I am speed

If you don't have a young boy, you may not recognize the title of this post. It's a very prominent quote from none other than Lightning McQueen of Cars fame. To say our oldest loves Cars, might be an understatement. He loves all things Lightning McQueen. He's been obsessed with the character since before he could say it. It used to sound more like this, "Miker-Queen." So, we knew we'd want to spend one of our vacation days at a nearby amusement center that provided go-carts.

We started our morning with a great breakfast at Early Girl Eatery downtown. Asheville is a great town for anyone who loves food. The selection is eclectic, and their motto seems to focus on taking food from the farm to the table. Early Girl is one of those places that does it well. The grits were great and talk about a kid-friendly restaurant...they didn't just provide crayons, but a whole bucket of toys to entertain the boys. We explored downtown a little bit, including a stop at Mast General Store and a giant iron.

Later we returned to the Historic Biltmore Village. Jack enjoyed trying on some mean rain boots at Just Ducky, while I enjoyed shopping the clearance racks (60% off spring and summer). As I was racking up, the rain started up. Josh dashed across the village to retrieve the car, and I was able to get some great clothes and photos of the boys. (More on that later.)

Next stop was Fun Depot for racing cars and mini golf. Jack was truly beside himself and full of delight as he raced around the tight turns and fast bumps. Neither Josh nor I could remember seeing him so happy. He went twice, once with Josh and again with me. The rain stopped long enough for the outdoor track to dry up, and he and Josh got to drive the even faster cars, and delightfully passed the other one-seater cars on the track.

Fun Depot didn't disappoint Sam either. There was a pair of inflatables that he could have stayed in all day. We had to retrieve him twice, which was a lot simpler than coercing him out of the giant play structure. Imagine the hamster tubes at Chick-fil-A on steroids. The thing had multiple levels, twists and turns and a pair of tube slides. At first Sam was content to do a simple loop, climbing up, passing through one tube and down the slide...hence the photos I captured. Soon he figured out there was more to it, and he was perfectly happy to simply sit at the top and peer through the bubbled panel at everyone below. I sent Jack up to check on him and bring him down several times. Each time Jack came down the slide alone. I'd ask why he didn't bring Sam down to which he replied, "he didn't want to come." After yelling up the spiral tube slide for Sam proved fruitless, a kid a little older than Jack understood my plea. I assured him it was okay to give Sam a push. After some resistance, I heard the kid say, "bingo!" And Sam finally arrived at the bottom of the slide. I scooped him up and we moved on. I'd had enough of the hamster tubes for that day.

Whee!

"Sam...come on down, buddy!"

Maybe coming down is fun...

What a blast!