Asheville

Last week was... well, crazy. I was trying desperately to finish the kitchen while I had a warm week. All I have left now is half of the doors... yeah, that's all. It made me sore sanding everything. I got hit by a car. (I was standing right behind mine waiting for Everett to get out when she hit me. It didn't hurt but did make me a little sore the next day, not to mention indignant.) And then Wednesday, I woke up with some serious chest pains. Thankfully a friend watched the kids while I went to the Dr. to discover it was reflux. The meds kicked in and by Friday I felt much better. Friday I also got the house and saw dust cleaned up. At about 1am Friday morning, I picked Chad's mom and brother up from the airport. I packed up and Chad and I left town after he got home from work. So, yeah, crazy week. With each day, I clung more and more to our weekend plans for sanity.

Friday, we drove to Asheville, NC. There's a conference there that Chad wanted to take me to. He only needed an hour of continuing ed credits. And we hadn't used any of the money the company gives pays for his CE. So kind of, we got a nearly free weekend together. He got his mom and brother to come up and babysit. So we drove out to the Grove Park Inn where the conference was held, where we'd be staying. Anyone who'd ever heard of it oohed and ahhhed over the opportunity to stay there. And everyone expressed excitement at getting to go to Asheville. I'd been wanting to go ever since the conference last year and hearing how pretty it is out there. And after the week I'd had, I was very much looking forward to it.

The car's been acting odd though and the check engine light came on not long after leaving. But we made it there safely, late Friday night. We found the room disappointing.

Don't get me wrong, it's pretty; it's nice, but you can find nice for half the price. We were expecting jacuzzi tub or a better bed, something to make it stand out and be worth the $300/night. There are rooms that fit those expectations, but for a lot more $ of course.

The next morning Chad and I had breakfast at the conference and then went to find out where the hot tub was. It's in their world class spa. And get this; they don't just charge for spa services, they charge an $80 cover just to get in! (Not sure if that's per person or couple, or if that's discounted because we had a room there. Regardless, $40 just to use the hot tub and pool? Really?) Peeved at the rip off, we killed an hour before his class. We wondered a bit before settling in rocking chairs in front of the fire. Look at this insane fireplace in the great hall!

The great hall was pretty massive and impressive. There were two of these insanely huge fireplaces. The kindling looked like logs we put in our normal fireplaces.

There were hidden quotes all around the place. This was one of many built into the fireplaces. The elevators were also hidden in the side of it to mask the noise and aesthetic. My favorite quote was in the frame of the mirror in our bathroom: "The sun will shine after every storm." - Emerson.

During class, I mostly wandered around taking pictures. It was fun because it was so pretty with all of the beautiful mountains, fall colors and landscaping!

And here's that world famous spa.

And the view up from the spa. Kinda surprised they didn't kick me out from the landing.

The hotel was beautifully decorated for Christmas. There were trees in each window along the main halls. Each one was very different and very beautiful. The main tree was most beautiful of all. Oddly though, it was downstairs just outside the conference.

There were trolly rides and tours through the hotel. It's historic. And almost all of the furnishings were original to the arts and crafts era.

And there was occasional wrought iron, which I love.

Along with playing like a photographer, I did a bit of shopping. Later, I sat outside in the warm sun to do a word search. After all that, Chad's class still wasn't over, so I went upstairs to lay down. I wasn't tired though, and realized I hadn't checked out the Sports complex, where I was allowed to go for the price of our room. Instead, I discovered a few out buildings.

The owner of the Grove Park Inn, Mr. Seely bought part of Biltmore Industries, and built these buildings to move production there. Now they're home to a cafe, an artists' shop, a very small history museum of sorts where I learned about the out buildings, and an antique car museum. The artists' store was fun to look at with unique things.

Then it was lunch time. I met Chad. We ate at the conference. Afterwards we headed out to see Biltmore Estates. We thought we'd tour around until dark and get to see the Candlelight Christmas, see it all lit up. I went in to buy tickets, only to find out it's $70 PER PERSON just to get on the grounds! Extra for a tour guide, automated or real, extra for the candlelight presentation, extra for the attached village, etc, etc. We really wanted to see it and didn't have a backup plan. So we thought about it for a long time but decided that seeing a big beautiful house wasn't worth $140+ Perhaps it is, as they have no shortage of patrons, but still. I suppose that's what we get for trying to pretend we're rich. Haha. We went back to the hotel to find something else to do. I'd tried to have a good attitude, but I was so mad and disappointed by this point I didn't want to do anything. We ended up just going to the sports complex and swimming a little. After that we went out to a local pub for dinner that was priced right and yummy!

The next morning, I wanted to see the mountains a bit or something. But Chad was itchy to get home to the kids. We added oil to the poor decrepit car, got breakfast out (since the hotel doesn't even offer that to its guests) and gas and came home in time to visit a little before taking the family back to the airport.

Ok so it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. But we did enjoy a beautiful and relaxing weekend. We were spoiled by not having responsibilities and by having so much time just to be together. And now we know not to waste the $ to stay there for future conferences.