North Carolina - Asheville -Blondie

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Aberdeen Inn 8/3/07) Another beautiful day on the Blue Ridge Parkway. A stop at the Maybury Appalachian Mill with the family cabin and other period buildings makes you appreciate the comforts we take for granted. We took a side trip to Blowing Rock, a beautiful little village very "artsy." It looked like a great place to browse however, once again underestimating travel time meant a quick stop at the actual Blowing Rock, the wind blows up from the valley, and a highway route to get to Asheville for check-in. Unfortunately this meant not finishing the last part of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Our first impression of the neighborhood location of the Inn was "is this the right place?!" The Inn however is very clean, comfortable and our innkeepers, Tom and Marilyn, very personable and friendly. They only took the Inn over last week having run a bed and breakfast in Chicago. Three days after moving in they had a full house! Tom has been here helping the former owner who was ill. From all indications they are planning to make major renovations and improvements to the property. A gourmet breakfast was enjoyed at least by me since Sylvan failed to tell Tom, when asked on arrival, that he didn't like vegetables and today's breakfast was a wonderful omelet with broccoli, asparagus and something else green Syl doesn't eat. Speaking of Sylvan he left about 9:30 for a short hike and hasn't returned yet. Hope he isn't lost. Oh well when he gets back we're heading to the Biltmore Estate to see how the other half used to live.
We drive over to the Biltmore estate and are overwhelmed by this great American home. Biltmore now open to the public but is still operated by the family. This is the largest home in the country and the guided tours of the home take you through this wonderful home and tell you some of it's marvelous history. The home has over 60,000 square feet of living area and once had over 200,000 acres of land. We find out that tonight is a Blondie concert on the lawn so get tickets and finish out a full day of hiking, touring and music.

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Photos

North Carolina
Entering on the Skyline Drive

Biltmore
Blondie concert on the lawn

Biltmore
Blondie