A Quiet Week

Here it is Sunday again, and I haven’t written anything. That’s partly because we haven’t done any true sight-seeing.

Our friends left on Monday, around noon-time. They had a short drive to Atlanta where they were going to get to see their new granddaughter for the first time. After they left, we went out and did some grocery shopping and then hung around and had dinner in.

On Tuesday, we made a big circle around Asheville. We had wanted to get some goodies from the Biltmore store, so that was our first stop. We had bought a key lime cheese ball mix last summer, but gave it away. So we had to get one for ourselves this year.

Our next stop was at a Super Wal-Mart. (The regular Wal-Mart here has been found lacking.) There was a Kohl’s store right next door that we wanted to pop into as well.

Then we were off to find Heidi some food. We didn’t get what we really wanted until we got to the third pet store. And what a challenge that was. We wound up on the phone with the owner to get directions until we pulled up in front of the place. (Microsoft Streets and Trips had been no help at all.) But she had everything we needed so it turned out to be worth the effort.

Besides, we found the restaurant we had liked so well from last year. So we just had to return to Thai Basil for lunch. It was every bit as good as we’d remembered and were so glad we had found it again.

Wednesday was a do-nothing day. We read. I scrapbooked a little. We played cards. Just a relaxing day.

On Thursday we decided to return to the casino. Turned out not to be such a good idea. Neither one of us had any luck to speak of. But we had fun. And the lunch buffet was terrific as always.

I got my hair cut on Friday (isn’t that exciting?). She really cut me short. I guess it will last longer that way. After I picked Julian up at the grocery store we stopped at a restaurant for lunch that he’d been eying since we got here. It turned out to be fairly mediocre, at best. But now we know.

I’m on a mailing list for upcoming events in North Carolina. We wanted to do something on the weekend and I found the 3^rd Annual Blackberry Festival in Mars Hill, north of Asheville. We’d enjoyed the Mater Festival and decided this could be just as fun. So we decided to go.

It took almost an hour to get to Ebbs Chapel Community Center, where the event was being held. What a gorgeous locale.

This “event” was little more than a church bazaar, but we sure enjoyed it. There were only about a dozen booths, if that. We gave them high marks for getting this festival onto the state's tourist bureau web site.



The craft items were nice and of good quality and we’re pretty certain they are all made by the folks of this little church community. Only one of the booths was selling anything blackberry related. We bought blackberry jams. The same booth also had different bean and split pea soup mixes, which we had to purchase. Definitely some yummy-looking stuff.

The best part was this guy:

Yes, this little, tiny Festival had an Elvis impersonator. The funniest part was that he was really quite good! Obviously, not that great to look at, but he really could sing. Really!

We headed back to Asheville to find some lunch. The scenery was as marvelous here as everywhere else we have been in North Carolina. This turned out pretty well for being taken through the window of a moving car. It really shows some of why I love the views up here. These mountains are beautiful.

This may be the last entry for another week. We are leaving here on Thursday for Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. We’ll have internet there, I think, so I will probably post after visiting the caves. Until then, happy trails to you all.