Abby and Mom took a girls trip together to celebrate her 8th grade graduation, and they had an amazing time! They went to Asheville where they stayed at a bed and breakfast, visited the Biltmore, went on a ghost tour, and took some beautiful hikes... and of course, they squeezed in a mini "Friends" marathon too! The memories they made together were priceless!
On their 4 hour drive to Asheville, they took a little detour on the Blue Ridge Parkway and found an awesome hiking spot with an amazing look out point called Craggy Gardens!
Abby got old-school with some map reading!
The one mile hike to the top of the lookout was so worth it!
It may not have been cold enough, but thankfully we packed some Fiji water... we definitely needed it!
After an awesome hike, we headed to check into our quaint bed and breakfast in downtown Asheville. It was actually built by the same architect as the Biltmore house... It was beautiful and a unique experience.
Our room was the Dogwood Room, and the house was so old that it had a separate staircase for the house staff!
Our room was also the one in the turret, so we had an amazing round room with a beautiful mural painted on our vaulted ceiling!
Abby had never seen a faucet quite this old, and wasn't even really sure what it was at first!
Our room even had a little sitting room off of it!
After checking in, we went to downtown Asheville for a stroll, dinner and an authentic ghost tour! It was so much fun, the stories were great, and the huge lightning and thunderstorm we got caught in at our last stop was a perfect ending to a spooky evening!
The next morning, we headed to the dining room for our "breakfast" part of our stay...
We had a yogurt parfait with homemade granola, a fruit course, and creme brulee french toast with fresh whipped cream. It was delicious!
Once filled up and the rain storm finally passed, we headed off to the Biltmore for the day to see the beautiful house, gardens and fun shops.
The views all around the castle were breathtaking, and we couldn't imagine what it must have been like to live there!
We headed to the gardens first, and while they were very nice, we don't think it was prime "garden season"...
The rose garden and azalea gardens were completely dead...
But we did find some life in the conservatory greenhouse, and it was beautiful!
We couldn't wait to get in the house for our audio tour and see how much it looked like Downton Abbey that we've started watching together...
From the entrance hall, we knew it was going to be as grand as everyone says...
The billiard room...
Breakfast and lunch room...
Main dining hall...
Abby's favorite room was the majestic library!
Mr. Vanderbilt's bedroom...
Mrs. Vanderbilt's bedroom...
Going under the house to see where the house help worked and where the activities were held was so interesting...
The bowling alley...
The fitness room...
And the indoor pool!
The house maid's rooms looked just like the ones on our show...
There were many rooms used to store the food and serving trays...
They had two dumbwaiters off the kitchen that went up to the main dining hall...
The main kitchen...
and the separate "meat" kitchen...
The staff's dining room was nowhere near as nice as the one upstairs!
The laundry room...
There were so many other rooms in the 250 room estate, but those were definitely some of the highlights for us!
After a lot of walking that day, we decided to get sushi for dinner, and since the bed and breakfast tables outside were full, we enjoyed a picnic in the car!
Then it was back to relax in the room and enjoy a 5 hour "Friend's" marathon before bed!
The next morning, we had fresh banana muffins and Mediterranean quiche for breakfast before heading back home...
We decided to go a little out of the way on our way back to check out Chimney Rock State Park for some hiking, and the roads through the mountains were crazy!!!!
We took a shuttle to the base of the rock, walked through a tunnel to the elevator which took us up 26 stories, and then after crossing the crosswalk bridge and climbing up a few stairs, we were there... It was definitely one of the easiest hikes of the trip and absolutely beautiful!
Our biggest adventure of the day was the hike into the famous Hickory Nut Falls... It was quite a hike, and weren't sure if we were going to make it, but it was beautiful to see and we're so glad we went! We were even happier to find an easier way back to the car other than having to go back up all the stairs we walked down to get to the trail!
What a beautiful ending to a fun mother-daughter trip filled with so many sweet memories!
