Biltmore

Pam and I decided to give each other a unique gift this Christmas in the form of a Biltmore "membership". Yes, you can actually join the tourist mecca that is the Biltmore Estate!!
While many would automatically think that the house could only be interesting once or twice (they would be right by the way), the Estate has so much more to offer the more than casual visitor. Locals can join with a one year pass and have access to hiking trails, concerts, the winery, a farm and the house. While other visitors are forking out the $59.00 a pop to enter the estate, members can ride in free any day and have a picnic on the lawn, check out the new seasonal gardens or stroll the countless acres.

Pam scored a deal through AAA to get our initial tickets for $34.00 a piece (they are going for $59.00 right now during the holidays) and with a $20.00 upgrade we got full membership.....not a bad deal for unlimited access to what is one of the local treasures.

On Veteran's day we dropped Lexie off at school and went to check out the estate. We took a self-guided tour of the house, hit the winery for a tasting and took a long hike around the country-side.

Halloween

The Sunday prior to Halloween we held our annual Halloween block party, complete with costume awards, movies and good eating. We had about 5 or 6 families show along with 12-14 kids of various ages. "Jim Bob" the redneck cooked hot dogs and the "Wicked Witch" (Pam)organized prizes and did the pre-party fliers.

On Halloween the "Sharp-Toothed Dinosaur" (Lexie) made an appearance on our street as we visited neighbors to Trick-or-Treat. Lexie came back with a boat-load of candy and even a stuffed Scooby-doo halloween toy!!

"Colonel Sanders" (Jim) recycled his costume for the 4th or 5th year and went to play an Ultimate pick-up game in costume. On the way to the fields the Colonel swung by the local KFC to "check on business" and score a bucket of chicken for the costume. The Drive-Thru clerk took a picture of the colonel on his cell-phone because he thought it was so cool! The good colonel scored a 2nd place finish in the costume contest! (This after winning three parties in prior years).

We are already looking forward to NEXT Halloween.

Yurtin'

Last weekend, Pam and I traveled for an overnight trip to the Nantahala River Gorge area SE of Bryson City for a night away from Lexie for a belated 9th Anniversary celebration. We originally thought of either staying at a bed-n-breakfast or camping but instead I found an Adventure Camp called "Falling Waters" run by Whitewater Rafting Company that had a "Yurt Village". If you have never heard of a Yurt, it is a circular Mongolian tent that is built onto a wooden platform. The yurt we stayed in had a mini-fridge, heater and four-poster bed! On the premises was a hot tub and clean bathrooms and showers. So we kinda ended up in the middle of the hotel-camping experience. The Yurt was very nice so I highly recommend it to any looking to stay in the Outdoors mecca that is Nantahala. We will probably go back to enjoy some white-water rafting, horse-back riding and train-riding through the Smokies.

Pam and I took a hike to a finger at the Eastern end of Lake Fontana and were amazed by how low the lake was! We are in a drought in N.C. (about 11 inches below normal) and I swear the Lake was down 15-25 feet. So much so that we ended up hiking in the lake-bed and found old coke bottles and other interesting lake-bottom things like fish-bones.

Lexie had a nice stay with her Mima and Papa (Jim's parents).