Our Thanksgiving Vacation

We left South Florida on the Friday before Thanksgiving, and stayed the night at Ollie's grandma's house in Daytona. Charles came with us and she thought he was a very pretty kitty. The next morning we drove the rest of the way to Weaverville, NC which is a few miles outside of Asheville. We were there all the way until the Sunday after Thanksgiving, so we did a lot of things and also had plenty of time to relax. This is pretty much what we did:

Saturday: arrived in Weaverville and visited Ollie's friend Ben in their new home and saw his brand new baby Henry, what a cutie.

Sunday: went food shopping, fixed the water heater so we can finally take showers, and attended Sage's memorial service (see previous post.)

Monday: Went shopping at Asheville Mall and left our wedding rings at Helzberg to get redipped and made all shiny and new again.

Tuesday: We drove to the top of Mount Mitchell, which is the highest peak east of the Mississippi. Then we hiked to the top of Mt. Craig which is the next peak over) and then back down again. To get there you need to drive for a good while up the Blue Ridge Parkway. We were up so high that the weather was below us.



you can see the weather below us in the background









Wednesday: We had lunch at the Moe's in Biltmore Village (yes, there is a Moe's! I can officially live here now) after we visited Asheville's Urgent Care Clinic so I can take my drug test for the job offer I had received earlier that day. We also traveled to the nearby town of Marshall to check out the real estate in the area. It is a dream of ours to move to western NC in the near future, but Marshall was definitely way too much out in the sticks for us. My BFF Yvonne and her husband Tony also arrived super late that night from TN to spend the holiday weekend with us.

Thursday: Before we left in the morning, I prepared my turkey for the crockpot and left it simmering all day. Since we weren't going to be home, we couldn't leave the oven on so this worked out perfectly. We visited the Biltmore Estate, spent some time wine tasting, and just enjoying the life of the ridiculously wealthy. The estate is over 800 acres, and the home is 175,000 square feet. It is the largest private residence in the United States, and this is only the summer home for the Vanderbilt family.

We picked up a foreclosure while we were there...



The view from the terrace



Here we are posing with Charles' older cousin



And then we tasted all the wine we could.... with a baby.



When we got home, the turkey was ready and we were starving. Yvonne and I whipped up the other side dished, and we dove in. This was my favorite turkey I had ever eaten, so tender and juicy it all fell apart. I used a turkey breast, a stick of butter, a can of broth, salt and pepper, and let it go for about 8 hours. Here are some pics of our feast (please excuse the weaponry on the table, silly boys!)





We had tons of leftovers so we had Thanksgiving part 2 on Saturday night.

Friday: This is my first year not braving the crowds at 4 AM to partake in my favorite shopping day. For once, I actually did not need or want anything. I am guessing it is because we got married this year and got our share of stuff for awhile. We did brave the mall later that day to check out new cell phones and see the deals they were offering. I was about to get the Droid but I am still holding out for an iphone, we shall see what happens in a few months. For lunch we had good ole' BBQ at Luella's BBQ. Back at the house, we found some expired cans of food in the pantry, so the guys decided to use them for target practice. The girls got turns too, but the guys were too busy telling us how to shoot to take our pictures. Bah humbug.










We visited with the neighbors that maintain the property that my in-laws own up there (where we were staying) and also went to downtown Asheville that night to eat at Wasabi's for some good sushi. It was freezing outside so there weren't really too many hippies around. I really wanted Yvonne to see how many there normally are around town.

Saturday: Ollie decided to drive us to a different mall instead of the Asheville Mall we had been to many times already that week. It was called the Biltmore Square Mall, and man was it feeling the brunt of the recession. Almost every store had closed down and all we saw were vacant spaces. Oh well, it was worth driving out there because we passed this road on the way, and had to take a picture:



This sign was actually at the intersection of Ollie Weaver and Ayers Road. How crazy is that?
When we got back into Weaverville, we ate at Blue Mountain Pizza which is the local pizza joint, and the hippies there did not disappoint. That afternoon, we saw the Gators demolish the Seminoles in the swamp. Gator games take priority, even on vacation.

Sunday: we left Weaverville at around 10:30 AM, and got back to South Florida at 3 AM. It was a loooong drive, but the most annoying part was the 3 hour holdup in South Carolina because of the accident on the OTHER side of the highway. That's right, our lanes were free and clear, but everyone needed to stop and slow down to investigate the other side of the highway. I still cannot get over that cost us 3 hours.

Here we have some pictures of the property my husband's parents' own. I am so glad we can visit as often as we want. Can't wait to go back next year!