Another fabulous weekend in the mountains, in TN this time...

Friends Sonya and Mac Cissna and their son, Micah hosted us in their mountain home this weekend.  Like our usual mountain trips (backpacking), this one had a beautiful sunset, a colorful sunrise, a nice blazing  campfire and memorable time spent with friends.  Unlike our usual trips, this one had a warm king sized bed, a nice couch for sitting, dinner in downtown Gatlinburg and a rollicking game of hearts.

Sunset over the Smoky Mountains

We arrived at the Gatlinburg Visitors Center around 4:15, delighted that traffic through Pigeon Forge on a Saturday afternoon had been quite reasonable.  Mac met us at the Center and led us through the winding roads up the mountain behind the Center (spots still showing signs of last week's ice and snow). The temperature dropped about 8 degrees between the foot of the mountain and their beautiful  home.  We were happy to see a warm fire blazing in the fireplace and Sonya waving on the deck!  After some catch up chatting (re: everyone talking at the same time), we watched the sunset over Mt. LeConte.  Beautiful! 

       From left, Mac: Sonya and Micah Cissna, me and John at No Way Jose's in Gatlinburg

Sometime after sunset, we headed down the mountain to downtown Gatlinburg for dinner.  No Way Jose's was our restaurant of choice and we were not disappointed.

         My dinner selection, Jalisco Trio,  included 3 corn enchiladas - shredded beef with ranchero sauce, chicken w/ tomatillo sauce and white cheese with onion and green tomatillo sauce.  

After dinner we strolled through The Village in Gatlinburg and enjoyed the holiday lights.  Then we  headed back to the car and up the mountain for a game of heart, yep, 500 points of testing our brains.  John and I haven't played hearts for several years and we required a pre-game refresher.  On top of our rusty skills was the fact that we were playing with a deck of pink (save the ta-ta's) cards.  Diamonds and clubs were fairly easy to distinguish but the hearts and spades caused me a couple of screw ups.  Finally we got to bed and watched a few minutes of Saturday Night Live before falling into a restful sleep.

                                          Sunday morning sunrise from our bedroom window

 We woke to the sounds of Mac stoking a fire.  When we finally extracted ourselves out of our cozy bed we enjoyed coffee by the fire.

                          The wall of windows reflect the morning view of the mountains and trees

                  Inside looking out from the wall of windows, Mt LeConte is visible in the distance

                                         View of LeConte and the snow covered mountains

The trip ended all too quickly and we headed back to Knoxville to start thinking about the week ahead.  Sonya, Mac and Micah, thanks so much for your invitation, your warm hospitality and your friendship over the years!  We had a great time!

1st Anniversary Weekend...

We had a busy 1st anniversary over MLK weekend.  Friday night we joined friends Will Skelton and Kim Robinette at the Sunspot for an early celebration.  We had expected a smaller dinner crowd based on the long weekend but, much to our surprise,  the restaurant was busy and we had to wait for a booth.

As usual, we over indulged in appetizers-oh so good chips, verde salsa and chickpea fritters before our meal so we struggled a bit to complete our main courses.  Time flew, we finished dinner, ate dessert, laughed a lot and realized 3 hours had passed. Time to grab our coats and head out into the cold, the place was closing and we had overstayed our welcome.

On Saturday we were off on our 3 day anniversary get away to Asheville and the elegant Inn on Biltmore Estates.  We had been planning a celebration for several months, ruling out the Snow Inn at Yellowstone and Yosemite.  The Biltmore Inn suited our criteria, close (so we could maximize our time off), elegant and relaxing.

We stopped in Asheville at the REI and  Liberty Bicycle then headed to the Inn.  Apparently the reservations office and I had some confusion with the package we thought we had purchased but we ended up in a  beautiful 6th floor room with an incredible view of the mountains.

Inn at Biltmore Estates

Once we drove through the Biltmore main gate and a hotel guest sign was placed in our front window, we were saluted and ushered  through various guards. The 2+ mile drive along winding estate roads instilled a real sense of a get away from city life.   Through our car windows we gazed at partially frozen creeks and pristine snow covered grounds. It was all very beautiful.

Our room, subtle and elegant

Our 6th floor room was low key and elegant.  The bath was marble and tile and quite large.  If we had any real complaint, the hotel seemed to pump in warm, dry air in massive quantities ...in the room, in the lobby, in the hallways, the restaurants and elevator. Sorta felt like visiting a nursing home. During the 2 days we were there, we could feel our skin and hair dry out.  Turning on the a/c made very little difference.  John's other biggest complaint was the fact that he was address as "Mr. Smith" the entire trip.  I had make the reservations in my name and the hotel had no way of knowing our names are different.  It made me smile but him, not so much.

Sunset watching from the large bay window in our room was sacred time, we didn't miss it either night.

Sunset the first night was the best!

Our room overlooked Antler Hill Village with the lights of Biltmore Village visible (to the right of above photo). After sunset, we headed to Antler Hill Village for dinner at Cedric's Pub. 

The hotel concierge did not think we would need reservations on a slow weekend in January but he was wrong.  Biltmore has a very captive crowd with the on property Inn, wait times and prices reflect this.  We finally settled into a first come, first serve table at the bar and dined on salad and fish and chips.  The food and the service was very good.

 Sunday was Biltmore Day

Us on the grounds in front of the house...estate...mansion...

We took the basic Biltmore audio tour, it was so nice.  I haven't been to Biltmore for 11 years, John hasn't been for over 20 years.  We both saw new things and learned a lot through the tour.

One of many elegant windows framing the greenhouse

If you know me, you know I love flowers, gardens and just about anything outside.  So after the house tour we walked down to the greenhouse and strolled through the rooms and aisles.  Pots of Amaryllis and Christmas cactus had been planted among the greenery, it was all quite beautiful.

John looking at the lush greenery

Can't you just imagine having this in your backyard?

Amaryllis, one of many varied and beautiful blooms

The Library at the Inn on Biltmore Estates, where tea and drinks are served

View from The Library windows

After the tour, we headed back to the hotel for a drink in the lobby, sunset view in the room and a delicious 1st anniversary dinner at The Dining Room.  Can you believe that last year, at this same time on our wedding evening, we had stopped to eat dinner at a gas station Arby's on the way to Berea, KY? Anyway, back to this elegant dinner, the dress is jacket and collar shirt for men and business or dressier attire for women.  Some guests conformed to the rules, others did not. 

We had a delicious, 3 course meal.  For the course, I had she-crab soup, John had duck terrine with a glass of Biltmore wine.  For our second course, I had a seared King salmon fillet and John had a fillet.  We finished dinner with coffee and seven layered chocolate cake.  It was all delicious!!

John in the lobby reading the Monday morning paper

         The lobby of the Inn on Biltmore Estates

Monday, after checking out, we went back into Asheville.  We had a light breakfast at City Bakery and went shopping at Tops, Malcrops Bookstore and the New Morning Gallery.  Overall, we had a great trip and loved the Inn on Biltmore Estates and would recommend it to anyone interested with one concern noted below.

Aside from the confusion with the reservations, we had one incident that really left us feeling a little sad about the experience. Today, I received a "thank you for your business" email with a note at the bottom about a $300 smoking charge added to our bill.  Neither John or I smoke!!  After a phone call with Lyle Stover, assistant housekeeping manager and a few accusations about smelling smoke in the room and cigarette butts in the trash, we were finally credited with the $300.  We still have lingering issues with being accused of smoking and the fact that we did not receive an apology for the accusation.  Your guess as to what happened is as good as ours, we are mystified.   

In the grip of winter...

Our little southern city remains in the grip of winter. We had a light dusting of powder overnight added  to the 3" on the ground. Roads are mostly clear outside of neighborhoods but work is erratic, opening and closing at odd hours.

Knoxville gets a real winter storm every few years but rarely to the degree of cities to the north.  Yet it is enough to snarl traffic, close schools for days and send our local reporters to points north, south, east and west  to do emergency roadside remotes,  ad nauseum.  And so the winter storm of 2011 continues...

Another snowy day...

We started our day listening to the news and phoning for  weather updates.  The predicted snow materialized in the early hours of the morning and we woke to about 3", big snow for Knoxville.  UT texted a 2 hour delay to employees and students then closed all together.  My work status was less certain, first  a 2 hour delay, then 3 hours and finally 4 hours. We opened at 12:00 and closed at 3:00 PM, making some people happy that we showed up and some unhappy that we arrived late and closed early.

With work out of the way, it was time to play. Well, at least for me.  John grabbed a snow shovel and cleaned off the driveway.   

He is a methodical shoveler,  pushing snow in one direction and going back to scrap at ice spots caused by our boots. 

Looked like fun so I decided to help him but the minute I picked up a shovel, he started in on Ice Scrapping 101.  I got tired of this lecture quickly, especially the part about extra scrapping on the ice spots so left the work to him. 

Meanwhile, back at the garage, I grabbed one of the sleds and decided to take a few runs down the back yard.  Only problem with the backyard is that at the property line, just before the alley, we have a row of scruffy trees and bushes.  I began to have visions of loosing control of the little plastic seat in which I would be riding and going face first into a tree.  

Okay, here I go!  The first run was pretty slow, as a matter of fact I had to scoot a bit.  The second run got faster and, as the snow packed down, the runs got faster.

The backyard seems pretty big when mowing but on the sled, not so big.  As the runs got faster, I would stick my feet out sooner to slow down.  As a result, the runs got shorter.  I finally had enough.



After an hour in the snow, time for a cup of hot chocolate and some serious computer time.

Finally, we got the following card in the mail this week.  Can you believe it , our 1st wedding anniversary is coming up this weekend.



Random comments on a cold Sunday evening...

We finally took our tree down today, the official sign that Christmas is over.   Holiday lights linger in the windows of some of our neighbors so the 2010 Christmas spirit continues on...or our neighbors have less motivation than us.

We initially planned to "de-Christmas" on New Year's Day but missed that goal as well as our 2nd goal of a Christmas free Epiphany.  Finally today, Epiphany Sunday, we stripped the tree, loaded it into the trunk of the car and drove it to Ijams Nature Center where, along with hundreds of other trees, it will be reduced to mulch for trail maintenance.  

John tossing our tree onto the Christmas tree pile at Ijams Nature Center

                                   That's our tree, the one on top, to the right of the white pine



After unloading the tree,  we decided to walk around Ijams and enjoy the wonder of winter.  Snow from Saturday's crazy storm lingered, most small ponds were mostly frozen. 

We were surprised by the layer of ice that had formed across the surface of such a large pond, and pleased to catch the light reflecting just right..

Another one of our self portraits.  John, wearing his new hat and down jacket is a happy (and toasty warm) boy!

Icicles, in various levels of melt, hung from the cave located along the river walk at Ijams. 



This view of the Tennessee River is not visible for 3 seasons of the year due to heavy leaf cover. It's a treat to gaze through the leafless trees at the snaking river. More pictures are available in our Picasa sight : 

http://picasaweb.google.com/johnandbeverly74/IjamsNatureCenter010911#

This winter I think I have turned into some of my friends with poor circulation, I am having a hard time keeping warm. This factor is affecting my desire to get outside to exercise so I am looking for some solutions.  John set my bike up on one of the trainers in our basement today, now I have no excuses for getting back in the saddle.  We are also looking at treadmills.  I have narrowed the search down to a Sole F80 and a Livestrong LS13.0T.  The treadmill is instead of a new bike purchase planned for this year.  I love to run more than I love to bicycle so I know I have made the right choice.

Another prediction of snow tomorrow.  This is suppose to be a big one but Todd the weatherman has had some misses recently so we will see!

Snow again, really?!...

According to the Wednesday gospel of Todd the weatherman, expect a little lunchtime rain (grab your umbrellas boys and girls) and a few flurries in the late afternoon.  Miss!!  These photos were taken at  4:00 PM. It was still snowing at 6:00. 

On another note, the boys came over for dinner tonight.  Since their mother moved out of town, they seem to be hungry and bored more often.  John was in heaven, prepping pizza and catching up with the details of their day.  A little TV watching and some homemade pizzas later and we were all in heaven!



Incredible!



From our kitchen window!

Cooking at our house...

In a couple of weeks, we will celebrate our first anniversary.  While my sweet husband has many standout traits, one of the best is his cooking.  Never mind the fact that I usually have clean up duty, coming home to the smells and sounds of dinner percolating on the stove is just the best!  

                                  Tonight's dinner, cabbage, grilled chicken and grilled vegetables

Over the last year, John has become more creative with his culinary efforts using new spices, big splashes of balsamic vinegar and even a little salt.  This year he has been tasked with cooking healthy to help me loose some his efforts from last year. It will be an adventure...

Happy New Year 2011...

The New Year has arrived with 12 months of new opportunities and challenges.  Happy 2011 everyone!

I am back on the blog, or so my New Year's resolution reads.  My posting was very spotty in the last quarter of 2010, due mostly to perceived lack of time and facebook distraction.  Facebook has gotten boring again, time is still a bit of an issue.

We brought the New Year in at home, watching the ball drop at Time Square, TV is good for that sort of thing.  Earlier in the evening we attended a party hosted by friends Will and Kim, their 6th annual NYE event.  After a little socializing, we slipped out and headed downtown to watch Knoxville's version of the ball drop on Market Square.  Rain arrived around 11:00 PM, just as weatherman Todd had predicted and the event was not what we expected, so we scurried back to the warmth of the car and drove home.

This morning we woke to buckets and buckets of rain.  The weather was just not conducive to getting outside.  After some discussion, we headed back downtown to catch a matinee showing of "Little Fockers." Gotta love living within 2 miles of the city!

Thanksgiving...

Another great Thanksgiving is over.  We celebrated as we have for the past several years, at the nursing home, with my mother, eating an assortment of Thanksgivingish foods that were "carry-in" ready.  The successes included turkey from Honey Baked Ham, sweet potato casserole from Pimentos and the family favorite, Ocean Spray cranberry sauce.  The canned stuff is a tradition from my father's side of the family.  On the not so good side, green bean casserole from Pimentos that appeared to be pulverized before cooking. 

I have a favorite moment from this Thanksgiving, a moment  that I will tuck it away in my memory.  The moment involves my dad and a gentleman named Mr. Murphree, who lives in the nursing home on the same floor as my mother.  Mr. Murphree is 99 years old.  He used to live in the retirement complex and often ate lunch and dinner with my dad.  One of his favorite things to do as he entered the dining room was to sing "You are my sunshine" to the staff.  Sadly, Mr. Murphree's memory got the best of him and early this year he was moved to the nursing home.   

My dad often stops to talk to Mr. Murphree when he is visiting my mother. More often than not Mr. Murphree does not remember him.  Today, after lunch, my dad sat down with Mr. Murphee to talk.  Mr. Murphree kept reaching in the depths of his memory but could not quite remember my dad.  After a few quiet words, I heard my dad raise his voice and sing "your are my sunshine, my only sunshine..." .  Mr. Murphee's voice joined in and they sang softly, my dad who does not sing and Mr Murphree who remembered the words...

Play date...

If you think the blog looks just a little different, you would be spot on!  Sat down yesterday to do a little tweaking and  ended up with a big blue mess. Blogger has changed some of it's editing methods and somehow, in the spirit of edit exploration, I downloaded a new template.  There was no going back to the old one so with some effort, I remembered the name and location of my most favored template and reloaded. It's not exactly as before but I like the look so it will probably stay as is, unless of course, I make the same mistake again! 

Tonight we had reservations at backcountry Campsite #13-Gregory's Bald.  We have been glued to the most current  weather forecast over the past few days and each update indicated that backpacking tonight was an iffy proposition, especially for two people that haven't spent much time in the back country this year. 

This morning we pulled the plug on the trip.  7" or more of snow was predicted for the higher elevations and Gregory's Bald, at over 5000' was a prime target for accumulation.  As it turns out, our decision was correct.  While we are currently sitting in sunshine, accumulations in the mountains as of late afternoon had already reached 7".  Oh well, we are disappointed.  We had looked forward to sitting on the bald, cooking dinner and watching the sunset. 

To compensate, John took the day off and we went out to play around town.  After a delicious  sushi lunch, we went to the movie, "Social Network", the only flick we could agree on.  Being facebook addicted, I looked forward to the story of the early days  about but thirty minutes into the film, I found the whole process dirty.  I  am not sure that feeling is going away anytime soon! 

A longish run...

With vacation a little more than halfway over, I finally have a day to myself.  No appointments, no places to be, just doin' what I want to do!  Yeah!  I like these days!  

I planned my longish run for this morning for the reasons noted above.   The term longish refers to my goal of completing 10k and because the 13-mile runs I logged about this time last year are a distant memory.  As usual when the weather turns cool, I tend to overdress the first few times out.  This morning was no exception, the temperature was 46 ish and the sky overcast...looked cold to me.  Not long before my lightweight fleece vest was scrunched around my waist.

During the summer, when I am fighting the heat and humidity, I tend to forget what pure joy running can be.  No equipment needed, just simple body movement, one foot in front of the other.  This week has been dedicated getting that feeling back.  Today, as I commanded my feet to move across the pavement, my senses seemed to be heightened.  I could see the reds, gold and browns of fall, smell the damp earth and leaves and feel the intermittent rain that fell through much of my run. I was happy to be in the moment, feeling my body work through the miles.   While not every run is this good, I took advantage of this one.  I reached my 10k goal and kept going a bit, just because I could.   

Running (and bicycling) again...

I mostly enjoy my job but I am on vacation this week...off, out of the office, gone fishing. Reminiscent of the good parts of unemployment, I can sleep late, linger over coffee and facebook and watch Ellen on TV. Vacation also offers me an opportunity to refocus on running.  

Many times on this blog I have voiced my difficulties with running in heat.  I count my success by how late in the season I can run before putting away my running shoes. This year I actually suffered through August without completely throwing in the towel.  Good girl I thought, you made it through the worst of summer. But my success was short lived.  September arrived with back to back to back above 90-degree days.  Every evening the weatherman ticked off another sweltering day.  When the long, hot, dry month finally shriveled away, we were one "above 90-degree day" short of the all time record and my running shoes were in the closet.  I had lost my motivation, my mojo, I quit caring about the run.

Then a wonderful thing happened, the weather changed, fall arrived and I started thinking about running again. I laced up my running shoes and hit the road last week, it felt good.  This week, so far, has been great!  Yep, that vacation thing again.  I linger over coffee and facebook, then head out.  Running like this is comfortable, relaxed and fun.  It has been and will continue to be a bit of a rebuilding process.  Next week, when I return to work, I am going to have to find the discipline to slip out of bed in the cold, dark hours of the early morning instead of turning off the alarm for more sleep.  But I have hope and I have goals again.

With the onset of cool weather, I also pulled out my bicycle.  I have only  been on the bike a couple of times this year and last week proved a bit uncomfortable for my rump.  While I favor running, I am better on the bicycle, faster, more confident. I am trying to decide whether to abandon my 18 year old Trek 1400 for something shiny and new.  The answer should be easy but the investment is big and if I am not going to ride regularly, then the money is wasted... 

Good-bye September, so long October...

The weather has finally settled into fall and we watch as the days fly by.  One glance at the calendar reminds me that the moments of my life slip by without capture, my blog posts are becoming further and further apart. I am still working out the kinks of being married, working full time and doing all the other stuff I use to do.  I have been mostly successful at the important stuff and mostly unsuccessful at the rest.  You'll have to ask John which is which :-)

The following is the month of October in quick review...




On Sunday, October 3, we took our annual trip to Carver's Apple Barn in Cosby, TN.   It was a cool, grey day.  Low hanging clouds and light rain made for dramatic scenery. 


We have been to Cosby for apples almost every year since we started dating (in 2000). We take a picture at the same pull off every year.  In a few years, we will have a pictorial essay of our aging!  



In the early days, we purchased 1/2 bushels of our favorite apples. I spent days coring, peeling and dehydrating apples to enjoy on various backpacks during the upcoming year. These days we aren't backpacking as much so we sample from the many baskets of apples, choose a few favorites and buy small bags to take home and dehydrate. This year we also picked up some blueberry jam and honey.

Saturday, October 9th found us at the Hola Festival.  Our favorite festival moved from Market Square to the 100 block of Gay Street, which provided all 27 participating countries more space.  

Did I say this is our favorite festival??!!!  Lots of good food and music...



Sunday, October 10, we were still in the festival mood so we headed to Maryville for the Fall Foothills Festival. The usual crafty booths, banjo music, hot dogs and funnel cake stuff left us a little disappointed. Typical East Tennessee festival atmosphere. We have marked this festival off our "must repeat" list!!

Sunday, October 17, we decided to take a walk. We didn't want to do the usual walk around the block so we ended up taking a walking tour of Mead's Quarry and Ijams Nature Center.  The "walk" extended much longer than expected and by the time we walked home, we had logged six miles. Summer flowers were still blooming wildly even amongst the changing autumn leaves.  

Us at Mead's Quarry

The weekend of October 22-24 rolled around pretty quickly and we found ourselves hosting John's sister Laura and her husband Richard for the Tennessee-Alabama game.  They drove their Harley up from Tuscaloosa, AL Friday night  and joined us and John's son Lee for dinner at the new Brazilian restaurant Brazeiros Steakhouse.  It was a bad experience for all, long wait (even with reservations), questionable service etc.  We won't repeat the experience.

Saturday morning the four of us went to Market Square for breakfast at the Market Square Kitchen.  The place was packed with football fans from both teams.  Slow service again but tolerable because we weren't paying the grande bucks.  After breakfast, Laura and Richard  hopped on the motorcycle and headed to the Maryville Harley shop while John and I strolled through the Farmer's Market.  Saturday evening we shuttled Laura and Richard to and from the game. It was a late night for us and we enjoyed sleeping in Sunday morning.

Sunday morning, October 24, we decided to do a Fall 2010 Colors Tour.  The Foothills Parkway, which rolls through the the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains National Parkway is only 35 minutes from the house and is less traveled by leaf peepers which makes it the perfect choice. 

The colors were great, the traffic light and we had a lot of fun driving through the foothills and Happy Valley. 

Beautiful...

October is a special time of year for us because we celebrate my Dad's birthday, 87 years this year.  We had our first celebration on his official birthday, October 26 at Shannondale Nursing Home, so my Mother could participate. Dinner included her favorite food, Kentucky Fried Chicken and cupcakes from The Cupcakery. 

Today, Sunday, October 31, we had our big birthday celebration at my house.  We grilled steak, roasted potatoes and asparagus.  Getting the family together is always a good time though we missed Mother's presence.

Me, Daddy and Carol  (Leslie and Mike were not here yet, John is behind the camera).  Below, the birthday boy!