Summer Mountain Trip

Recently Glenn's mom and stepdad purchased a condo in North Carolina. They arrived last week from Texas and asked us to come up for a few days. On Friday we loaded the Yukon and headed that way. We absolutely love their new place and loved being in the mountains. Glenn and I both thought we were "beach people" and now we realize that we could very easily be "mountain people", too. The trip was so much fun --- they were wonderful hosts. Ben had a blast! We look forward to many more weekends up there!

On Friday we checked out the place, got settled in, ran a few errands and rested. On Friday evening we joined two sets of their friends and drove to this neighborhood, Ramble, in Asheville for an outdoor concert. This community was gated and beautiful. The theme was "English" so most of the homes were Tudor or cottage (albeit large cottage!) style. In addition to the ampitheater where we picnicked during the concert there were basketball courts where Ben spent hours playing with other kids. He LOVED it.

Saturday was stormy and rainy but it didn't stop us. After a wonderful breakfast cooked by Fred we drove up to Jump Off Creek for the view (and we could see the sheets of rain a few mountains over). From there we headed to the curb market where I got four jars of jellies, two salsas and BBQ sauce...yummy! Then it was on to downtown for shopping and bear sighting. They currently have these themed bears ("Yogi Beara"; Statue of LiBEARty, etc....very cute) all over downtown and we took at least one picture of each one. We lunched at a neat place called The Living Room that a friend from church recommended. After a few hours of resting and more rain and storms, we ended the day with dinner at Umi, a sushi restaurant. There we learned that, unlike Glenn and me, Ben is quite adept a chopsticks and like us, he LOVES sushi!

Though we had to head back on Sunday (to get ready for another trip!) we enjoyed breakfast at Mean Mr. Mustard, a Beatles themed restaurant, and then headed for a brief visit with the goats at Carl Sandburg's house. (I can't wait to go back here to visit and hike on the next trip!) Glenn's mom's friend, Gwen, volunteers there and took us to "meet" all the goats and gave us a ton of information on them. It was so much fun!

It was a great weekend and I took probably 100 pictures. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the slideshow to work and instead picked my favorites. They are not in order, which is totally against my methodical and organized nature, but Blogger is being a pain tonight!

All of us after playing with the goats

Glenn and Ben petting one of the babies

view at Carl Sandburg site

sitting area at the condos

view from the upstairs balcony after the storm

storm on the mountain

the bears throughout downtown

Top 3: Ramble and picnicking there; Jump Off Rock; the Wright's condo; Glenn and Ben's favorite place ---in the recliners, in front of the TV with the remote control fan!