The day after the Biltmore, we decided to go to the Biltmore Village. Turned out to be more of an outdoor mall. Too commercialized for us, so we decided to head for Dog Welcome Center, the first of it's kind, which was also in the downtown Biltmore area.

The dogs got to scrounge around in the pet store part and we received a welcome to the city package which contained all kinds of dog friendly information about the area, doggie poop bags, and free doggie treats.

After we left the dog welcome center, we headed for the Grovewood Arts Gallery and Antique Car Museum. It was on a county club and we saw a lot of beautiful garden art.

We went over to the Antique Car Museum. The owner wanted pictures of the dogs in front of his mumuseum. He had put his fourteen year old dog to sleep two days before and was very taken with our dogs. The dogs happily obliged.

The car museum was very cool with lots of very nice cars. There was an MG TD 1950 which was one year newer than the one we owned in 1968. We had to sell it in 1970 after we had our second child.

After we left the car museum and checked out the local Appalachian artwork, we headed downtown for lunch. Being from Colorado, we thought it only fitting that we have lunch at the Wicked Weed restaurant.

I tried boiled peanuts for the first time (not bad!) and pickled okra (meh!).

When we went back to the campground, it was buzzing with activity. Apparently, it has over 200 campsites and they were all full for Mothers' Day weekend. Kids were everywhere on bikes and interestingly enough, they weren't wearing helmets. I think I saw two kids with helmets. They were hunting for and finding little painted rocks which had been hidden around the campgrounds. In the morning, I found one at our site with a dog paw and a heart on it. I hid it on a kid's chair at the next site over. That evening, there was an ice cream social and bingo at the camp. I went to the big tent for bingo which was hilarious. So many little kids sitting on their parents' laps, teenagers, and old folk, all having a great time at bingo. I did not win but it was sure fun for $2.00!

Today, we went to the North Carolina Arboretum, where we again saw many local crafts. Some really talented people in this area. I was waiting for Guy to come out of the store when a huge black snake came out of the bushes and slowly made it's way across the entrance to the store. People from N. Carolina merely stepped across it and went into the store. They told me it was just a black snake and not a very big one at that. Looked pretty big to me! Arlo was very interested in it but Annie didn't even give it a second glance.

There was a bonsai exhibition so we headed over to check it out. They had several different trees and even a couple of forests.

 

After we checked out the bonsai, we took the dogs over to the train exhibit. The

dogs weren't particularly interested in the trains. The trains were set up outside with a sweet little village. The main engine was Thomas the Train. Pretty funny!