Last weekend we made a last-minute decision to go to York because it was such a beautiful day. Aliya and I walked in the Quannopowitt 5K in memory of my coworker’s wife, so we were half-way to Maine anyway. We took Ben’s niece Rasha along, who is visiting from Holland. Ben forgot Aliya’s bathing suit so he had to go buy her one and she fit into a women’s size small. Ok…time is starting to fly now.

We left Asheville Friday morning to make the short (3-hour) trip to Grassy Cove, Tennessee. We said that we’d be there around dinner time, so we decided to stop at the Knoxville Zoo (yet another freebie). It’s a really nice zoo but we were kind of getting zooed-out. The kids still had fun, and the highlight was the gorilla who was ticked off that he couldn’t go outside and kept hitting the door and running and sliding on the hay in his enclosure. We finally left the zoo at 5ish and drove the rest of the way to my brother and sister-in-law’s house. My mother and stepfather are also here so the kids have lots of people to entertain them.

Today we went to the Fiddlers’ Jamboree in Smithville, Tennessee. After listening to kids playing bluegrass music all day, Aliya has finally decided on her instrument for lessons next year – the violin. It was a fun day but SO HOT. I don’t remember when I’ve ever sweated that much in my life. We stopped for dinner on the way home and everyone is finally asleep again. Ahhhhh.

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Thursday morning Aliya and I headed off to the Biltmore Estate with my industry friend Rachel.  The Biltmore is the largest single-family home in the US…it’s still family-owned even though it’s more like a museum and nobody lives in the house any more.  It was originally built as a country retreat for George Vanderbilt and his wife, Edith, and later their only child, Cornelia.  The house is 175,000 square feet, with 250 rooms, 34 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces.  Originally there were 125,000 acres of land…it currently sits on 8,000 acres.  It is AMAZING…words really can’t describe how beautiful it is.  They don’t allow photos to be taken inside the house, so I can’t even SHOW you how beautiful it is!

After our tour of the Biltmore, we had Mexican food for lunch at Neo Cantina, and went to the Western North Carolina Nature Center (another freebie with our Museum of Science membership).  It was good for the kids to run around a bit and they got to see some less-common animals – African wild dogs, wolves, and they really liked the river otters swimming around against the glass.  After a nap we went to downtown Asheville for dinner at the Mellow Mushroom, and walked around town a bit.  It reminds me a lot of Cambridge Mass – lots of live music on the streets, artsy people hanging out, just a really great vibe.