North Carolina Mountains

What a great fun week we have just had. We only had 121 miles to drive from Gatlinburg to Lake Lure, North Carolina so we went through the Great Smoky Mountain National Park into North Carolina. We stopped at the summit and state line for pictures. It was almost 20 degrees cooler at the top. The drive took us about 4 hours as it was hilly and windy roads but it was very pretty and fun. We are really enjoying the spring flowers.

We stayed in a resort area around Lake Lure in the mountains. Our unit was on three different levels and fun to be in. Coleen was so excited to actually have her sewing machine out and be able to sew once again. She did all of the mending and then on Tuesday made a quilted cover for a scrapbook tote bag. She and Debby purchased this tote at Sam’s in Nashville and it was full of items to scrapbook. It had no cover so on the way to Gatlinburg we had stopped at a quilt shop and bought fabric for the cover. In less than 12 hours the cover was made and is on the tote. I wonder what the next project will be.

On Wednesday we went to the Biltmore Estate. We have wanted to visit here for many years but just haven’t been close enough to do it. We left early and arrived right after they opened at 8:30. It was only about an hour’s drive. We rented the audio and thoroughly enjoyed the tour through 62 rooms of the house. I believe there are a total of 68 bedrooms. There is a swimming pool, bowling alley, library, pool room, smoking room and many others. We finished the house tour about 11:30 and then ate our lunch in the Stable Café. We had corn chowder and shared a sampler plate of roasted chicken, barbecued ribs and pulled pork barbecue. It was absolutely awesome. We toured the formal gardens which were full of tulips and listened to music by four harpists. The winery tour was simple and similar to many others.

We spent some time exploring the area. There was a nice big grocery close by and we ate a “birthday” lunch at a restaurant called Point of View. Bob’s birthday was on Thursday. We listened to a book tape, did cross-stitch and spent time on the internet getting all of our email addresses changed so that we can cancel our att emails. Saturday was an all day NCIS marathon so that was our restful day.