Five years ago this past week, we were married on the beautiful island of St. Lucia. Although much has changed in our lives since then (new home, new friends, new jobs, etc), the one thing that remains the same is our love for each other. Okay, cheesy, I know. But, hey, it’s true! All that we have been through over the past five years has done nothing but strengthen our relationship. So what better way is there to celebrate that love than to… GO KAYAKING! Just kidding… Believe it or not, with all the recent paddling activities, we both agreed that whatever we did for our anniversary, we would NOT take our boats! We envisioned an anniversary celebration that allowed just the two of us to get away from it all and just relax for a weekend. Well we found a place that made that possible. Just a couple hours down the road, there is a beautiful city tucked in the mountains that offers all the excitement visitors can enjoy or the perfect dose of relaxation and peacefulness if desired. This place is called Asheville and it’s located in West North Carolina.
We began our getaway on Friday morning and decided to check out a local BBQ festival upon arrival. The Blue Ridge BBQ Festival sounded like quite an event, so we figured some good BBQ never hurt anyone. After many winding roads south of Asheville, we finally found the festival site. It was a rather warm day, so sitting down in the shade while enjoying some prize-winning BBQ and cold drinks was just what the doctor ordered. We walked the festival for a bit, marveling at the fancy booths created by the ladies and gentlemen competing in the cookoff. Once we’d had all the sunshine we could endure for the day, we departed and were soon in route to our new abode for the weekend.
The Slow-Down Living Cottage was the PERFECT place to spend our anniversary! It was so cute, cozy, and remote. We began calling it our little IKEA place, as all the furniture, lighting, and dishes were IKEA products. The decoration was simple, yet classy and calming. We enjoyed evenings on the patio, soaking in the hot tub and reading in the window nook. This place allowed us to escape the rat race, commonly referred to as “daily life”.
After sleeping in and enjoying a wonderful home-cooked breakfast at the cottage, we decided to leave the country and be city folk for the day. We spent some time shopping in wonderful downtown Asheville. We were amazed by how alive the downtown area was! There were just blocks and blocks of shopping and food, with people everywhere! Even on a rainy day, the stores and restaurants seemed to be drawing the crowds. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch at The Bier Garden, which by the way had an entire menu for BEER! After explorations of downtown, we headed over to the Biltmore Village, where we did some more shopping. Shopping had us pretty tuckered out, so grabbing some takeout on our way back to the cottage was the perfect plan! We enjoyed a great meal from the Stoney Knob Restaurant, while relaxing at the house.
Sunday was the only day we really had planned on our getaway. It would be our Biltmore Day. Opened to friends in 1895, the original home of George W. Vanderbilt and family, the Biltmore House is America’s largest home. It has 250 rooms and took us about an hour and a half just to walk through the house. It has beautiful original artwork by famous artists, 16th century tapestries, an indoor swimming pool, an indoor bowling alley, and 65 amazing fireplaces! The grounds were absolutely beautiful! I can’t imagine having lived in such a place! This was quite an experience!
Overall, our romantic Asheville getaway was the perfect way to celebrate our 5 years of marriage!
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