serves lots of seafood/fish/crab stuff. We googled it and found that a version of it included crabmeat. I made up mind to try it, but that was it. When it was served, the innkeeper stated that it was bean and corn salsa on an english muffin with an egg and bacon wrapped around it. Delicious! I loved it and so did Mark. It included a wonderful sauce drizzled over it and asparagus, which was yummy too. Josiah impressed the guests and innkeepers by devouring the fruit and an egg as well as an equally yummy lemon rosemary crumb cake. Innkeeper, Thom, remarked that he had never seen a child Josiah's age eat that much food in all his years in the culinary world. By the way, Josiah ate three small pieces of french toast and fruit the next morning!

I'll put in a plug for the bed & breakfast we stayed at and then move on to our day on Sunday. It was called the Aberdeen Inn and it was very very nice. The innkeepers were just wonderful. They have a little cottage out behind the house and guest rooms and that's where we stayed. It was a good thing since Josiah was sick and didn't sleep like he usually does. I hesitate to say that the rooms were underpriced for the conditions, but they were quite inexpensive compared to other places we were looking at staying at but they were wonderful and very beautiful...and for the food...well, just re read above! We were minutes from downtown and the Biltmore. The innkeepers are so friendly and they were really great with Josiah and loved doting on him. I highly recommend them if anyone is going that way soon or later!



Alright, on to our day on Sunday. We arrived at the Biltmore only to be told we had to have a timed entry. Mark had gotten it for 11 and it wasn't quite 10:30. So , we decided to go to River Bend Farm and get our bike passes. By the time we got there it was close to 11 and we had scheduled our picnic basket (Mark had...how romantic) for pick up between 11:30 and 12. We changed our entry time and headed out to bike. Our goal was to make it to the gardens which was roughly 4 plus miles away. We almost got there when my knee started hurting (couldn't have been for the fact that the last mile was all uphill??) and Josiah had enough of his helmet falling over his face. We trekked back down and hastened back to the Biltmore to get our basket and lunch. It was wonderful! We got a neat little basket with two sandwiches, drinks, cookies, cheese, and chips. Yes, Josiah enjoyed it too. Check out the napkins:

After shopping for souvenirs we headed inside the "castle." Very pretty. Very big. I loved the dining hall. I wish I could show pictures, but they don't allow pictures of the inside. So, you'll just have to experience it for yourself. Here's our outdoor pictures:If you look closely, you can see the two men sculptures on the columns.

These ornaments were in the courtyard around a window. There were musical sculptures all around the courtyard windows. Amazing how much detail went into these.

A view from one of the first floor balconies.

Enjoying lunch on the "grounds" of the Biltmore!

On to the gardens:

Hey! Here's a picture of my new haircut...after sweating two gallons and wearing a bike helmet for an hour...lovely, huh?!

Rose Gardens (one side of them)

For Jacie: They had several horse and ponies at the farm. You would have loved it girl!

We ate at the Moose Cafe and it was not healthy like the night before. But it was goooooodddd! They served us biscuits that were huge with homemade apple butter...which we came home with. Oh, my! Wonderful! We may have stunk up the place because we went straight from the Biltmore to the cafe...opps!

And Monday, we ate breakfast and came home...to Liam running a fever! He's still got one but I'm hoping it's the same thing Josiah had and he should be over it by tomorrow...I hope!