bedandbreakfasts

While staying at The Yellow House, we took all day Saturday, May 30th to explore Asheville, North Carolina. Unfortunately I had a lot of writing to do, so after we finished breakfast on the porch of the inn, we drove to a coffee shop in downtown Asheville.

waking-life-hand-brewed-coffee-and-espresso-1528404 2 — Photo Credit: roadtrippers.com

Waking Life Espresso was exactly what we needed to get our work done while in the mountains. This little coffee shop is located in a remodeled house and is light filled and airy. In the front there are bar seats and in a smaller room in the back there are couches and a table. The coffee was no-frills and especially delicious. To see how serious they are about their coffee, watch this video.

I worked on my articles and Dustin just hung out. (Perhaps working? I’m not sure.) At about 2:00pm, we drove the ten minutes to The Biltmore, the main attraction for the day.

When I was a little girl, I remember visiting The Biltmore. This mansion is known as the largest privately owned house in the United States. It’s interesting because Dustin had also been there with his parents when he was eighteen. We remembered bits and parts (like the indoor swimming pool) but wanted to go together. The Yellow House was about thirty minutes from Asheville, where The Biltmore is located.

The price tag was enough to shy us away, but we decided since we were close we should go. My love for interiors and art history really helped to sway the decision to drop the $120 ($60 per ticket) and spend the day there. I also used my vacation money to buy the tickets.

Words and pictures really don’t do this place justice. It took hours to tour and there was a room dedicated to arranging flowers. The Vanderbilt’s, who owned the home, were fascinating people who loved art and each other. An example of architecture from The Gilded Age, the mansion has 252 rooms.

Pictures and videos are prohibited of the inside. George Vanderbilt shared a love for technology and entertaining guests. It was really interesting to see the parallels between the couple, George and Edith, and us. He loved technology and had electricity throughout the home and Edith loved books and taking care of guests. You should see her library! It reminded me of the library in Beauty and the Beast! This couple was madly in love and took the best care of those they employed. Even the servants quarters were nice!

Dustin and I found ourselves staring on multiple occasions at the craziness of it all. The massive dining room had three fireplaces and there were separate rooms dedicated to guns, smoking, and games. I personally loved seeing the restored furniture and paintings by famous artists.

You can easily spend more than a day at The Biltmore. Along with the mansion, there is shopping, dining, a winery, hiking trails, gardens, and entertainment. There are hotels on site and even tours for taking horseback rides. We didn’t have enough time to see everything, but after going through the mansion we enjoyed the gardens for a bit. We drove over to Antler Hill Village where there were shops and a winery. While there, there was also live music in the center gazebo.

We brought our own snacks and got an appetizer at Cedric’s Tavern located at the Antler Hill Village. We had hoped to eat dinner at Cedric’s, but after seeing the menu, nothing seemed that good. The place was over-priced. Since we were hungry and still had more to see, we ordered an appetizer. It was way too salty and not very good. After wasting $20 on an appetizer and water, we asked for our bill.

The winery wasn’t anything too special. We tried a few wines but didn’t like waiting in line. (Wine tasting is free with your ticket.) After buying a book about the mansion, we left to eat somewhere outside of the park.

Overall, it was a really neat experience. A $60 ticket only included admission to the mansion and property. The audio tour was an additional amount and there were other behind-the-scenes tours we didn’t take. I felt that the $60 ticket was fine for us. We saw plenty and I purchased a book to learn even more.

Dustin and I said we loved it, but wouldn’t go back anytime soon. It was one of those places that you go once and don’t need to keep going back. I would like to see it decorated for Christmas though. The property was very romantic.

In the future, we’d go back if we had kids. It’s one of those places that’s so out of this world, but very expensive. If you plan on going, eat ahead of time or bring snacks. We left and ate at an amazing place called The White Duck Taco.

While walking about, we acted like we owned the place. We laughed and told stories about our day to day lives as millionaires. It was fun to dream.

Above, Dustin always carrying my purse while I take pictures. Haha.

You could go and spend a day just going through the gardens. It felt like I was transported into the book The Secret Garden. It was hot and we were hungry so we only walked a short ways and drove the rest. I don’t usually suggest buying more than a one day ticket, but for The Biltmore, it would be worth it.

This stop on May, 30th was one of our favorite places on our Southern Road Trip. To see an overview of all we did on this vacation, click here!

Have you been to Asheville? Have you seen the massive Christmas tree at The Biltmore?

Love & Laughter,

Tiffany

A few months ago Dustin and I were both feeling jittery and wanted to travel. Unfortunately our car wasn’t really reliable and Dustin couldn’t take any time off work. As I sat at my desk looking longingly at Groupon Getaways, I realized we would have to wait quite awhile until we could go on a trip just the two of us. Then, both sets of parents offered us opportunities we couldn’t decline!

First, my mum and stepdad were headed to Myrtle Beach at the beginning of May. They invited us to come with them. Since our car couldn’t make the trip (probably)** we rode with them and spent five nights right on the beach. It was relaxing, even though we both worked during the trip.

That’s the beauty of working from home…you can work from anywhere!

We ate a lot of delicious food and I’m pretty sure I inhaled 30+ hushpuppies all by myself. I hadn’t launched the blog yet and wasn’t taking a lot of photos BUT I’m thinking I might go back and write about a few of the places we got to visit.

Right before the trip to Myrtle Beach, Dustin’s parents invited us to go to Gatlinburg, Tennessee with them. I adore the mountains and have grown up going to North Carolina multiple times a year to visit family.

They hadn’t ever been there (gasp!)

Without hesitation we told them we would love to go. Later, my dad hopped on board and we all planned three nights in the mountains together. Now, I love spending time with family. BUT Dustin and I also wanted to take advantage of already being down South. I worked extra hard and saved enough money for us to stay at bed and breakfasts three extra nights to extend our vacation. Again, we had to work the whole time, but it was worth every second to be able to get away from home.

**Right before the trip I was out with some girlfriends. My mum dropped me off at Starbucks after we’d been carpooling. I put my keys in the ignition and the car wouldn’t go. After reaching out for help and trying to jump the car, we had to leave it there. Our car, which Dustin has had since he was in high school, had officially died. It was stressful because we were leaving for Tennessee within a few days and didn’t have a working car. We had also already paid for the bed and breakfasts ahead of time. After a lot of prayer and decisions we ended up purchasing a brand new car. This was a crazy situation for us. We’ve never thought we’d purchase a new car. So, I plan on writing about the situation later. The point is, we in fact, had a vehicle for our trip. This made it extremely more enjoyable and a special time.

Here’s an overview of our entire trip. In the next few posts I’ll be elaborating on each leg of our road trip down South!

Monday, May 25th:

We left in the morning and drove to Knoxville, Tennessee. While on the way, we stopped at Cumberland Falls. The falls is located in Kentucky and is known around the world for it’s moonbow, a rainbow which can be seem under a full moon.

Tuesday, May 26th:

We drove into the Smokey Mountains. Visited the Welcome Center, hiked to Laurel Falls, and checked out Cherokee, North Carolina. This was also our first night at our cabin. The cabin was massive. It had a game room with a pool table and arcade, four rooms, six bathrooms, four decks, a theatre room, and a hot tub. I’ll be writing more about it in an individual post.

Wednesday, May 27th:

Dustin got poison ivy. We ended up at Urgent Care. No matter, we still went to the Dixie Stampede in the evening.

For a more detailed story of Monday-Wednesday, click here!

Thursday, May 28th:

This was a busy day. We visited the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Aquarium, walked downtown Gatlinburg, rode the Ober Gatlinburg Aerial Tramway, and ate at The Old Mill.

The post, The Old Mill Restaurant, an Aerial Tramway, Ripley’s Aquarium & Goats on a Roof will fill you in on all the details.

Friday, May 29th:

After saying farewell to the family, we rode an alpine roller coaster (crazy) and worked for the afternoon at Starbucks.

We drove about an hour and a half to Waynesville, North Carolina. Here we checked into our room at The Yellow House Bed and Breakfast.

This stay deserves its on individual post and more pictures! (Click here for the post: Two Nights at The Yellow House On Plott Creek) The home was so beautiful and the grounds were kept pristine. I found this deal on Groupon.

Saturday, May 30th:

We woke up and found a fun coffee shop to work at in Asheville, North Carolina. After working we headed over to The Biltmore, the largest privately owned home in the United States. It took us the entire day to explore the home and grounds. It was one of the coolest things I’ve done. See: Acting Like Millionaires & Exploring The Biltmore in Asheville

Sunday, May 31st:

After enjoying another delicious breakfast at The Yellow House, we left and headed back to Pigeon Forge. We purchased tickets for a ~~terrifying~~ bi-plane ride. We rode with a pilot that had explored the world. In the short amount of time we talked with him, we learned he had lived on a boat, owned a post card store, lived currently in Key West, and that he had restored this vintage plane himself!

Don’t let this smiling picture fool you…I was kinda about to pee my dress.

Riding on the bi-plane was amazing. Hold tight for more pictures and a more detailed account of the ride!

Later in the evening we headed to another bed and breakfast. Unfortunately this one wasn’t really that great. For many reasons, which I’ll hit on later, it was kinda a bummer.

BUT, there were puppies there! Here’s a picture!

Monday, June 1st:

We ended up stopping to work at another coffee shop on our way back, we also decided to stay another night in a hotel to break up the driving and swim in the pool.

So, there’s the overview. Keep tuned into Poeticlaughter for more pictures and details of the journey. Have you been to Gatlinburg? What’s you’re go-to thing to do there?

Also, since we were driving a lot, we ate a lot of road trip snacks. I munched on goldfish, luna protein bars (cookie dough), and bananas. What are you’re go-to snacks for on the road?