Girl's Weekend (part 2)

We stayed at a charming B&B in Asheville, The Princess Anne Hotel. What a delightful, charming place. The suite we stayed in was darling, the night manager was a delight, graciously extending the wine and cheese happy hour for us Yankees! I would definitely go back and stay at the Princess Anne again.






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All in all, it was a lovely weekend, although I hurt for days after I got home. I took my first riding lesson in about 10 years on a great big horse, 17.1 hand TB. It was a blast and boy am I out of riding shape. More later.

Happy Fourth of July!

Wishing all a very Happy and Safe 4th - Happy Birthday, America!

Obsessed?

Ron came home yesterday and found that the T.V. was left on. Hmmmm, the only one home was Holly.

I think she was playing Wii - Star Wars the Clone Wars game. See what I mean? Light saber, Wii controls. The proof is in the pudding...



It all started...

"A long time ago...on a bed, far, far away"

 

Girl's Weekend (part 1)

In May, I was able to "get away" for a long girl's weekend with my good friends Paula and Ann, which coincidentally happened to be around my birthday.

We have been talking and dreaming about visiting the fabulous Biltmore House in Asheville, NC for a while now and that is where we went! Have you ever been there? It is truly magnificent and certainly a place to put on your "places I want to visit" list.

Come along with me on a little tour. As the old saying goes, "the pictures don't do it justice".

We got there a little late in the afternoon due to my flight problems (that is another story in itself - note, you don't want to fly with me, I always have issues - I actually think it's O'Hare airport, ugh). Anywho, we knew we wouldn't have time to tour the house so we decided to see the gardens and surrounding points of interest on the estate.

So, on with the tour...this is the conservatory near the beautiful gardens. The garden's were designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, who also designed New York's Central Park, the Jefferson Memorial and many other outstanding projects.



We strolled through the rose garden...



Don't you just love the color of this rose!



Then we made our way up closer to the house and enjoyed the shrub garden, esplanade and especially the Italian Garden.



I loved this darling statue! He was in the Italian Garden, which design concept dates back to the 16th century.







Here are a couple views of the land surrounding Biltmore.





My friends Ann and Paula. We had so much fun, I don't think we stopped talking and laughing for the 4 days we were together!!



We went to visit the farm animals at the farm yard and then toured the winery and enjoyed the wine tasting! The wine was wonderful and I will be ordering some to give out this Christmas. Here is a pic of the Wine and Champagne Cellar.



To be continued...

Michael's Summer Camp Adventures

Michael has really enjoyed being at Summer Day Camp so far. He's really starting to swim well and has made a lot of new friends! Each week they go on Field Trips to some cool place. Last week they happened to go to the Milwaukee Public Museum. Here are a couple of photos from that trip.

Here is Michael and his group, he's the last one on the right.



This is a great photo - they have a butterfly vivarium (Latin, literally for "place of life")(fancy, schmancy word, eh?) at the museum and Michael met a new friend!

So It's The Laughter...

Can you pick me out of the class photo below?




Yep, this is me!



~we will remember, whenever we remember, the way we were~