The kiddos had a week off from school last week, so I decided to take them on a little road trip! It gave Stephen a couple of quiet days to work from home, and it got us out of the house. The weather has been so cold and yucky lately that I envisioned the kids on their tablets most of the day if we stayed put.
So, off to Asheville we went! We went up on Tuesday morning and got to Asheville around 2 PM. We went to downtown Asheville to check out what all they had there. It was a cute downtown, made up of quirky shops and retro stores and modern businesses. It kind of reminded me of downtown Athens, just bigger.
We walked around a bit, hitting up cool shops like an old-school candy/comic shop (so cute!) and a strange indoor "mall" that made it feel like you were on a European street. We went mining for gems (at this point, anything to escape the freezing wind!) and got hot chocolate at a yummy chocolate shop.
After a couple of hours, we were pretty cold, so we decided to head back to the hotel.
The hotel was a few minutes outside of downtown, more in a suburban area. We checked in and got settled in our room. The pool was being renovated, but we could use their "sister hotel's" pool if we wanted to, which was only a minute's drive. We did that for a little bit, then got ready to go to dinner. After dinner, we went to Target (Parker forgot his toothbrush!) and did a little shopping. Then, it was back to the hotel for the night!
The next morning, we had reservations for the Biltmore at 10:30. The weather was looking iffy for Wednesday night- they were talking about freezing rain and ice through late Thursday. Luckily, we were able to cancel our Asheville reservations for that night and reschedule them to a hotel in downtown Greenville (which was out of the ice storm's way). We packed up and checked out before heading to the Biltmore.
The Biltmore was incredible! I'm not sure if I've ever actually been, unless I was little and just don't remember it. The kids were really into the tour. We played a game where they got to pick the bedroom they would want if they lived there. The tour lasted a couple of hours, and we explored the property some before heading to Greenville!
We got to Greenville too early to check in to the hotel, and we hadn't eaten lunch yet (it was about 2 PM at this point), so we went to a mall and grabbed some food at the food court. We walked around a bit before heading downtown to the hotel. The kids loved this hotel- it was nice!- and wanted to go swimming. The only thing was... the pool was outside! And it was sunny, but pretty chilly! They braved the pool anyways, lasting about 25 minutes before going back in and getting in the warm showers.
That night, we went to Dave and Busters, then went to dinner, and then back to the hotel.
The next morning, we walked to Maple Street Biscuit Company for breakfast- it was raining and pretty chilly, but it was fun to walk around downtown Greenville a bit.
Then, we headed home! It was a great little getaway, making memories.
