The Hatke's: Vacation Part 1: Asheville/Stupid Biltmore

So the first part of vacation was stopping in Asheville, North Carolina and staying a day there. As I said in an earlier post we planned to go to the Biltmore Estate again. Well since the last time we were there they had made some changes. When you enter the property you drive about a mile or 2 into it and then you have to turn and park by this new building that was built. At this building you have to purchase tickets in order to proceed to the house and winery, etc. Well they were charging $60 a person to tour the house and winery! I can understand them at that price but we did not want to take the tours. We have already done the tours and we did not want to spend $120 if Caedmon decides to be a pain in the ass and we have to leave before we are finished. We just wanted to go to the winery and the new shops they have there now and just walk around and look at the pretty grounds and maybe have some lunch. What I don't understand is why they can't charge like say $20 to $25 to just get on the grounds with no tours. So that pissed us off. F U Biltmore!

So instead we went to Asheville Brewing Company and had some beers and good food. We actually had a really good time there and had nice conversation with our waiter. And Caedmon was really good the whole time we were there. I had an awesome quesadilla and Tanner had an awesome burger. And then we went to the Asheville Arboretum and saw nice gardens there. Basically did things that we were going to do at Biltmore. Saw gardens and went to grocery store and picked up some Biltmore wine.

I will end with one thing funny I said at the Arboretum. They had an education center there and Tanner asks want to go look around in the education center? I said no I don't want to be educated. Ha!