This weekend John and I slipped out of town for our annual holiday trip to Asheville, NC. We drove over yesterday morning in a rainstorm. The rain magically turned into flurries in the mountains then reverted back to a cold rain with high winds by the time we arrived at our destination.

We stayed in the charming 1950's motor court, Forest Manor Inn, owned and operated by a delightful couple, Leona and Lloyd Kirk. Just down the street from the Biltmore Estate, the inn is located on prime real estate. Each year when we call for reservations we expect to find that the inn has been sold. This weekend Lloyd told us that they plan to keep the inn as long as they can. We hope it will be a number of years to come, we would miss the knotty pine paneling, baseboard heating and shower that runs hot or cold. We would also miss the warm hospitality and the fresh squeezed orange juice, hot coffee and hot walnut bran muffins carried to our room in the morning.

Weary after several long weeks at work, John and I made few plans for our Asheville adventure. We lunched at Laughing Seed, dined at Jae Thai restaurant (Westgate Shopping Center, Asheville. 828-4155), decaf and dessert at Old Europe Coffee House (18 Battery Park Ave) and enjoyed Sunday brunch at the low country Southport Cafe (Dingle Creek Shopping Plaza). After this line up we are not eating much until Christmas!

Although Asheville boasts of many unique shops and galleries, we shopped lightly leaving out many of the places we usually visit. We did, however, get to Tops for Shoes, Liberty Bicycle, New Morning Gallery (our favorite gallery in Asheville), Mast General Store, Chervon Trading Post and Bead Company and a few others. Saturday was rainy, windy and very cold so we stopped to stroll through Malaprops Bookstore and Cafe and enjoy some yummy hot chocolate. The area around Malaprops is developing nicely with the addition of new shops each time we visit the area. We also slept, read and generally relaxed. We had a great weekend, enjoying the opportunity to focus on each other prior to the upcoming busy Christmas holidays.