Valentine's Day in Asheville...

The View from the House

From the Lawn

The Biltmore House

After dinner at Moose Cafe

Well, first of all, we missed the "blizzard" in Auburn as we retreated for a couple's weekend in beautiful Asheville, NC. Justin's grandparents (both sets) gave us money for Christmas and since we didn't "need" anything this year like I'm sure we will in the future once little ones come along, we decided to take a weekend vacation of somewhere romantic, yet affordable, so, Asheville, NC it was.

We left on Friday morning, thanks to ACS and AU for giving us Friday off for a snow day. We were able to have a whole other day on vaca! We got to Asheville in mid-afternoon and it had begun to snow. We walked around down town and window shopped and enjoyed snuggling with each other in book stores and an art gallery. By 5:30, the snow was really coming down, so we decided to park the car at the hotel and walk to the Fiddlin' Pig to have dinner. After getting stuffed, we walked back to the hotel to watch the Winter Olympics and read, snuggled in our King size bed, which is a treat since at home we still have just a full!

After sleeping in on Saturday morning, we went back to downtown and had breakfast. We chose this really modern, snazzy organic coffee shop where we enjoyed blackberry lemon muffins and I had the most heavenly vanilla chai latte ever. I am sure I will sip one of those every day in heaven! We then went to the Mass General Store, where we bought each others Valentine's Day presents. Justin got a new pair of Columbia pants and shorts, which he will use this summer during his research trip and Justin splurged, big time, to buy my these adorable, yet super sexy Clark wedges for the summer! I am now officially ready for spring!

We continued on our window shopping and enjoyed several used book stores, where I had to add we bought 7 new books for less than $20! Again, beach/pool side reading is in store...summer here yet?

We had the blessing of meeting the Dellingers for dinner at the Moose Cafe, which was phenominal. I had read about it in Southern Living and we enjoyed every bite of it! Everything is made from scratch...delicious!

Sunday morning Justin and I woke up and after sipping coffee, Justin asked if I would like to do a quiet time. We read James 5 and had our own little "Sunday School" lesson which was a wonderful way to start off the day. We then made our way to the Biltmore Estate! Justin has been there several times, but it was a first for me. I have to mention that I just read the book "Rebecca" and if you haven't read it, you should. It's considered a classic and was perfect timing for me to go to Biltmore. The time periods are very similar the in the book, the narrator's house, Manderley, is much like the Biltmore House! It is exquisite, to say the least, and we had a wonderful time learning about the history and art restoration that takes place in the house.

We got back on the road around 3:30 pm to come home to our sweet boy howling in his pin. We had such a wonderful time together this weekend. Lots of snuggles, good conversation, and simply a weekend away...