Mountains with Matthew

We took a long weekend trip to the NC mountains during Matthew's visit home in July. We had some fun and stayed in a cute little cabin called Tall Oaks. The proprietor is a very pleasant, friendly, Southern (and very Christian) lady named Ada Crane.

I would have loved to have spent more time relaxing on the comfy porch amid all the trees and the sounds of birds and cicadas chirping in the forest. Rick saw really tiny hummingbirds too.


On the way there, we found a neat restaurant where we had a surprisingly good lunch at a very reasonable price. Coincidentally, the restaurant was located off of Interstate 40 at the "Claremont" Exit, #135 ...the same name as the town where Matthew went to college.



I was in the mood for a salad from their well stocked salad bar, and Matthew had a rib eye steak that was cooked perfectly. Matthew treated us to this meal as a symbolic gesture since he is now a "working guy" : )


At the entrance to the Big Branch Cabins near Brevard where we stayed, there were old cars that were decorated with flowers, etc....look closely and you might be able to see the "bear" driving the truck.

As with any trip we had a few little disappointments, like an overpriced dinner our last evening which was just OK for the price. We also went on an outing one very rainy afternoon and got very poor directions from a "volunteer" at the Ranger Station to a hike to Courthouse Falls in Pisgah National Forest. Before we could even get on the trail, we sat in the car for a long time waiting for the deluge of rain to ease up a bit. Then we went on a rather dark, wet, difficult hike which ended with our not finding the waterfall, as it was getting too late in the day to continue. I didn't have hiking boots and tromped through brush and muck in wet sneakers about an hour there and an hour back. Thankfully, no one got hurt and we didn't get lost. We did try to lighten the mood by singing along the way. We also stopped for lunch in a scenic picnic area before we went on our hike.



We had better luck the next morning. We got up earlier and it was sunny and warm when we went to a couple of waterfalls in Dupont State Park which were closer, easy to find and fun to play and swim in. The water was cold, but not freezing, and once we got in, it was really refreshing!

Hooker Falls, Dupont State Forest

Triple Falls, Dupont State Forest:


We had fun climbing on the first part of the rock face at the top of Triple Falls....(don't worry, we didn't have to hike up the side of the falls themselves -- there was a nice wide gravel trail beside them and a LOT of steps down to access them)...


...and playing and swimming in the lower part of the falls:

On Sunday, we went to the Bele Chere festival in Asheville, a very large street fair with several music stages, arts and crafts, and of course, food.

Bele Chere Festival, Downtown Asheville:

Our outings involved a good deal of driving in and around the Blue Ridge Parkway, and we stopped often at the overlooks to enjoy the lovely mountain views. But by far, the best part of the trip was just being on vacation and spending time with Matthew, who hasn't been home in over a year. He kept us smiling with his witty repartee and laughing at his goofy antics, and we enjoyed talking and catching up on his life in California.



I hope that we can go back to this area soon...there is so much to see and enjoy.

My sweet granddaughter

Shame on me for waiting so long to blog about becoming a grandmother! I'm getting old and tired, but also am not really committed to writing this blog, especially since probably only very few people read it, and most of them are my own family...so I figure I can just TALK to them instead of writing. Plus, it has been a really busy time.

Since my daughter described her birth story in great detail, I won't try to repeat that, but I will say that I was so proud of her strength and resilience in dealing with all the obstacles she had to overcome during her pregnancy and childbirth. She has also had a lot to deal with since the birth, but it looks to me that Tess's health problems seem to be stabilizing. She spent her first full day with me while her mommy went back to work for the first time since she was born about two months ago.

I am happy (and relieved) to say that Tess did great today - hardly cried, smiled, slept, ate, peed and pooped...all the things that babies her age do! We went on stroller rides, baby carrier rides, and she sat quite happily in the swing for short periods. She is so adorable, and I took a few pics so her mommy and daddy could see some of what her day was like. Her jovial Uncle K. (who was in town to visit family and friends and to see her) spent the morning with us, and he helped out a bit and got some big baby smiles.



Here she is being fascinated for a few moments with the swing mobile:



Being a baby is Sooooo tiring! Actually, today I am reminded of just how exhausting baby care is, and although I love my granddaughter to pieces, I'm ready to take a shower and veg on the couch : )

Busy winter/Baby shower

January and February have proven to be much busier for me this year than in years past. Not only has my workload at work increased a great deal, but I've bought a new Prius (and had to deal with the brake recall problem...but am really enjoying the car now - many thanks go to my daughter and son-in-law for helping me with everything car-related), planned a baby shower, and I've been on lots of outings with friends and family (most recently a Celtic Woman concert at the DPAC, which was my first time there). After all this excitement, I had the most restful nap/sleep this evening that I've had in a long time; that's why I'm able to be up so late tonight writing this.

Even though I was exhausted from it last weekend and am just recovering this week, I have to say that I had a lot of fun planning the baby shower. I made several trips to the Party Store and grocery store, and enjoyed shopping for invitations, decorations, party favors and baby gifts and also shopping online for a special gift for the Daddy-to-be. It's been so long since I've had a group of people over to the house, it seemed like quite an undertaking. I made long lists and went back and forth in my mind over the details, like what kind of food and drink to have and whether I would make it myself or order it from various places. I ended up doing a bit of both. There was a lot of food left over (especially the 7 layer salad from K&W and the hot cider in the crock pot, which I think were barely touched), but I'd rather have had too much to eat and drink than not enough. The punch had an unexpected brown muddy look which was not at all appetizing, but it had orange sherbet on top, and several people said it tasted really good. I think I need a lot more practice to pull off a "perfect party"!

Things became difficult to plan because the number of guests kept changing and we didn't know if there would be children attending or not. The shower location was also an issue, and when it was decided that it would be held here at home, I had a lot of cleaning and de-cluttering to do to make the house presentable...then after all that, we ended up outside on the back deck (which was lovely since it was fairly warm and sunny after being so cold lately) -- but also ironic in that it was about the only place I decided to leave messy, figuring that it would be cold, and we'd need to be inside! I was glad to have good neighbors and friends who swept up the leaves, contributed quiches and chairs to the event, and it was wonderful to see out-of-town guests make the trip.

All in all, though, I think everyone had a good time, even though the icing on my cake dripped, I didn't have time to make the cucumber sandwiches, and I spent a lot of time making an elaborate chicken salad (from a Barefoot Contessa recipe) that I ended up not liking at all because of the fresh tarragon that gave it a strange flavor (but some other people apparently liked it). I was also a bit groggy-headed from staying up late cooking and decorating the night before, and so after a couple of people had already left, a friend reminded me to hand out the goodie bags that I had spent so much time shopping for and filling up! Everyone was certainly extremely generous with baby gifts and good wishes which was all really heartwarming. It was also great that the "Mom-of-Honor" was well enough to attend - It would have been a big disappointment for all concerned if we would have had to cancel due to illness.

Baby K certainly has a lot of family and friends eagerly and happily awaiting her arrival, and the fact that I will soon be a grandmother to a sweet baby girl is finally sinking in. What a great adventure! : )

Overnight at the Ritz

Well, I have been strongly encouraged, errr, "ordered to?" blog by someone who shall remain nameless (she knows who she is!!!)...about my weekend, part of which was spent at The Franklin Hotel - see more pics at their website - http://franklinhotelnc-px.trvlclick.com/index.html

I won this overnight (in "faraway" Chapel Hill, ha ha) at a dinner raffle at a Get Real & Heel fundraiser. Mostly I'll just post a bunch of pictures, which are worth 1,000 words.


On this "exciting" weekend, we checked into the hotel, had a very nice dinner (of "falling off the bone" lamb shanks and risotto) with a couple we had not seen in a really long time, and enjoyed the fancy accommodations of this luxury hotel (where, of course, our room was painted a powdery Carolina blue color).


The furniture was expensive, the bed was comfy with silky sheets and a down comforter, and there were silver accents and containers everywhere (wastebaskets, bathroom cups and trays, etc.) and stemmed water goblets for drinking water or brushing your teeth.


The rooms on the 2nd to 5th floors had an atrium/sitting area in the middle. I meant to go back and take a picture of the high glass ceiling - you could see the moon, and it reminded me of a movie where the jewel thief hangs down on a wire to steal a precious gem : )



We had a room with a tiny balcony overlooking Franklin Street, but it was too cold to stay out there long....


Although the photo below of us is a bit blurry, it reflects the kind of surreal feeling it was to spend the night in such a hifalutin setting.



We ended our mini-vacation with a yummy free breakfast buffet this morning. It helped to make this otherwise wintry, blah, overcast January weekend a little more memorable than it would have been. I'm SO ready for some nicer weather!!!

Happy 2010

WOW...it's been a LOOOOONNNGG time since I've blogged. I was looking back at some of my older posts and I am SO glad that I'm healthy!!!

I am looking forward to the next big phase in my life - that of becoming a grandmother!!! How exciting, and how happy I am that I lived to see such a day. I am in the midst of trying to plan a baby shower, and I'm having fun. It's nice to have a "project" in the middle of winter...January is such a "blah" month, that planning a party makes it nicer.

I'm also thinking about what new or used car I should get and focusing on my old standy, the dependable Toyota Corolla Sport, or trying to decide whether to go beyond what I set as my "budget" and spring for a new Toyota Prius...at this moment in time, I'm leaning towards the Prius, as I think it's time to treat myself to something, as I am usually very thrifty; besides, my birthday is coming up soon, so I can rationalize that it's a potential birthday present to myself ;)

Well, I don't promise I'll be as "regular" a blogger as I used to be, but perhaps I'll write a few things this year, and of course, I'll probably have lots of baby pics to post! Yay!