20th Anniversary Trip to Asheville

My gift from William!


The following is what I wrote in an email to my mom... I am too tired to retype it all!!!

"the incident" = Friday Feb 13, 2009 my wallet and camera (my super really nice camera, two lenses, two filters, cleaning kit, two memory cards, etc) were stolen from our car. We did not lock the car, we thought we had, but this proves otherwise! HUGE thanks to Moose the dog... he took his owners on a walk a different way and he was sniffing a gutter.. they peeked to make sure he wasn't eating something he shouldn't and found my wallet Saturday afternoon. All the ID's and bank cards, credit cards and the beloved Starbucks card (with $100 on it) were still intact, only the $10 cash was missing, thank goodness!!!! I do not even want to know how you go about getting a new military ID with absolutely NO ID to show who you are!!! Anyway, Moose's mom and dad were an awesome younger couple and they called Navy Fed to try to get in touch with us, but they wouldn't really help them out ( I do understand why....) so they contact AAA and gave them my account number and AAA called my house with them on the line and let them leave a message on our answering machine. HUGE KUDOS to AAA!!! All the pawn shops in Asheville have been notified and the serial number of my camera and one of the lenses is in a national database, but I seriously doubt we will get it back :( However, thanks to the generosity of my parents, they gave us a very nice anniversary gift and I am now looking for a new camera!

The Cottage @ A Hill House Bed and Breakfast Asheville NC

The Bed and Breakfast was amazing!! The owners (Bill and Terry) were soo wonderful and helpful - even contacting the local pawn shops after "the incident"! We arrived Friday and the cottage was perfect! There were even roses waiting for our arrival. We went to a local grocery store, like the one on Solomons with the cheeses, and picked dinner from their deli/bar area and it was good. We also bought some cheeses and crackers :). We drove around downtown Asheville for a little while, looking for the ABC store, but instead found a beer shop that William really enjoyed. We came back to the cottage watched some TV, got ready for bed, found out the stuff had been taken from the car, waited for the police and were finally done with all that about 2 a.m.

Saturday we had a wonderful breakfast. She is a truly amazing cook!! Then we went to the Biltmore Estate. It was really interesting, huge, and yes, I am saying amazing again!! We couldn't take pictures inside and the gardens were not in their splendor, but it was still very nice! We also visited the winery, William tasted the wines, I had some pretty darn good grape juice! We also ate an appetizer from the Bistro - we had french onion soup and it was out of this world! Since we didn't even think of having reservations for Valentine's Day, Terry had made some extra reservations "just in case anyone needed them" but they were late (9:30). We snatched those up for S&W Cafeteria (S&W = Steak and Wine). We had the best steak we have ever had, it just melted in our mouths... it was awesome! The sides are big enough for two people, so we had to agree and we chose the loaded baked potato with no butter and sour cream on the side, it was quite tasty too! For dessert I chose the chocolate covered strawberries and we had off handedly mentioned it was our anniversary and they gave us our dessert for free! That was a nice little bonus.

Sunday we enjoyed Crème Brule French Toast and oh boy was it good! We drove around waiting for things to open and found the salon where our couples massage was going to be. We didn't really find anything we liked when we shopped while waiting for the massages, but we did have fun window shopping! We arrived for our massages and they gave us a soothing foot soak. William was a little weary of the robes because all the ones hanging up for sale were very feminine, but the ones for the massage were beige and very comfortable. The massages were amazing, the ladies did a wonderful job. While I don't remember smelling anything, William says his lady had garlic for lunch LOL! Not overpowering, but he could smell it! We drove around some more after the massages, then went back to the bed and breakfast for some delicious cookies from the endless cookie jar and recommendations for dinner. We went to a restaurant called Salsas. It was not your ordinary mexican restaurant. It was excellent though! After dinner, we got back to the cottage early and watched Nights in Rodanthe... it was good, but William wants to know why someone always dies in Nicholas Sparks novels/movies....

Monday we had breakfast in the cottage and I ate the omelet! and it was good! I don't think I will be eating them regularly though... but it was good. After we checked out of the bed and breakfast, we went to the arts district to look at pottery. The first place they had just left for lunch, the second place was closed, the third place wasn't what he was looking for... so we started the journey home. I wasn't feeling good and wanted lunch but he wasn't hungry, so I waited too long to eat lunch and had a horrible headache most of the way home, but overall we had a great time and I can't wait to do it again!!!

Oh, and it's a big deal that I ate the omelet because I DO NOT like eggs!!!! But I was very open minded and tried new things on this trip!!!