After three days in heaven (heaven defined as the Grove Park Inn, Asheville NC), eating well, dancing our feet off and enjoying the comforts of inn living, we were exhausted! It was so great to get back to our own beds, our own dinner and our own schedules.
The dance routine was tough. Group lessons on Saturday and Sunday, with ballroom dancing to “The Fabulous Kays” on Saturday night and to “The Embers Band” on Sunday night. Really liked The Embers and spent time this morning Googling the band to learn that they have played local for years: who knew?
After 8 weeks of lessons with instructor Bruce, we thought we’d look pretty good. All l can say after watching the evening dancers who REALLY know how to shag, “we’ve got a long way to go.” The teachers for the weekend were Becky and Ron Blankenship, long known in the Asheville area as Shag dancers. Becky even remembered us from last year, which only means we were so awkward last year we were unforgettable.
The GPI is noted for their outstanding cuisine and they did not disappoint. In three days I had fresh New Zealand mussels, steamed crab legs, lobster Cobb Salad (see photo), crab cakes and a Crab-Cake-B-L-T sandwich to die for. Getting home yesterday evening, we enjoyed cereal and oatmeal for dinner. Tonight and for the foreseeable future, dinner is salad and lots of raw vegetables. 
The 21st-century Grove Park is vastly different from the structure as originally opened, shown circa 1912. In the past we have stayed in one of the two-modern-wing additions, near the dining rooms and ballroom. This time our room was in the central Main Inn, a balconied-interior with a Palm Court on the first floor (palms and wicker seating shown), and a skylight above. Reading the Inn’s brochure we learned that we were next door to the “room of the lady in pink,” the only haunted room in the resort. I kept listening for noises and wondered if we would catch a glimpse of the pastel phenomena. The story is that in the 1920’s a young woman in pale pink stepped out of Room 545 and fell over the balcony to her death in the court below (suicide or murder?).
Would her ghost bother us? At one point during the night I did hear a high-pitched beeping sound but that was DH re-setting his digital clock (?).The rooms look just like they did when F. Scott Fitzgerald stayed there; amongst countless other dignitaries and celebrities, the latest being the Obamas last spring.
The first thing that caught my eye was the bath lavatory, a hammered-pewter metal basin.
Is that so cool or what?The Arts & Crafts furniture, much of it original, was made by the White Furniture Co of NC and the A&C lighting fixtures are by Roycrofters (THE name in A&C styled decorative arts). I loved the room and DH was amazed that I liked it better than the newer wings. Go figure!
Our Beach Music package ‘gift’ was a shopping bag with a jar of cranberry chutney, some honey-B-B-Q sauce, a book on the Inn’s history and a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle of (what else?), the original inn as it looked in 1912 (soon to be a centurion). The true surprise was not the inn but the weather. After weeks of insufferable humidity and working with two full-time de-humidifiers, getting to the mountains where it was not only cooler but breezes kept the humidity low was wonderful. It felt almost like a different country.
I am on the case of getting some medical forms completed so needed to wait this morning to talk to the office nurse. Missed the Flexercise class and have to be at the doctor’s office early tomorrow morning, Bummer! The other calls were to the eye doctor for an update test and responding to a couple of events; one I want to attend, another one we will not.
DesignerDigitals’ “Tip of the Week,” is about making repeated circle shapes to use as a decorative element or as a shaped-mask layer. Week eight in a series of “Shaping” tips this has enhanced my Photoshop skills immensely. Now to do a GPI layout with pictures of our weekend.
Did I tell you about the WHITE PANTS? Purchase new-with-tags (Casual Corner brand), in a thrift shop two years ago (retail $80; I paid $6), but could not get the zipper up; this year I made the supreme effort and now they fit, closely. Of course I had hoped to wear them at the start of summer, the problem being they are heavy cotton satine with full lining and way too hot for NC summers. Well Labor Day is the LAST day for whites, right? And I wore my tight-whites for the first time Saturday night. My new goal is that they will be less tight, if not sloppy lose by next summer; let me tell you it will not be by accident!
Did hand quilting on a pillow-sham for step-son David in the drive to and from Asheville. The opportunity to clean up the sewing room and begin “Leaders and Enders,” as per Bonnie K. Hunter’s Scrap Savers System:www.quiltville.blogspot.com. Began trimming out all sorts of scrap fabrics a couple of months ago – the scrappy Log Cabin sets now number five (5 sets of 6 ea), and the 2.5-inch light & dark, leaders & enders are now cut and waiting by the machine to be sewn before and after any other machine stitched item. That should produce a bonus bundle of four patches to use for just about anything and I have several project ideas; the main ones waiting for winter-snowed-in sewing days of January/February.
Nancy & Don Marple got to NC about the same time we did and because we are both short, Nancy and I ended up at the same end of the pool for aquacise class. Artist and painter Nancy sent E-invitations today to her newest exhibition at the Unitarian Universalists’ sanctuary from September until October 30. “All About Carolina,” are Nancy’s abstractions of landscape as seen from a plane. Her rendition of “Birds Eye View” layouts is her newest endeavor in wet-media, her specialty. Looking forward to it, see sample at right.
And the latest news of the Orange County Arts Commission on whose board I once served), is the reception tomorrow for their new home in the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau on West Franklin street. Director Martha Shannon will be pleased – this means she no longer has to commute to the county seat in Hillsborough, the new offices are just minutes from her house in Carrboro.
Resting this afternoon (yes I do sit down from time to time), continued to read The Man from St. Petersburg, by Ken Follet, one of my favs. The story is getting better and better but I may not get back to it as soon as I would like.
Early tomorrow I have a date to shampoo the two hall runners with the Black & Decker Scum Buster scrubber. That will be my morning workout and after a short rest, . . . . ye gads it will be Wednesday! That’s ‘Domestic Day’ to you, time to do the linens and start cooking for the weekend. So much for a fun holiday – it’s back to reality.
