Exhausted, Fatter, Happy

My long weekend/mini-vacation with Girlmama was fabulous. I picked her up at itty-bitty Asheville Airport on Thursday morning, and our first stop was my son's place, so she could see how her niece had grown. After we visited for a bit, we headed downtown for a late lunch at Tupelo Honey, where I saw a woman I'd seen at the airport when she was also waiting for a friend to arrive. Apparently it's normal to arrive, drop the luggage off, and head straight for Tupelo Honey - we left with half our food in boxes, because the portions are definitely generous. Girlmama was tired from her trip and took a nap.

On Friday, we got a fairly early start on our touristy day and headed for the Biltmore. We definitely got our money's worth out of those tickets - we toured the house once, went to the farm area and petting zoo, and Girlmama caught her second wind and decided we should tour the house again, this time with the audio headsets. It wasn't too hot or too crowded, and we really had time to appreciate the details and imagine what it was like as a family home, with an endless stream of celebrity houseguests and a resident pack of St. Bernards.

While it's easy to think of the superrich women of the era as fairly superficial crowd, based on the way they are often described - "debutantes and daughters of and wives of..." we came away truly admiring Edith Vanderbilt. She could easily have lived as a superrich wife with a more than full time job just managing that massive estate (with its large indoor heated swimming pool and private bowling alley - in 1900!) In addition to her "housewifely" duties as executive manager of the equivalent of a high-end luxury resort, but which was just her home, she was deeply involved in local issues. I visited the Biltmore before, but on that trip I don't recall taking this much time to think about the lives lived there - Girlmama caught on to it immediately, was fascinated, and had to go through the house twice, more slowly the second time, taking it all in. I appreciate the family much more after seeing the house with my daughter, whose insight is so much sharper than my own about these details.

We stayed longer than I'd thought we would and definitely got our money's worth out of those tickets. We had maybe 2 hours of down time before we went downtown to meet my son and his family for a downtown street festival (crowded and street food and beer). We bugged out of that after a while and went on a walking tour to find dinner, and landed at a Thai fusion sushi place. Yeah, sounds bizarre, but the curry was wonderful and our server (a pretty girl with long blonde hair) was incredibly nice and helpful, and suggested the perfect meal for Supergirl - chicken satay served with slices of cucumber. It was a huge hit, and we all enjoyed our curries.

(Needless to say this was a lot of walking for the pregnant lady, and she slept in the next morning.)

Yesterday we had a 50% chance of thunderstorms, but chanced a drive up the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Pisgah Inn. We drove a bit beyond it, thinking of stopping at a waterfall or two, but the clouds started looming and we turned back - as it turned out, just in time. We ate a late and amazing lunch at the Pisgah Inn, and watched the thunderstorms roll in and obliterate the view completely, until we were dining suspended in a gray cloud. I'd never eaten there before - I'd always thought it would be one of those places that is more atmosphere than food, but again, this weekend was a learning experience. The food is first rate, the staff is efficient and friendly, it was amazing - especially the dessert. Should you find yourself in the area and decide to stop there for a meal, share the French silk pie - one slice will do it for the entire table. It's not really like "normal" pie at all - it's a silky, insanely rich and nearly solid wedge of fudge with a decadent toasted almond crust, served with vanilla ice cream, fresh local strawberries, whipped cream and a drizzle of chocolate. You have to work to get a fork into it, it's that fudgy. Insanely decadent and sooo worth it, but definitely to be shared with at least one other person, and three or four could be satisfied with one slice.

Today was a dark and stormy day, and we did brunch out, watched hours of 30 Rock on Netflix and did laundry, and I dropped her at the airport more than an hour before her flight (though I think at "Mayberry International" we could have cut it to half an hour with time to spare). Tomorrow it's back to the real world, after a delightful weekend of indulgence. I need to do a week of tons of veggies and lean protein to begin to undo the delicious damage.