Well, Cynthia surprised me when she made arrangements for a trip to Asheville, NC for my 70th birthday. She also made arrangements to have some of my Boston Family meet us there and that was the biggest surprise. In particular, Hope and Stephanie said that they could not make it because of some problems Steph was having, but lo and behold, I almost passed out when they drove up to my car at the Candlewood Suites Hotel. Above is a picture of the Blue Ridge Mountain Range taken from the rooftop of our hotel. Denise and Bill came making it the best birthday ever. Sylvia was able to accompany me on the trip and although they came late, Erica and Michelle joined the group to complete the fun.
I have to show this group picture of the Cornerstone restaurant because we ended up eating there three times (we were only in Asheville 3 days, not counting travel days) while we were there. The food was great, but the service was outstanding and they were able to accommodate our big group without difficulty. Plus, it was practically just across the street (about a quarter mile down the road).
And then came THE BILTMORE HOUSE...
The Thursday after we arrived, we had a busy day. We started with a tour of the Biltmore House, billed as America's largest house built by the Vanderbilt Family. The house and grounds were huge and sprawling. Honestly, a day doesn't do it justice. You'd need to spend several days exploring this place and the surrounding grounds.
After spending not nearly enough time at the main house, we took off for Antler Hill Village for a wine tasting session, followed by a Red Wine and Chocolate Tasting Tour. It was all upscale and fabulous.
But we didn't have much time to slow down because we also scheduled a Ghost Tour at 7:00 p.m. with "Uncle Ted" and the Greyline Bus Tour. I, for one, was a little glad that we were on a bus, because I was getting a little worn out. (After all, I was nearly 70! by this time.) But Uncle Ted talked for about 75 minutes showing us some of the haunted sites around Asheville. Some of it was hokey, some of it passably believable, but all of it interesting.
The next day was July 1! The most important day of the year to me because I was born on this day. I realize that no one else feels the same way about that day, but that's their problem. Of course, I'm just kidding, because all day long, everyone made me feel very special and kept telling everyone they met that it was my birthday. It was actually getting a little bit embarrassing. After breakfast at the Cornerstone Restaurant, where the waitress not only gave me some birthday cake with a candle in it, but also a brief "lap dance", we went downtown to explore the stores and shops. One of my favorites was the Woolworth Walk. It had a diner that was preserved like the diners of yesteryear. We even had shakes made. I remember them costing a lot less in the 60's. I also bought a printed photo from one of the artists there at the facility as a souvenir to hang in my house.
There were multiple other shops, stores and bars that we visited that afternoon. These included pastry shops, woodworking places, chocolate stores and even CBD/THC/Head shops. We all loaded up on gummies that we were unable to get in our respective hometowns.
Below, we shared some drinks at the Battery Park Book Exchange in the Arcade Building! Having told the waitress that I got a "lap dance" earlier for my birthday, she obliged with a "floating man" dance while serving us! It was a pretty good simulation!
As the evening approached 5:00, we ambled over to what we thought was our restaurant, the Tupelo Honey, for my birthday dinner. As it turned out, there were two locations for that restaurant, and our reservation was for a different location. Fortunately, two doors down, there was this great Cajun Restaurant called Mayfel's that was happy to accommodate a party of 12. The service, drinks and the food were fantastic! All I can say is all's well that end's well because we had a truly wonderful meal and evening. I honestly had one of the most wonderful family birthdays of my life!
This last group picture to the left was taken at the BAKED PIE COMPANY. Yep, you heard me right! When you walked in, you got the smell of all of the wonderful pies that had been made. And the beauty of it was that you didn't have to settle for just one type of pie. You could get a palette with several small slices of different pies on it. Believe it or not, there was so much, I couldn't eat it all. Fortunately, they had plenty of to-go containers! By the way, notice that everyone in the picture looks extremely happy. Wouldn't you be if you just walked into the BAKED PIE COMPANY!!!
Since I had about 50 pictures sent to me from everyone on the trip, I put the rest in a slide show (below) . If you move the mouse pointer over the thumbnail photo below the larger picture, it will give you a little discription of the content of the photo. Enjoy!
