A Visit from the Elliotts

This past weekend, Mom and Dad came to Asheville to visit for the weekend. We had a great time going out to eat, sight seeing downtown, watching football, and enjoying each other's company. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Sunday monring we went to brunch at The Swag in Maggie Valley.  http://www.theswag.com/about.htm   It is a country inn on a mountain top right next to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park.  The food was delicious and the views were gorgous! 



View from the front porch at The Swag



In front of the fireplace inside the dining room



View from Gooseberry Knob



We went to the farmer's market to buy some fresh NC grown apples.  Dad is sampling to see which ones he likes. 

Banana Split?

Can't you see the smile on his face?

Ranger got to dress up for Halloween this year.....yes my dog was a banana split.  Ranger got to show off his costume in downtown Asheville with the Halloween dog event.  A street in downtown Asheville was blocked off for canines and their owners.  I wasn't able to get too many pictures of the other dogs, because I had to concentrate on keeping Ranger from licking any person that walked by and sniffing every dog that got close.  His costume was quite a hit if I say so myself....everybody that walked by would say....."Is that a banana spilt?.....or "Look at that cute dog!"  People even asked to take his picture.  They had a contest for the best tricks, best costume, best kisses etc (by the dogs of course).  We decided to go last minute, so we weren't prepared to enter the contests....but we will be ready for next year!  We are already starting to practice. 

War Eagle from Asheville

We are excited about watching the Auburn game tonight.  We are going to watch the game with some Auburn fans that we have meet in Asheville, but there will also be some Clemson fans there too.  We will have to make sure that we are on our best behavior, and not get too rowdy and loud.  Next week we will be in Auburn for our first game of the 2010 season.  Ranger says "War Eagle!"

Around Asheville

In July, Logan and I did a trolly tour around Asheville.  Here are some of the picutres from that day.  Enjoy!

View of downtown Asheville from the Grove Park Inn

Me and Logan on the Trolly

Downtown Baptist Chruch

Art Museum

Pack Tavern, an old Speak Easy now restaurant

Court house and City Hall

Grove Arcade

Logan!

Labor Day Weekend

Mentone Memorial Day Weekend 2010

Logan and I spent Memorial Day weekend in Mentone, Alabama visiting my family. The trip started off slow when we came upon stand still bumper to bumper traffic on I-40 west. In October, there was a huge rock slide on I-40 between NC and TN state line that caused the interstate to be closed until about a month ago. We were excited that it reopened because it is a much easier ride compared to the two lane back roads.....well were we excited until it took 1 hr to travel 7 miles!!!! Apparently all traffic merges to one lane where construction and repairs are still be done. Logan enjoyed reading his book and Ranger liked sticking his head out the window while I drove....or putted at 5 MPH!

The weekend consisted of visiting with family, eating, sleeping, fishing, enjoying "social hour", puttering, and enjoying the river. This was Ranger's first trip to Mentone and I think that he really enjoyed it. He learned to fish and swim. He and Zeke became best friends.

On Saturday night, everyone gathered at our house to eat BBQ. Libby set up the ring toss game, and everyone played it all night.....even Aunt Mimi.

Sunday night Mrs. Janet drove over to eat and visit. She brought yummy homemade Milky Way ice cream. We were all stuffed afterwards and went to bed very early. It rained a lot Sunday night, so the the river was really up on Monday, and there was a lot of water going over the falls.

We all had a great weekend visiting everyone and relaxing, and it was really hard going back to work on Monday!

Anniversary Cruise

Two weekends ago, Logan and I celebrated our one year anniversary. We celebrated with a short cruise to the Bahamas. We flew to Miami and started the cruise on Friday afternoon. Our ship was Majesty of the Seas by Royal Caribbean. It was a very relaxing weekend with good weather and lot of sunshine. Here are a few pictures.


Boarding the ship.

Leaving Miami.
Our first stop, Coco Cay. This private island is owned by Royal Caribbean and has activities available such as snorkling, parasailing, jet skiing, scuba diving etc. We chose to go snorkling first. In the snorkling area, there were wooden fish hidden as a treasure hurt, and if you found one of the fish you won a prize. Yes, I found fish #2 and took it to the snorkle shack to redeem my prize. It was a free parasailing trip!

Ranger's visit to the Biltmore House

n the Spring, Biltmore House has it's Festival of Flowers. The gardens adjacent to the house are in full bloom with so many spring flowers. Today Logan, Ranger, and I went to check it out. There are over 100,000 tulips planted in the gardens along with many other flowers There were lots of people out enjoying the nice spring day, so it was a little crowded. We didn't stay too long, because Ranger was the center of attention, and had to say hello to everyone the he met.