Thursday, June 07, 2007

My Anniversary Trip

Quaint" "friendly" and "artsy" are a few words I would use to describe Asheville, NC. That's where we decided to spend our first year wedding anniversary. Asheville is one of the best kept secrets for tourism in a state known for tobacco and basketball.

I was hoping to go back to St. Lucia where we spent our honeymoon but being a Best Selling Author doesn't equate to being a millionaire (yet) so I chose a place I thought would be secluded and peaceful with a beautiful ambience. It also had to fit our budget and I didn't want to go too far away from my teenage daughter and my brand new car.

Anyway, Asheville is nestled in the mountains of Western NC. We stayed in downtown Asheville at a hotel called the Renaissance. Our room was on the 9th floor overlooking a scenic view.

The one thing that impressed us the most about Asheville was the fact that we just blended in. No one treated us like tourists. Every place we went we felt welcome and easily struck up conversations with many of the locals. It was really difficult to tell who the tourists were. Another observation was the fact that people who appeared to be homeless weren't walking around begging for food or money. They just "blended in" and no one seemed bothered by them.

During our stay, we toured the Biltmore House, along with several hundred other folks. The tour goes on for hours because there are 250 rooms and each one has an interesting story behind it. The gardens were absolutely exquisite! We also toured their Winery where they had a wine tasting.

Our first night, there was a beautiful fireworks display we could see from our hotel room window and that set the mood for the rest of the trip!

It's wonderful to be a baby boomer in love!

1 comment:

Carine-what's cooking? said...

I've heard about Asheville. I spent some time in Greensboro, beautiful and quaint. Loved the relaxed feel. Glad you had a wonderful Anniversary getaway. I know I always look forward to ours.