North Carolina Vacation Pics - Biltmore Estate and Hendersonville

Biltmore Estate - Asheville, North Carolina

Father and Son at Dupont State Park

Go here to see them all!

We're enjoying Fall in North Carolina!

For those few people out there that check my blog but are NOT on Facebook, here's a link to some photos that I've been posting of our trip to see Terry's Dad and his wife, Ginny in Hendersonville, NC.  This is them in the photo (left).  They do a lot of walking around town.  They live less than a mile from Main Street, so have access to a bunch of fun places to visit when they're out and about.

Tomorrow  we'll drive to Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  The park is celebrating their 75th Anniversary this year.  I will be taking my National Parks passport book to get stamped and we'll try to find a poster or postcard from the park that we can include in our collection of places that we've visited that hangs in our office. 

Check out these gorgeous red leaves that were on a tree right on main street.  Aren't they amazing?

I hope you enjoy the other pics too.  I'm trying to post a few more each day, so check back again later too.

This post doesn't need much explanation...

Yesterday we expected a rainy day, so we chose to do something that was mostly indoors. We checked out some antique shops and craft stores along Route 4 from Chichester to Portsmouth, NH.

The photos explain it best.

I love this felt pumpkin piece above. It looks so simple. I might even be able to tackle it.

Oh, and we did see a moose! Unfortunately, it was stuffed and ready to hang on a wall.

After shopping, we ended up at the seashore, had dinner near a marina, then had an hour or so when the sun poked thru the clouds.

The neighborhood we drove thru is called Rye Beach and it had lots of similarities to Pacific Grove and the 17 Mile Drive (Pebble Beach area) in California. There was a wide range of homes. Some were tiny beach cottages and others were massive (beach) mansions that had been there for decades. So many of them had great character and charm and we were amazed at the size of some of the lots. They had to have been there for many generations to own that much land.

Today we took a chance and headed for the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, which includes Lake Winnipesaukee, Squam Lake, Mirror Lake and many more. The weather forecast was for rain only in the morning, but we did get a few sprinkles in the afternoon and some on and off cloud cover. Overall it was better than some of the previous days, but we still didn't wander too far from the car outdoors, since we never knew when it might start raining. To give you an idea of the look of the area, Squam Lake was the location for one of my favorite movies, "On Golden Pond". Henry Fonda reminds me so much of my dad in that movie and the setting was so gorgeous.

Cottages like the ones shown here are sprinkled throughout the area. They're so quaint and nostalgic. I love them!

Here are some other pictures of that area too.

One of my first acquisitions was to buy a gourd like the one I had seen in Stowe from a roadside stand for just a few dollars. I plan to take it home, dry it out and paint it like a snowman. We'll see how it goes.

Aren't these ghostly cupcakes from the Holderness General Store just adorable?

Here are some other pics of things that struck a chord with me.

Antique tools reminded me of my brother, Rusty who used to collect them.
Vintage albums and 45's reminded me of Andrew.

Vintage children's books reminded me of Amy.

Ginger beer reminded me of Kevin...wish I could ship it to you, but I don't think it would make it.

So all in all it was a day filled with reminiscing...I look forward to someday being able to take a vacation with Amy & Andrew & Kevin again. They're always a great addition to any outing. We miss having them with us.

A Quiet Day in New Hampshire...

As you can see I've been playing with the layout on my blog. I finally changed the background on my title for Fall too. Let me know what you think. Do you like it? Is it too busy?

I've had a very quiet Tuesday here in Lincoln, NH. Terry started coming down with a cold late on Sunday night. Yesterday he had a little bit of a sore throat, but we had planned to drive about 2 hours to Vermont with our best chance for a good weather day, so we headed out, stopped off at the drugstore to stock up on cold remedies and Kleenex, then hit the road. He did well all day and didn't seem to be feeling too bad. But by last night it had moved into a full blown head cold and he was congested with the kind of cold where you can't breathe thru your nose and you feel like you're in a fog. Needless to say, he has slept off and on all day. I feel so bad for him. He hates being sick and especially missing out on his favorite part of vacation - the sightseeing.

Fortunately we needed to do some laundry today and didn't have any pressing plans that couldn't be rearranged in the schedule. The sky is cloudy and gray with a spot or two of blue peeking thru on rare occasions, but not enough to warrant traveling farther than the balcony. Even with a day spent indoors, I still have plenty to post from our last few days.

So, let's see...where to begin... Yesterday, on the drive to Vermont, first, we toured the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory in Waterbury. A quirky and cute little place that truly reflects the off-beat style of the founders. What a cool story about this pair and the fact that they still have the factory here in "middle of nowhere", Vermont. It was a fun stop and we enjoyed our tour & sample of "Half-baked" ice cream at the end. Did you know that they have a Flavor Graveyard where obsolete flavors are laid to rest after they die? It was filled with clever rhymes and the year of birth and death of the flavor on each tombstone. Click on the Graveyard link above and check out the tombstones & Halloween additions at the bottom of the screen as well. You'll find links to the spooky Mansion Grounds, the Library, Lab and more. Their web and graphic designers must love their jobs!

After B & J's we drove on to the town of Stowe. You've probably heard of it. It's a well known ski resort area with a quaint little village for shopping and browsing. We spent a few hours checking out the local shops and picking up a few treasures along the way. This photo is a few of the items we picked up. The rest will remain a secret since they may become your gift: a bottle of a silver medal winning Reisling (my favorite, you know) from the Grand View Winery in East Calais, Vermont. We had a glass with dinner tonight and it's very tasty. We also bought some delicious Vermont Cheddar Cheese from the Cabot Creamery Cooperative (not to be confused with Tillamook Cheddar from Oregon, which is quite different), and a link of Ridgeway Venison Summer Sausage (this was Terry's choice - he likes unusual foods - we'll see how it tastes before I give it a thumbs up).

I just love all the autumn vignettes with bales of straw, colorful pumpkins, gourds, scarecrows, and fall colored flowers scattered around on porches and front yards. Somehow with the temps still in the 100's in Phoenix, it just wouldn't seem appropriate to do that yet. Oh well, maybe things will cool down by the time we get back.

I almost forgot to mention that we found some precious gourd decorations that made me think of Michelle M. These are probably a little too cutesy for her taste, but I love the folk art style and primitive look of them. I almost bought a snowman, but decided on just a simple chubby pear that I can keep in my kitchen all year long. I may try to see if Michelle can grow some in these shapes for me to buy...or maybe I'll try to do it myself at some point. I think they're really sweet!

After a little shopping we drove out to the Trapp Family Lodge. Yes, it's just who you think it is. The family made famous by the movie with Julie Andrews. The Sound of Music. Read more about the history of the lodge here. Warning: Maria didn't look anything like Julie Andrews.

We wandered around a bit there, then headed for a nearby Cider Mill to browse. That's where we found the wine and also this great idea for a Christmas tree. Notice the red plaid flannel ribbon wrapped around the tree. I love it! And it would look great in our living room with the red sofa. If I can't find that kind of ribbon, I could always get fabric and cut my own ribbon strips. I love the idea - now I just need to remember it until December.

Soon we started looking for a place for dinner. That's always a challenge in a small town & unfamiliar area. I must admit that we haven't had a lot of success on this trip. It makes me appreciate how many great restaurants we have in the Phoenix area.

Last night was one of our better choices. After stopping at several spots to look at the menu and finding the pricing out of our range for a vacation meal, we settled on The Whip Bar & Grill, in downtown Stowe. Now it's not exactly cheap, but had enough variety in price that we knew we could find something to our liking, especially since Terry didn't have much of an appetite with his cold. I was really tempted to have the roast duck and brie quesadilla appetizer (can you imagine how many people mispronounce "kay-suh-dee-uh" in New England?), but I decided to go for the salmon dinner instead. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture when the meal arrived, but I did remember to take one of the absolutely scrumptious Cheddar Ale soup. It was a real treat! I would definitely recommend the place if you're ever in the area.

This darling little pumpkin was sitting on the back of the bench in our cozy corner booth next to the fireplace. I love the way the lights and shadows play against it.

On the way home, as we do every evening around dusk, we watched for moose. There are "moose crossing" signs all over the place, but so far we've just seen this one at the barn sale.

I hope you're enjoying the news about our trip. Let me know if there's anything else you'd like to hear about.

I'll leave you with a few shots of the view from our balcony and the changing skies. Still not quite enough blue to set off the fall colors, but we'll keep praying for a sunny day.

New England... I'm way behind on blogging already!

I don't have a lot of time to tell stories today, so I'll just post some bullets & pics to highlight what we've been doing since Thursday.


Friday was a rainy day so we went to the Basketball Hall of Fame where we saw honors and memorabilia for all the greats, including Jerry Colangelo, Shaq, Steve Nash, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, and so much more.

Then we stopped at a cute little roadside stand & bought some gorgeous and delicious apples.

Friday night, Terry went to a Red Sox vs. Yankees game in Fenway Park - it was rain delayed twice, but finally ended in a blowout by the Yankees after midnight. Most of their normal starters didn't play because they didn't want them to get hurt on the wet field. All in all, not the game that Terry had dreamed of seeing, but he says the ballbark is really awesome and has a lot of character. He sent me a photo from his cell phone, but we haven't had time to get it to the blog.

Saturday we hung out in Lexington and Concord. Off and on rain again, so couldn't do nearly as much as we wanted. We saw these geese at the National Heritage Museum in Lexington. I'm assuming they were on their way from Canada to their southern home.

We also stopped at The Wayside, which is a home where Louisa May Alcott (author of Little Women), Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Scarlet Letter) and others famous authors lived over the years. It must have been an inspiring place to produce so many well known writers.





We visited a few locations where the first confrontations in the Revolutionary War occurred too.

In the late afternoon, we drove thru the pouring rain to our new home base in Lincoln, New Hampshire, got settled in and relaxed a bit. The weather forecast for today didn't look promising so we stayed nearby.

We drove along the Kancamagus Highway today, with intermittent rain, some fog, and heavy cloudcover at times leaving the "scenic overlooks" not very scenic. We did get to enjoy some nice sights, and even stopped at a "barn" sale along the highway. Linda, you would have loved it! And Andrew would have loved the boxes of albums and 45's. Wish you were with us to enjoy it all! That's where the snowshoe pic came from.

The colors are turning nicely, but with all the clouds, mist, fog and rain, I wasn't able to get too many landscape shots. You can see from the top photo that the leaves are quite gorgeous though!

Well, gotta get to bed. Tomorrow we're headed for Vermont. The weather forecast is for no rain and just partly cloudy skies Monday and Tuesday, so we need to make the best of it before the rain comes in again.

We miss you all and wish you were here. We have two extra bedrooms that we're not using if you want to drop by.

I Can Hardly Wait for Vacation!!!

A week from now we'll be jetting to the east coast.

Note: this photo borrowed from one of my favorite sites - Photo.net. The photographer is Ajitkumar Natarajan.

I checked the weather in Lincoln, New Hampshire and the high tomorrow is 56 degrees, with a low of 23!!! BRRRRR!!! No rain in the forecast so far, which is good.

I am SO looking forward to the chill in the air and the amazing scenery. Pictures, pictures, pictures. You'll be sick of them. Hoping for a few stops at some arts and crafts sales and antique stores, wandering thru the picturesque little towns and villages. And oh, my mouth is craving clam chowder and lobster already. I don't really care about much more than that...a warm crackling fire maybe.

Can't you just feel Autumn coming? It's on everyone's mind.

Fall Decorating in Arizona
Remember when I mentioned that I had found the perfect branch for my house? Well, this weekend I cleaned it up and varnished it and now it's hanging in my living room. I thought it was appropriate that it have Fall leaves in October, so that's what I did. The silk leaves are hanging from little clips on hooks that I bought at Ikea. I think their original purpose was for curtains.

I'm looking forward to doing lots of fun things with my branch. How about icicles and snowflakes in the winter, Christmas ornaments in December, Hearts at Valentines' Day, Family photos at birthdays, etc. I'd love to hear other ideas as well.

Here's a closer shot and a few other pics of fall decor. See, we have ways of making it seem like Fall in the desert even if it doesn't really look like it outside.The Grandma Perkins sign is special because I found it pre-made at a craft store in Ohio (where I grew up) and my grandmother really had a pumpkin patch or more like a roadside fruit and vegetable stand. I remember one year she ran a special for all the pumpkins you could carry for $1. It was so funny to see all those big farm boys trying to carry as many as possible to the cashier without dropping them. Oh and her name really was Perkins! How cool is that!