An ADD Look at Time Away

On Sunday when we checked in at the Inn we were asked if we would like to upgrade to a mountain view room.  Roy and I had done that at Christmas and we were happy that we did.  So Dena and I decided to fork over a little extra to the Inn for the delightful mountain view.  We were not disappointed.  We got a 6th floor room which is almost as good as it gets.  After the bell man brought up our luggage, we were not ones to stick around the room and unpack, we were off to Antler Hill Village.  We perused Traditions and I made mental notes of some things to purchase later and then we headed to Cedric's for dinner.  Cedric's serves the best pretezel bread and mustard butter.  One could almost make a meal out of it.  We had the white pimento cheese appetizer and the farmer's salads for dinner.  Delicious!  Our plans had included stopping by the creamery for dessert but alas, they had already closed.  We took the shuttle back to the Inn and settled in unpacking and planning for our first full day.  When I was in college, I took a lot of classes scheduled 10:30 am and on.  That is how we scheduled our tours.  That gave us time to ease into the day and sup at the breakfast buffet.  Maybe that should be brek at the breakfast buffet.  So you know, I'm a grits girl and the best grits I have ever eaten are on the breakfast buffet, every morning.  Oh yes, there were those who dined at breakfast on oatmeal and granola, but we were not those girls.  We only darkened the door of the fitness center to pick up small bottled waters for the day.  I did think it was ironic that here at the Inn and the Estate are lovely jogging and walking trails, yet some would rather run on a treadmill to no where.  Really, I shouldn't even comment on this since I was neither walking on a treadmill or on the paths.  Just call me Nancy 'I'll take the shuttle' Monarch.  I digress.... OMG, the waffles there are outstanding, come on follow me here, I'm back to breakfast and the eggs, fruit, bacon and various pastries were out of this world.  I'm sure the cereal was as well.  One morning there was roasted veggies, other times cheese binzes and one day I did have to pass by the oatmeal.  Ugh!  If you are a coffee drinker and I am or if you are a coffee gourmet and that would be Dena, the Biltmore coffee is the BEST!  I don't know if George or Edith (Vanderbilt) grew coffee on the estate or not, but wherever they purchase this coffee from, it must be from coffee heaven. 

Maybe I can get Dena to guest blog about our meeting Edward.  He is a busboy and server at The Dinning Room.  He and Dena got the conversation started because my back was to the "clique" of women in the center of the room. Their presence demanded attention.  I did notice that none of them were eating breakfast, so you know I was totally not interested in meeting them.  Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and by cracky it's a great way to start a Biltmore day  One queen bee and the seven trophy worker bees.  We found out later in the week they were from Texas.  Ah by their fruits ye shall know them and we should have known they were Texans  just from the hair.  I'm thinking Dallas area but most of them were from around the Tomball area.  Most were Aggies, but since I traveled with an Aggie, I'm not going there.  Whoops!

So when we got to the house after the lovely shuttle run, we didn't tour the house then but rather just went through enough of it to get in line to have our pictures made.  Then we were off to shop until we did the Legacy of the Land tour.  If you perchance, purchase anything in the shops and don't want to carry the bags around with you, they will hold them and then deliver them later in the evening to your room at the Inn.  We did grab a quick bite, yes I know we had the big breakfast but hey shopping requires energy and calories, we got one of my all time favorites, a hot dog.  This isn't just any hot dog but a Carolina dog with all the toppings which includes cole slaw.  Don't knock it until you try it and I almost forgot one of the most important parts of the dog, the bun is made out of that pretzel bread that was mentioned in a previous paragraph. 

After a full and fun afternoon, we moszied via shuttle back to the Inn.  We went out to the Terrace, we strolled a bit and finally headed to our room.  We couldn't decided where to eat dinner and since an important episode of DWTS was on, we opted for room service.  You cannot go wrong with a hotel hamburger Dena, who is a world wide traveler told me and she was so right.  We split the burger and the fries and it seems like we had something else and it was all good.  And so was DWTS.