It was Gavin's last day of pre-school on Friday, so that meant his program at 9:45am and then a class picnic with the families at 11:30am. Before school I wanted a picture of Gavin with his teachers. They had to bribe him with a Skittle, so I could get at least one picture!!
Gavin doesn't really participate in anything when he has to get up in front of a lot of people. Poor kid. The good thing is that he won't give a tantrum and stand up there screaming. Instead, he stands there with this look on his face that says, "This is the stupidest thing I've ever done and I am not having fun!" Miss Amy, the Music Teacher, does a great job with the kids. The hand motions that go along with the songs are cute and they even did a sign language song with no singing. Amazing!
Kim and I think alike! We dressed our boys in the same shirts without even knowing it.
After Gavin's events were over we headed home to pack up. Cailean and I dropped off Gavin at the babysitter's house and then we were on our way to Asheville, NC for 2 nights to celebrate Cailean's 40th. I was very sad leaving Gavin because I've never been away from home that long. Poor Pekai, the babysitter. She had to deal with my tears!!!! I made sure Gavin didn't notice though.
My mom picked up Ian from school, then Cody at our house and then Gavin at the sitter's house. They spent 2 nights with "their Mimi" and LOVED it.
Friday night we drove around downtown Asheville and then had dinner at a great Italian restaurant. The weather wasn't all that great, so we couldn't really walk around outside. Saturday weather was great! We got a good early start and made it to Chimney Rock by 8:45am! We rode in the 26-foot elevator to the top of Chimney Rock and walked up the stairs to where the flag is in this picture. There is a webcam, so we called mom and she logged onto the website. They all got to see us...it was VERY cool!
This is the view from the top. It's looking out to Lake Lure, which is where "Dirty Dancing" was filmed!!
We decided to take a hike and go to Hickory Nut Falls (404 feet high), which is about a 45 minute hike. This area was in the movie, "Legends of the Fall." I think that's the name of the movie! LOL We had to head down these stairs first...
Then on a path and wow...this was incredible!!!
After driving to Lake Lure, we headed to the Biltmore. It was just about lunchtime and I saw the McDonald's that a friend mentioned. So, we stopped there for lunch and it was the most beautiful McD's I had ever been to!!! Inside was a baby grand piano playing songs (with nobody sitting there). I took a picture of it, but didn't post it!
We drove to the ticket office for the Biltmore and choked over the prices, so we left. This put me in a bad mood because I really thought the price was lower when I was scouting out places to go for Cailean's birthday weekend. Well, we decided to call AAA and we ended up driving a few miles to the nearest office to purchase our tickets at a very good deal. So, we went back to the estate to book our tour for Sunday morning, but since it was 3pm...we could go in Saturday afternoon AND Sunday. It was perfect! Saturday afternoon we toured everything else at the estate except the house and saved that for Sunday. It could easily take 5 hours to tour the entire area!
We visited the farm on the estate and Cailean took to this horse, Chester! We sampled a few different wines when we walked through the winery. Very tasty!
After we spent a few hours touring the area, we walked around downtown Asheville. It reminds me of Berkeley, CA and Burlington, VT. I was determined to people watch and sure enough...we did! We looked in a few stores and then had dinner at an Irish pub. Unfortunately we had a really bad experience there, but it was fun to watch all the different people roam the streets.
Sunday morning we had a good, early start and headed back to the Biltmore. This view is from one of the balconies and during the summer they have concerts in this area. Born and raised in Vermont you would think I wouldn't be too fascinated with the mountain view, but I took quite a few pictures of the view.
We toured the estate, which is beyond gorgeous and I took this photo while we headed back to the truck. We splurged and went with the audio tour and it was neat to hear all about the Vanderbilts and the estate.
We headed home, but wanted to stop at a furniture store in High Point to look for a new couch. We've been saving for one for quite awhile and thought it would be the perfect opportunity to stop in. Can you believe it was closed??? On a holiday! Argh. Anyway, we made it to mom's to get the boys and Cody and we got to hear all about the fun things they did with my mom and grandparents.
It was a great weekend getaway! We couldn't have gone if it wasn't for my mom though!
2 comments:
Although there were some mishaps, it sounds like you guys had fun and I'm glad you were able to get away and have alone time!!! :)
It was a lot of fun! The waiter was awful and sorta forgot us, which ticked me off. LOL
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