We spent a mini-vacation in the mountains of Asheville in October, 2010, a few days after Daniel's birthday. The best part of it is that we brought Neo with us! NC is a more dog friendly place than CA. Dogs are allowed on many state trails. We stayed at the historic and elegant Blake house inn (www.blakehouse.com). The inn is pet-friendly. The inn keeper Leslie herself has two dogs and an old cat. She kept the old house in a good shape and has put many fine decorations on the house. The breakfast was also delicious. We enjoyed the stay very much, and were sure to return.
During the two-day vacation, we visited the Biltmore Estate, the Chimney rock park, and drove along Blue Ridge park way. The Biltmore Estate was boasted as the largest home in US. It charges an enormous price per entry, and still amazingly, attracts millions of visitors per year, a phenomenon that deeply puzzled us. We were not too impressed by it, and both thought the Hearst Castle we visited many years was better. Biltmore house's original owner lived a short life and his own heir was his daughter. The house was large and gloomy, and lacked many of the modern comforts. We didn't feel we'd enjoy living there despite its gigantic size. One nice thing about the Biltmore estate is that it has a self-service kernel, where we could live Neo while we visited the house, and picked him up while we visited the garden. The garden was extremely lush, although I like the fine manicured garden style better.
We then climbed the Chimney rock. To our surprise, Neo was such a good rock climber! He was so happy all the way. Other visitors couldn't help comment on it: Look at that Poodle! He's so happy. He's a real climber! It was the first real hiking trip that we brought him over. He jumped around, and often stood on a tall and big rock that we dared not to climb. Funny enough, people spotted us because of Neo. They said, oh, we saw you yesterday with your dog in the Asheville downtown. Again, he's more famous than us. :)
We then drove along the beautiful blue ridge park way and took a few shots at the fall colors.
It was a sweet and short trip. We enjoyed it very much.
