Greetings from Asheville, North Carolina

Wondering where to take your next vacation or considering a great place perhaps for retirement? Well, Asheville is a lovely mountain resort area not too far from the Smoky Mts filled with culture,art, history, outdoor adventure, and grand vista scenic views. It’s where a blend of mountaintops,vibrant streets, amazing architecture,creative  energy, bohemian culture, craft artisans, micro breweries, outdoor recreation, and the pristine wilderness of the Blue Ridge Mountains engage your curiosity and challenge your sense of discovery all come together. It definitely rocks as a place to find renewed passion for life in the every day world. The Grove Park Inn is one of the town's two biggest tourist attractions. Built in 1913 it has several fine restaurants, boutiques,a wonderful resort spa, and incredible views from atop its hillside setting.

Grand Bohemian Hotel

Where else can you travel around the World in one amazing location? Such a place indeed is the Biltmore Estate nestled in a beautiful 8,000-acres Blue Ridge Mountain backyard.

Grove Park Inn

A view of Asheville's downtown from the Grove Park Inn Resort patio

 We were inspired by the relaxed elegance of George and Edith Vanderbilt's 250-room family home and country retreat in Asheville.

The Biltmore House

The Biltmore House and Gardens took six years to complete in 1898. It was inspired by French chateaux, built by Old World craftsmen, and adorned with masterpieces from Europe, Japan, and China.

 Biltmore House overlooks the 8,000 acres Vanderbilt owned to a mile beyond the mountain peaks

View from the Biltmore House

The self-guided tour on the estate infuse stories about the Vanderbilts, plus displays of vintage clothing, storytelling, and period pieces that showed what it was like to live in or visit America’s largest home in the early 1900s.

Walled Garden

Conservatory

 Of course, we couldn’t help but enjoy original art from masters such as Renoir, magnificent 16th–century tapestries, Napoleon's chess set, a library with 10,000 leather bound volumes, a Banquet Hall with a 70–foot ceiling, 65 fireplaces, an indoor pool, bowling alley, gymnasium, priceless antiques and the lovely gardens.

Garden Pond with water lilies and koi

Great fun was had on several behind the scenes guided tours. The Butler Tour allowed us to see all the doings under foot for running the household’s enormous staff.

The Architecture Tour lead us into the Biltmore attic space to climb out on one of the roof top dome areas and along a catwalk ledge to see the grand views from high atop the chateau.

Gargoyles, Griffins, and Grotesques were carved by old world stone cutters working off scaffold

Stepping out along the ledge with the gargoyles

 Legacy of the Land Tour provided us a wonderful drive into the estate’s private countryside to learn about George Vanderbilt’s role starting the first scientific forestry conservation project in America. He donated most of his 8,000-acre backyard land to the government for establishing the first national forest. To be filthy rich and wealthy enough to zealously support a worthy cause is certainly a defining legacy for one man’s character.

Carriage house clock tower and copolas

Toasting to family, friends, and the good life at the Biltmore Estate Winery

Getting to Know About the Moravian Community of Old Salem, North Carolina

St Philips Church is the oldest African American church in the state

We came across a quaint historic Moravian church town within Winston-Salem while visiting our friend Janet Hendley in Greensboro, NC. It was a delightful place setting us back into life as it was in 1766. Old Salem’s story and the evidence of its history have been preserved and continue to be discovered in the common story of the many people that built this country as immigrants.

Moravians emigrated around the world to practice freedom of religion and avoid persecution. One group known as the Wachovia tract of North Carolina settled in Old Salem where we visited. Theirs was a collective and communal history that charted a planned path to become a community that flourished like few others in the late 19th and into the 20th century.


David Tannenberg organ

Black organ keys

The town's restored and reconstructed buildings in Old Salem, staffed by living-history interpreters, is a excellent place to catch a view of Moravian life in the 18th and 19th centuries. This historic town features include skilled interpreters such as tinsmiths, blacksmiths, cobblers, gunsmiths, bakers and carpenters, actually practicing their trades while interacting with visitors.

Approximately 70% of the buildings in the historic district are original, making this a truly unique living history museum. Substantial historical and archaeological research has focused on Salem's historical African-American population. Moravians even educated enslaved members of their community, teaching literacy skills and even some professional trades when slavery and segregation were prevalent in the South.  

Our travels continue to unfold new experiences of enlightenment as we progress along on the journey.

Gunsmith inlays on a rifle

Moravian pottery

Baker makes 80 loaves per day

Old Salem Tavern and Beehive Bakers oven

Exploring the Outer Banks of North Carolina

Sunrise at Oregon Inlet on Cape Hatteras National Seashore

Of the 130 miles of barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina, only a portion of Route 12 is one able to travel upon Cape Hatteras National Seashore today.

Sunrise at the Outer Banks

One of the barrier islands was severely flooded out by Hurricane Irene thus closing the main stretch of road to the south. Mosquitoes are ever so ferocious and abundant in the marshy areas now due to stagnant waters. Lots of debris piles left by the hurricane now line the roadsides everywhere. 

It was surprising to see so much commercial and residential development in the northern region of the Outer Banks. In addition to miles of coastal beaches there are lots of other tourist attractions to enjoy.

 

At Kitty Hawk the Wright Brothers National Memorial Monument and field, where the first air powered flights occurred on December 17, 1903, is worth a visit. A small piece of wood and cloth off the wings of the original Wright Brothers plane is on display. These samples flew with Armstrong when the Eagle landed on the moon.

Fort Raleigh on Roanoke Island, the very first English settlement in the New World during 1587 before Plymouth, Massachusetts or Jamestown, Virginia were ever settled, is interesting.

 It tells of the mystery about the Lost Colony’s total disappearance on the island. Even in 2010 the use of newly developed technology - radar tomography- that locates geophysical anomalies has found no evidence of early English skeletal remains on the site Roanoke Island Festival Park has lots of living history to see.

Roanoke Island Indian Village Reconstruction and Dance circle

1587 English settlement shelter

Blacksmith making nails

Fishing for blue crabs off Roanoke Lighthouse Pier

A bucket full of blue crabs

Aerial view of Bodie Lighthouse on Cape Hatteras

The most fun on the Outer Banks was running our Jeep in four wheel drive out on the beach over twenty miles of sand and dunes searching for the Wild Horses of Corolla which roam free there.

Off to find the wild horses of Corolla

Corolla Beach entrance... where the payment meets the sand

Whoopie... gotta love driving on the beach

Numerous beach houses sit on the outer dunes off unpaved roads

 Unfortunately the allure of sighting these descendants of Spanish mustangs was all that materialized for us during the adventure.











Sunrise photos during an early morning sand dune hike