Hi all,

This will be a brief TR to update y’all on how well our little anniversary get-away to North Carolina turned out. We planned a Saturday – Wednesday excursion, starting in Raleigh with a day to visit the Capitol (our 16th) and ending with three days in Asheville.

Gonna hit the high points:

+We met and took pictures with Ryan Kesler of the Vancouver Canucks. It was NHL All-Star weekend and he along with two other players were hobnobbing at the Enterprise rental location. Great start to our trip. Kesler was super nice.

+We managed to drive to both Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill after our Capitol tour. Duke’s campus was gorgeous. Also after circling forever without finding a (legal) parking spot finally decided to call in a to-go order of shrimp and grits at Crook’s Corner. It was pretty good, but I guess I’m a SNG purist ‘cause there was too much going on with the plethora of mushrooms and onions. Tasty, tho.

+We stopped at Carolina Bar-B-Q and the Little Pig the next day en route to AVL but both were closed on Sunday.

+We ate at three highly suggested restaurants in Asheville: In the end 12 Bones and Red Stag Grill were my least favorite. I so wanted to like them, but just didn’t. Delish breakfast at Corner Kitchen was so good that I ate the leftovers the next morning for breakfast. Yu um! Perhaps our best Asheville meal (outside of Biltmore) was the Noodle Shop on the corner of Broadway and Patton.

+We absolutely LOVED our apartment. It was above Curtis Wright Outfitters, right across the street from Corner Kitchen. The place was gorgeous, cozy but spacious, and more than met our needs. I was so sad when we first walked in because it was SO nice and we had only three nights. We made the most of them! www.biltmorechapmanhouse.com Property manager was great to work with. The entire transaction was more streamlined than ANY other vacation rental or hotel experience.

+We almost had Biltmore Estate to ourselves, since it was the off-season. Admission during this period was only $29 per person. We added the $10 audio guide and the “friends and family” tour for another $17. This was a bargain really because just weeks earlier admission alone was $69 per person. The docent who led the special tour wasn’t as informative as we’d hoped, but we may be a little picky since we once served at docents at an historic house. Anyway, it was worth it just to see additional rooms and learn about how the family entertained and who were there favored guest. We enjoyed being there this time of year, tho we’d like to return during warmer weather to enjoy the gardens. If you go, please do yourself a favor and have a ham-n-cheese croissant in the coffee shop. Oh my goodness. It was so very good. Secondly, have lunch in the Stables Café. The food is very good.

+We watched the weather forecast back home and the day before we were to leave decided to extend our stay through Friday to avoid the fiasco at DFW and take advantage of AA’s one-time, no fee flight change.

+We used the two extra days to drive to Columbia for our 17th Capitol! Woot! Woot! Score. We absolutely loved this Capitol even if it meant our tour was joined by about 40 high-strung high schoolers. Senate was about to vote on a measure, so we go to watch a little of the legislative action. The building itself is very pretty and well maintained. The ladies rooms were immaculate! Quite possibly the best of any Capitol we’ve visited so far. The gift shop had beautiful, useful items. Everyone was so friendly. Unexpectedly the best visit we’ve had so far. Another surprise stop was Pawley’s Front Porch – featured on Diners, Drive-ins & Dives www.pawleys5points.com Go for the Fripp Island Burger – great beef, homemade salsa, boursin cheese, bacon… oh so yummy! They had great sweet tea, too.

+We left Columbia and drove to Charleston. Can you believe it? We were to have been home and back in the grind, yet we were en route to one of my top Southern destinations. It was after dark when we arrived so we quickly found a hotel, had a nice dinner at the Crab House on James Island and called it a night. DH had to work the next day, so I ventured out solo to Sullivan’s Island. DO NOT miss Fiery Ron’s BBQ www.hometeambbq.com . I’d had a lot of seafood and so opted for this place. Cannot tell you how much I enjoyed the pulled pork sandwich and mac-n-cheese. They’re ‘red’ bbq sauce should be sold in stores. Just the way I like it. Tangy. Drove around a bit, took some beach pics and headed north to Isle of Palms – very pretty community. We ended the day (after DH’s marathon of conference calls with dinner at a little Italian spot called Bocci’s – www.boccis.com Very good Caprese salad and more ziti than I could eat alone.

+We loved The Carolinas, despite me coming home with the flu. Not good, but especially not good when you’re pregnant. That’s why this report is void of real structure and photos and could be full of typos. Sorry. Hope you enjoyed it a little.

Safe and happy travels y’all.
cdg

CDG - so glad y'all had a great trip! You got a lot of good stuff in. Hope you feel better soon!

SO glad you had such a great time! Hope you feel beter soon. Come back when you have more time!

Our family owns a large mill about 3 blocks from the Capitol building in Columbia. It has been there since the late 1800's in what is now the quaint part of Columbia with some history. Hampton Inn bought a little frontage of land to build a hotel there, and when they did the excavating they found all kinds of Civil War cannonballs that had fallen short of the Capitol building when Sherman came through.
Sorry about the shrimp and grits--that is NOT Bill Neal's recipe!

hey jen, i'm much better now. still a little under the weather, but on the mend.

we'll definitely be back, sue. DH thoroughly enjoyed and was surprised by the hospitality and beauty of your city and state.

gretchen, wow! i wish i'd known. we would have driven by the mill. how cool! no worries on the grits. it was good, even with the addl ingredients.