last weekend, stephen and i celebrated our 1 year together as well as his birthday by taking a roadtrip to asheville, nc. we had a great time! it was our first time visiting the city and we found there were so many things to like about it. the most amazing thing was asheville's landscape – the blue ridge mountains stretched out as far as the eye could see. we hiked along the blue ridge parkway and saw many beautiful flowers, trees and waterfalls. we also visited the biltmore estate, built by george vanderbilt in 1895. the amazing four acres of floor space is still the largest privately owned home in america today. it was incredible. the bele chere festival was happening, which drew about 500,000 people. we went to see train play and tasted samples of food from asheville's delightful restaurants. downtown asheville is flooded with fabulous local shops that exemplify the strong artistic culture here...i highly recommend asheville for a weekend getaway...
