Erica

WEEK FIVE--Erica arrived on Sunday and we began a really jam packed week.  First on the agenda was a visit to the Biltmore Estates. Over the years, I have visited the Biltmore three times and have loved it each time. This time, there is an exhibit featuring the costumes from Titanic—really cool. Turns out George and Edith Vanderbilt were originally booked on the Titanic's maiden voyage but at the eleventh hour, they sailed on her sister ship, the Olympic. 

Workers were in the process of installing a Chihuly exhibit which opens on May 17th—definitely returning for that; but in the meantime, we were fortunate to see a couple of these beautiful glassworks already installed. 

Installation in process on the front lawn.

Outside the front entry.

In the atrium.

The gardens and conservatory were beautiful as well, and we sat in on an orchid growing workshop which was interesting too.

Rhodendrons - so beautiful!

A mound of thread leaf Japanese Maples.

Conservatory.

 

View from the Biltmore Mansion

Of course, I had to take her to my favorite art galleries including Grovewood Gallery. And while we were there, we went across the street to the Omni Grove Park Inn. It is fabulous with a really interesting history. It was built by E. W. Grove who manufactured pharmaceuticals--specifically, a product called Grove's Tasteless Chill Tonic, a quinine elixir to prevent malaria. In the late 1800s, it became a household staple making Grove a fortune. Grove suffered from bronchitis and was told by his doctor that the clean mountain air of western North Carolina would offer him relief. While living in Asheville he gradually acquired the 408 acres that would later house The Grove Park Inn and set about creating a grand luxury resort. The Inn was actually designed by his son-in-law Fred Seely, opened in 1913. and over the next few decades hosted many famous people including Thomas Edison, Helen Keller, Harry Houdini, F. Scott Fitzgerald and several US presidents. Architecturally, it is an example of American Arts and Crafts style and its furnishing were all Mission Style and built by the New York state Roycrofters, one of the most important designers and manufacturers of American Arts and Crafts furniture of the time. It fell into disrepair after WWII  and was no longer operated as a hotel. It wasn't until 1955 when it was purchased by Sammons Enterprises that it was restored to its original use as a luxury hotel. Since then, renovations have included two new wings and a $50 million spa. In 2013, the property was purchased by Omni Hotels.

Grovewood Gallery where some 900 artists/crafter
from across the United States are represented.

Hare Sculpture at the Gallery Entry.

Omni Grove Park Inn which opened its doors in July 1913.

Original Arts and Crafts light fixture.

We also went to the Southern Highland Craft Guild Folk Art Center. Begun in 1903, the guild is a collection of 900+ artists from Maryland to Alabama who came together to create a market for mountain craftspeople. The artwork is spectacular. Erica and I both bought a variety of wonderful wood carved spoons and serving pieces.

We hiked to two incredibly beautiful waterfalls: Rainbow Falls and Whitewater Falls. Rainbow Falls is 150' tall and is in a temperate rainforest and gets 90+ inches of rain each year. Most days there is a rainbow visible in the mist. This falls is unique because hikers can see it from the bottom, top and back.

Rainbow Falls

Erica & I.

     

Jim, Zoey & I on the way to Rainbow Falls.

                                   

Whitewater Falls is 811' from top to bottom and is the tallest falls east of the Mississippi. We descended 150 steps to get as close to the bottom as possible. While I'm taking pictures from the viewing platform the old-fashioned way, a man next to me was launching his drone to take his pictures.

150 steps down and 150 steps up!

  

Quilt Garden.

And, we went to the North Carolina Arboretum. I first visited the arboretum when Alicia was here but because that was a few weeks ago, new plants were in bloom and the bonsai collection had been moved outdoors so it was almost a totally new experience.

Arboretum entryway.

Cool bonsai specimen.

I took a Fermentation Class this week as well and learned how to make sauerkraut, kimchi and kombucha. After the class, I met Erica at Rosetta's a terrific vegetarian restaurant that has kombucha on tap—how cool is that? We ordered a flight and sampled 6 different flavors.

On Saturday, Erica had to return to Baltimore so we drove her to the Charlotte Airport and then went to the US National Whitewater Center for lunch. This is an outdoor recreation and athletic training facility for whitewater rafting, kayaking, canoeing, rock climbing, mountain biking and hiking. There are also zip lines and bungee jumping. It is an official Olympic Training Center for whitewater slalom racing. While we ate lunch, we could watch rafters and kayakers navigate the world's largest, recirculating artificial white water river. (What can I say? Art galleries, waterfalls, hiking, beer, food, repeat. I did get to play golf a couple of times, including the Donald Ross course at Black Mountain which has a 747 yard, par 6 hole. I made par...) 

US National Whitewater Center.

Climbing wall.

Ziplining.

Home Alone!

WEEK FOUR - Began the week by meeting Whitney Husz, one of Jake's high school classmates and her SO Mark, for dinner and a concert at the Salvage Station, a rustic, outdoor venue. Opening musician was Charlie Hunter, an accomplished guitarist known for his expertise in playing 7 and 8 string guitars.  The main act was the California Honeydrops, a great R&B band. We had a great time and we weren't even the oldest people there!  

Since we are on our own this week—no guests--we get back to the routine. Daily walks and yoga; sometimes cooking meals and often trying new restaurants. Zoey is proving to be a really good walker. She seems to enjoy the cooler weather and does great on our daily walks as well as on our hikes. Love the nearby Reed Creek Greenway where we walk most days.  It’s about a mile and a half long, so the length is perfect.  It is really pretty and goes through the University of North Carolina Asheville. Turns out, this Greenway was originally the site of the S.B. Penick & Company Warehouses which were constructed around 1917. Penick chose Asheville for his company headquarters because, as noted by Life magazine in 1941, "The most productive source of medicinal plants at present in the U.S. is the great Smokies region in the South whose self-sufficient mountaineer inhabitants know their herbs through their own pharmacopoeia of household herb cures." S.B. Penick & Company became one of the world's major suppliers of bulk botanicals. But with the arrival of pharmaceuticals, the demand for botanicals waned and Mr. Penick eventually donated the land to the City of Asheville with the stipulation that it be a green space and, hence, we have the Reed Creek Greenway. It's beautiful.

Jim played golf at Black Mountain Golf Course and finally made a friend! Roger is 73 and from the DC area. They are playing again next Monday. (In all fairness, acquaintance may be a better word. I was very leery when we got teamed up on the first tee---guy looked like an underfed Ken Jones, so I was afraid of what he might be like... but it turned out he didn't throw clubs or whine. He was like Ken though, when he kept telling me he shot in the mid 90s or worse, then carded an 84, claiming it was his best score ever---very Jones like.) 

I am trying a new yoga studio this week. I began at the West Asheville Yoga Center. Yoga is more challenging in Asheville than it was in my classes in Fort Myers. I think this is partly because both the students and the instructors are much younger.  This week I went to the Asheville Yoga Center which is within walking distance of our house--really like it.

This week's hiking destination was Chimney Rock with its signature 315-foot spire overlooking Hickory Nut Gorge and Lake Lure. 

Chimney Rock.

I climbed 500 steps to the top (and 500 back down) while Jim and Zoey waited at the bottom. The view was spectacular! (Once again, Zoey and I demonstrated our intelligence...)

Halfway up.

At the top.

View from the top.

This week, we also went to the Pink Dog Creative Art Center in the River Arts District of Asheville. This former textile manufacturing and warehouse building on Depot Street has been transformed into a mix of artists' studios and retail spaces. We went specifically to see the work of self-taught artist Jenny Pickens, but unfortunately, the studio was closed by the time we got there and this was the last day of her exhibit. The storage container below was painted by Pickens. (Yea, more art...)

 

Pickens art is reminiscent of Aminah Robinson's.

After visiting some 29 studios in the Pink Dog Creative, we wandered about the River Arts District walking through several other studios. It is so much fun to see such a wide variety of art and to have the opportunity to talk with the artists. Some of it I love, some of it I don't understand, some of it I don't like, but I appreciate it all.

On Sunday, we went to The BLOCK off Biltmore to see a burlesque show. There were burlesque dancers and belly dancers with an emcee to keep things moving. One of the dancers was Zelda Holiday aka Whitney Husz. Show was great! (Now this is my kind of art...Whitney was amazing.)

When we got home from the burlesque show, Erica had arrived--looking forward to a great week with her.

The Pickers Pop In!

WEEK THREE--Alicia left on Monday and the Pickers arrived on Tuesday--just enough time to get clean sheets on the bed! (I like that. Time for her to get clean sheets on the bed...she hasn't even been down to the basement where the washer/dryer are. Nor has she made a bed in 5 weeks...) The weather is not cooperating--it's chilly and rainy but Suzie and Jerry are good sports. They arrive late afternoon and since the weather is not good, we have dinner in and play bridge. Jim and I are thrilled to get this much bridge time since none of our Florida friends play. Unfortunately, we didn't choose the seats with the bathtub orientation and the Pickers killed us! (In all fairness, we did get to bid on one hand in three hours... but we failed to make our one spade bid...) It was still fun!

The next day we went to Grovewood Village. This 11-acre property is home to the Grovewood Gallery which offers a large selection of American-made arts and crafts created by more than 400 artists and crafters from around the country. The Village is also home to 10 resident artists who open their studios to the public one Saturday each month. There is also an impressive collection of handbuilt furniture and a wonderful outdoor sculpture garden. Grovewood Village originally housed the weaving and woodworking industries of Biltmore Industries made possible by the patronage of Edith Vanderbilt. Today, the antique car collection of Harry Blomberg, who owned Asheville's largest car dealership, occupies the part of the Biltmore Industries space which once housed the weaving operation. (I may have mentioned how exciting I find three trips a day to art galleries...day in and day out.) 

Grovewood Gallery

Big Blue Dog Sculpture

Giant wire rabbit in the outdoor sculpture
garden--picture doesn't do it justice

Jim wishing this 1950 MG TD were his. (You can tell by the 
pout, it's another wish left unfullfilled.)

Since I am a little obsessed with the surrounding waterfalls, we had to share at least a couple with Suzie and Jerry. Since the weather was less than ideal, we chose those visible from the roadside. The weather cleared enough for us to get a couple of photos.

                                                     Suzie, Jerry & I at Looking Glass Falls

After seeing the waterfalls, we went to Brevard, a really cute little town not too far from Asheville for lunch. The country side continues to be beautiful with all the Spring blooms.

We had dinner at Nine Mile a neighborhood eatery featuring delicious Caribbean-inspired pasta dishes. Jim donned the beret that Alicia inadvertently left behind and insisted that we call him Jacque! Not to worry, Alicia--I'll return your beret when we get to Columbus.

                                                                  Mon ami, Jacque.
                                                          (Pretty damn dashing, eh?)

The last day of their visit we walked downtown and went to the Battery Park Book Exchange and Champagne Bar. This is a really cool used book store that Jim discovered not long after we arrived. It serves appetizers, desserts, nice wines AND it's dog-friendly (Dogs are welcome inside where you can drink,eat and read someone else's books. They give away dog biscuits, but not, sadly, the wine.)  making it the perfect spot to hang out on a drizzly day. After a nice nosh, we went back home and back to the bridge table! The card god was a little kinder to us today. (Kinder? Hell, yes. We kicked butt, including a small slam bid by moi and made by Deborah. Good thing, too, since if I had overbid it, I would have been sleeping on the porch...) 

Thanks for coming, Pickers and for playing way too much bridge with us!

Alice Comes to Town!

WEEK TWO - Weather is still not cooperating--some days are very chilly and one morning this week, there was snow on our porch steps BUT it is wonderful experiencing Spring in all its blooming glory! The redbuds, dogwoods and azaleas are in full bloom and Japanese red maples are every where fully leafed out--spectacular! I knew I really missed having four seasons!

We have visited many of the galleries downtown enjoying the art of locals--sculptures, pottery, paintings, clothing, jewelry. We did the River Arts District Studio Tour visiting seven or eight studios. Very interesting to see the artists at work--glass blowing in particular is fascinating. We sought out a painter named Jacqui Fehl whose work was on the cover of the April edition of The Laurel of Asheville, a magazine representing the arts and culture of communities across the mountains of Western North Carolina that we picked up somewhere along the way. Very whimsical and brightly colored. We didn't buy a piece at this studio but later did purchase a print from a downtown gallery also displaying her work. (Look, I appreciate art as much as the next guy, probably more than Ken Jones, though not as much as Wade Taylor or Brad Quicksall. But 438 galleries go a long way to satiating my art needs...)

                                                               Catching Up - Jacqui Fehl

Alicia arrived late afternoon on Thursday for a weekend stay. We were excited to have her visit--she has been visiting Asheville for the last 10 or 15 years. We knew we could count on her for great adventures and we were right. We strolled through Asheville's downtown browsing our way through some of her favorite galleries and boutiques; went to the NC Arboretum hunting for spring blooms (which we found in abundance); lunched in Hendersonville; visited Black Mountain's Town Hardware with an inventory of 35,000+ items many of which made us nostalgic--hoola hoops, Necco Wafers, and 61/2 ounce bottles of Coke from an old timey cooler all sold by Bill who had to be 85 years old and told us he didn't know how some of the other businesses in Black Mountain survived given that they don't open until 10am or later. Town Hardware opens promptly at 8am even on Sundays! We also drove through Montreat which is quite near Black Mountain and happens to be the birthplace of Billy Graham. It was a really pretty, affluent little community with a small Christian liberal arts college.

                                                The Stream Garden at the NC Arboretum

NC Arboretum Entryway Pool

Oh, Great Spirit by Neil Bannister Scruggs

     

Luminaries by Ralph Berger Rutherfordton

           

                                                 Old timey Coke cooler at Town Hardware
                                                 (Old timey???? You mean from like when 
                                                 I was a kid???)


We have decided to hike one day each week and this week saved our hiking day to do with Alicia. We took her back to a couple of our favorites from past hikes (Looking Glass and Sliding Rock) and then decided on a 4.2 mile hike that included multiple waterfalls. Turns out it was more of a car drive than a hike. Jim was excited because he got to use the all terrain feature of his new Subaru Outback.(Excited? More like scared to death. Two ruts up the side of a mountain. Luckily, I met only one other car and I had the hillside of the road. Lucky for them, the trees stopped their fall...) The waterfall that we saw was beautiful but Alicia and I were disappointed because the actual hike was pretty short. (On the other hand, Zoey and I were fine with a short hike.)

On Sunday, Alicia took us to the Stoney Knob Cafe, a funky restaurant in Weaverville, a small town about 6 miles north of Asheville. It's kind of a Mediterranean-Greek theme with velvet bar stool seats and Elvis portraits-very funky with really good food!

We spent the afternoon looking at real estate in Asheville--just curious (arrrggghhhh)...followed by a great dinner at Posano featuring local, seasonal, sustainable cuisine.