Girls Weekend Journal

We awoke to yet another stunningly beautiful day and gave thanks to God above for blessing us, as He always does, on our getaway weekend. Today, after breakfast and making sandwiches for lunch, we got into the car and made the hour long drive to Dupont National Forest for some more hiking.  We had picked up some information yesterday at the Asheville Chamber of Commerce on hiking trails in the area, specifically looking for locations used in The Hunger Games movies.  The location we chose was the closest and included the waterfall where Katniss found Peeta in the first movie after she dropped the beehive on some of their fellow Hunger Games participants.  It took us a little bit to find the trailhead we wanted, but once we did we first made a trip to the visitor's center where a very helpful gentleman showed us on a 3 dimensional map of the area just where we were and the trail that we had chosen.  It is a 3 mile round trip hike with only a moderate change in el...

At the Rattlesnake Lodge trailhead Kathi, having gone to bed and been asleep by 10 last night is up this morning at 6:45am in an effort to make up for some lost homework time.  Kathi has already made a pot of coffee and put bacon in the oven for breakfast. Breakfast consists of bacon, eggs and toast and is quite delicious.  We spend some time blogging, sorting pictures, doing homework (Kathi, only!) and researching hiking opportunities, of which there is MUCH to choose from.  Today we decide to take a hike up to the ruins of Rattlesnake Lodge, since the trail is fairly close to us.  On past Girls Weekend trips we have spent HOURS driving to an activity that we both really want to do, but upon reflection have decided that we would like to spend less time in the car and more time actually DOING things that are available nearby, so we tend to look for opportunities than don’t take more than an hour to get to. The Rattlesnake Lodge trailhead is about 20 minutes a...

So lovely to be on vacation and have no alarm clock going off to wake you up, therefore being able to sleep in.  I LOVE that!!  Sleep in, we did, then, as Kathi and I have been known to do because we are such nerds, we both get on our computers almost immediately and start checking e-mails and browsing the internet and whatever other mindless activities one gets up to on one's computer on a lazy morning, while drinking coffee and smelling the bacon that one of us put in the oven a bit earlier.  Life is good!! The sisters come over from their cabin after a bit to visit with us before they hit the road back to Raleigh.  Then Kathi and I shower and get ready to spend the day doing some shopping in downtown Asheville.  (Have I mentioned the weather? The weather is, once again, amazing.  We have had 70 degree, sunny days so far.  Much warmer than I was expecting!) Asheville is a cute little town with a thriving art colony, lots of nice restaurants, ...

Saturday was dedicated to touring the Biltmore Mansion,  the largest residential architectural structure in the United States with 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms and 65 fireplaces and more than 4 acres of floor space.  There are 250 rooms, total, in the home.  I would certainly not want to be the housekeeper here!!  The estate includes 8000 acres today and that is after George Biltmore's widow, Edith, sold 87,000 acres to the US Forest service for $5 an acre after George's death. This place is truly amazing and definitely worth touring, although it is somewhat exhausting because to really see the place in its entirety takes a whole day.  We arrived at the estate to begin our tour at 10:30 am.  JC, the beer savior (from our Brews Cruise tour) had suggested that we pay the extra $10 to get the device that included the audio tour in order to get the most out of the tour.  We did this and I must say, that I am truly glad that we did.  Kathi and I are b...