We had been trying to get together with Kim and Tom for most of the summer, but schedules did not work out. We finally landed on a weekend hiking in Asheville in October.
Accommodation: Cedar Crest Inn - Apparently Asheville hotels sell out in October, so it was a struggle to find anything. Kim was able to find this place - a bit between an Inn and a hotel. We got the "suite" - which was two rooms on the top floor of an adjacent house, sharing a bathroom between. In the same building there were a couple of other rooms on the ground floor and a shared bath there - as well as a large communal sitting room. The main house was reasonably nice - old wood paneling and very traditional furniture. Breakfast was included - there was a dining room for all the guests. The only downfall is that the beds were "European" which is a fancy way to say "small and uncomfortable".
Activities:
We left the house at about 4pm for the 4 hour drive to Asheville - but were stunningly unprepared. In fact we turned around within two minutes once we realized we did not even have our camelbacks with us. Keith wanted to take the Audi on the off chance that we could be topless for the weekend - alas the weather did not support that objective. The drive was a bit crummy as it spit down on us most of the way. However, we arrived at 8:15pm as anticipated, getting there only minutes after Kim and Tom. We quickly put our stuff in the rooms and headed out to dinner, which was then followed by a few beers at a pub. We were quite proud that we arrived back at the inn at 1:30am, though that was mostly because we did not start until 9pm!
Art Loeb Trail: Not quite the fall foliage we were expecting
After breakfast on Saturday, we headed out for our hike. It took a bit of a drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway to get to the start of the Art Loeb Trail, where it was sub-30 degrees and snowing! We were not exactly prepared for severe weather (Keith was in shorts), so after about 10 minutes of shivering we headed back to the car and decided to instead try Graveyard Fields. This was a far better decision - there was no snow, it was less windy, and by the end of it we actually saw weather in the mid-50s. We ended up doing a total of 4.5 hours of walking, so it was a really nice day.
Art Loeb Trail: A bit too cold for us!
Graveyard Fields Trail: Much nicer!
After a quick shower, we had our complimentary glasses of wine in the lounge before heading out for dinner. The goal was to head over to the Grove Park Inn for after dinner drinks, but all four of us were too tired to execute against that plan.
After breakfast on Sunday, we decided to try a couple of shorter hikes that were vaguely on the way home: Table Rock Mountain and Hawksbill Mountain. These were far harder to find than they sounded on the web site - the trail heads are only 2 miles apart, not 5 as we interpreted. Both hikes were "out and back" and rather short - but had beautiful views. After a final meal in Hickory with Kim and Tom, we made it home by 8pm.
Table Rock Mountain
Restaurants:
Dinner at Salsas
Salsas - We had originally planned to go to Limones, our "usual" place in Asheville, but Kim had heard from a friend that Salsas was excellent so we opted to try that. The restaurant is very casual - but the food excellent. Kim, Shawna, and Keith all started off with mojitos - traditional, mango, and ginger - Shawna thought the ginger one was excellent. The fried plantains, guacamole, and spliff rolls were great appetizers. We shared several entrees including the Ultimate Molcajetes (a stew with a variety of meat and seafood in a lava pot) and Cuban Mojo Steak. Kim had the Sweet Potato Paquetez (fancy word for a burrito). It was way too much food but very tasty!
Cedar Crest Inn - We had breakfast here both days (included in the accommodation). The coffee/tea was self-service, with what was described as a "3 course breakfast". However, the first course was a tiny bowl of fruit, the second was a muffin, and the last was quite simple - so while filling, it was not quite three-course luxury.
Corner Kitchen - This restaurant was also suggested by Kim's friend and was excellent. Located in Biltmore Village, it is tucked at the end of a street in a building more than 80 years old. We kicked off dinner with a bottle of Fiddlehead Cellars Sauvignon Blanc. We shared a bread basket and Almond Crusted Brie (well, Keith ate more than his "share"). Keith and Shawna started with the corn and crab chowder and the calamari and shared a grilled fish dish served over chorizo mashed potatoes for our entree. The food was very tasty!
Carrabbas - Typical chain restaurant fare, this was Kim and Tom's first Carrabbas experience (Keith and Tom would have preferred Outback but that would not have really met Kim's vegetarian needs). We were ravenous since we had skipped lunch, but quickly filled up on the Bruchetta and umpteen bread baskets. Keith and Shawna shared "The Johnny", which is a Sirloin Marsala and Chicken Bryan with mashed potatoes, preceded by a house salad each.
Once we found out that we are moving to Colorado, we just had to have one last weekend in NYC. As luck would have it, Keith's brother was going to be in the city for ten days, so we timed a trip up to Manhattan to coincide with Graham and Marissa's trip. We also happened to be in town at the same time as the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, though we opted not to participate!
Accommodation: Hyatt Grand Central - since this was last minute, we actually had to pay for the hotel - no points were available - yuck! The hotel is undergoing renovations, so the place is a bit of a war zone. The good news is that the lobby will no longer feature 80's style brass fixtures. Our room was renovated and is quite nice, with the only negative being that the shower was designed to have water run out of the shower, not stay in.
Activities:
Keith flew in from Denver and Shawna flew in from Raleigh, both of us arriving a bit after lunch time. We shared a cab from Laguardia. Our first stop after checking in was lunch at the Grand Central food court. After that, Keith had to do some work while Shawna relaxed and also worked out in the hotel gym - technically she was still at Blue Cross, but took her last day as a vacation - a tough way to wrap up 6 years of employment!
Priscilla Queen of the Desert Musical
We headed out to meet Graham and Marissa for 7pm, but left it too late as cabs were hard to come by. We ended up walking over to 2nd Avenue and finally got a south-bound cab to meet them by 7:15pm. Graham found The Redhead restaurant so we could have pre-dinner drinks, then we went to The Hearth for dinner. It was great to see Graham and Marissa - they are now 5 months pregnant so Marissa was the designated driver without the driving part. We wrapped it up by 11pm and all headed to sleep.
We woke up on Saturday and grabbed a quick breakfast in the hotel lobby before doing our usual 6 mile run around Central Park. The weather was perfect - in the 60's so we made it around the park with no problem. After cooling down a bit we showered, changed, grabbed another quick lunch at Grand Central, and then went to the Palace Theater to see the musical Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. The musical is a remake of the Australian movie, and was terrific - great music and totally campy. This is now one of Shawna's favorite shows - she says better than Mama Mia.
Outside David Burke Kitchen
Since dinner was at 6:30pm, we headed to SOHO immediately after the show was over - taking the subway to get there a bit faster and cheaper. Shawna had found the Soho Grande Hotel online as it has an outdoor bar, but looking from the outside it seemed to be vacant so we gave that a miss. Instead, we walked back up to Barolo for our first drink and then to Diva for another before our dinner at David Burke Kitchen.
We slept for 10 hours (outstanding!) so got up at about 8am to grab breakfast and go for another run in the park. Since we did not need to leave until 3:30pm, we grabbed our lunch back at Grand Central and then went to see Moneyball at a theater on Times Square.
It was a great weekend - and now back to the real world, with Shawna heading to Hartford for her first day on the job at Cigna and Keith back to Denver.
Restaurants: Hale and Hearty Soups - Our regular place for a quick lunch by the Hyatt. Directly underneath Grand Central lobby, the food court has oodles of quick lunch spots, with no national chains. Keith got his usual salad and Shawna ate the chicken curry soup.
The Redhead - This is a little restaurant near our dinner spot - we stopped in for a couple of glasses of wine before dinner.
Hearth - The restaurant looks quite romantic from the outside - it is a bit noisier than we had expected, though (not a problem for us). We started with the escarole salad and smoked bluefish, then the four of us shared the charcuterie plate. For our main course we shared the pappardele with wild boar: excellent! we wrapped up the meal with a poached pear tart and a cheese plate.
Barolo - This restaurant/bar is enormous. It has an outside garden out the back of the restaurant, but looks much better in pictures than in real life. The fountain in the very back is helpful in providing white noise, but the service was a bit slow. We only had one drink.
Diva - A few streets south of Barolo on S Broadway, the Diva restaurant/bar is pretty cool - the front was totally open to the outside, a DJ played some good music, and we sat at the bar for a drink. In good weather this is a great place.
David Burke Kitchen - the Kitchen is David Burke's newest creation (though honestly we have not been to any of his other creations). Upon arriving we saw that there is a rooftop bar on the left, which would have surpassed our two other outdoor bar choices had we known it was there. The restaurant is slightly subterranean, but does have windows higher up so there is natural light. We arrived at 6:30pm so were there with the blue plate special crowd to start - but it did fill up after an hour or so. The bread was OK - bizarrely the bread basket had carrots and radishes which seemed out of place (and definitely not good with butter!) and one of the bread types had olives - not to our taste. We started with a "snack" of mini tuna tartar tacos with whipped avocado - delicious. The appetizers we chose were the pretzel crab cake and scallops and short rib ravioli. The scallops were the winner there. For our entree we had duck for two (it was the recurring Saturday special) and we added "smoked beef fat and jalapeno french fries" as well as the wild mushrooms. Excellent! for dessert we tried the coconut cake with coconut-mango sorbet. Both were good, but not necessarily together.
Our good friend Melissa called us eight weeks ago with a huge surprise - she's getting married - in Venice (yes, Italy) - the first weekend of October. After finding that we could get one flight on points and the other quite cheap, we of course booked it right away!
Because we had already arranged most of our vacations for 2011, we did not have a lot of time to spend in Italy, so we only made it a long weekend. We flew out on Wednesday to Venice via Philadelphia, arriving on Thursday morning and we returned on Sunday.
Accommodations: Ca' San Polo - A friend of Melissa's found this place and since it was convenient and relatively cheap for Venice standards, we booked it as well. The room was quite large and very clean and the manager at the front desk was really friendly and incredibly helpful. The hotel is within 10-15 minutes walking distance from all the major sites.
Activities:
We arrived by mid morning on Thursday and took a private water taxi to our hotel. This of course was quite expensive but we figured worth the money so that we didn't spend two hours wondering around the streets of Venice trying to find our hotel. Our room was not ready when we arrived, so we walked to Saint Mark's Square to check out the area. Along the way, we stopped several times to admire the beautiful carnival masks and glass items in the gift shops (the nearby island of Murano is famous for its glass blowing). After walking around for over an hour, we grabbed lunch at one of the restaurants near the square - we ate a pizza while soaking in the bustling activity that surrounded us. Of course, we had to also grab a scoop of gelato after lunch which unfortunately to our waist lines, became a regular ritual after all of our meals!
Saint Mark's Square
We returned to our hotel to take a nap and then we went for an early dinner. Following dinner, we met up with some of the people who were attending the wedding for drinks. Taverna Del Campiello, the bar / restaurant where we were supposed to meet, was closed (the sign on the door suggested it had been closed for a couple of days - we joked that it probably failed the health inspection) so Melissa and Sebastian chose another place across the Rialto Bridge: Al Pesador, which has a fantastic outdoor patio on the grand canal. We stood outside by the water, drinking away prosecco and meeting all of their friends (a few of which we had met on previous occasions through Melissa). After we closed the bar down, we stopped by another bar (clearly we had not had enough) for a few more drinks. Finally, at 2am, we walked home.
Apparently a long night of drinking and a bit of jet lag wiped us out and so we found ourselves sleeping until 2pm the following day! We were so embarrassed by this but found out later that another couple had done the same. We missed the walking tour that we had pre-arranged so we went to Saint Mark's Square and toured on our own. We visited the Saint Mark's Cathedral, the Bell Tower and the Doges Palace. By this point, we had enough of tourist attractions so we walked along the waterfront to a nearby park, in an attempt to get some exercise. On our way back, we stopped to have dinner at one of the restaurants along the water.
Saint Mark's Cathedral
Gondolier
On Saturday morning, we got up early (to redeem ourselves from the day before) and went on a three hour photography walking tour. It was just the two of us and the photographer. He spent the first 30 minutes telling me all of the settings that I had wrong on the camera and then we spent the next 2.5 hours walking along the alley ways and canals, shooting pictures of 'Venice street life', all while he critiqued my choice in composition. Keith joked that he if had criticized me for 3 hours straight that we would probably end up taking separate flights home! We did enjoy seeing a side of Venice that we otherwise would not have seen; however, I didn't find that the photographers instructions were all that informative. After this, we grabbed a quick slice of pizza and returned to our hotel to get ready for the wedding.
The wedding was at St George's Anglican Church, a small but really cute church about a 10 minute walk from our hotel. It was a traditional ceremony that thankfully was mostly in English! Melissa, of course, looked beautiful, wearing a dress that looked remarkably like the one worn by Pippa at the Royal Wedding. We joked that we should post the shot of her butt online to see if she got as many 'like' postings as Pippa did!
Melissa and Sebastian
Following the wedding, we took water taxis to the reception which was located on the waterfront in an ornate building with marble columns, paintings on the ceilings and huge chandeliers. We gathered in the main lobby for 'cocktail hour' which turned out to last for about 3 hours and included way too much food (cheeses, meats, seafood, etc). We retreated to dinner in one of the dining rooms on the second floor to find another 5 courses that were served for the evening!! The food was really good but of course, we ate way too much! We sat with the 'American' friends, most of whom we knew from previous occasions so had a great time chatting with them. Following dinner, we munched on various desserts that were available at the dessert table and then we went back downstairs for a few hours of dancing - to songs spanning four decades. We had a great time dancing and hoped that we had worked off at least a few of the courses from dinner. About 1:30 in the morning, we finally decided that we should return to our hotel since we had to get up early the following morning to get to the airport. Much to our surprise (and thankfully with our sore feat), our hotel was about a 2 minute walk from the reception.
Sunday was uneventful as we got the airport and flew home. We got through customs in Philly rather quickly so we were able to hop on an earlier flight back to Raleigh.
Restaurants: Ristorante Terrazo Sommariva - Located on the Grand Canal near the Rialto Bridge, the restaurant was certainly touristy but the food was good and the location was great as we got to watch the gondolas floating by on the river. We shared a caprese salad and then split a pasta dish and a yummy steak in a green pepper sauce. The waiter asked if we wanted fries or salad with the steak so we ordered the fries, not realizing that it was extra money. When we got the bill, the usual 12% service was included but we found it humorous when the waiter asked if we wanted to pay the extra tip on the credit card or with cash - quite presumptuous as he didn't even ask if we wanted to tip extra!
Pensione Wildner - Located near Saint Mark's Square, the restaurant was very nice with outside seating overlooking the waterfront. We shared a shrimp appetizer dish followed by a gnocchi dish and the steak with green pepper sauce (you can tell we really liked this since we ordered it two nights in a row!).
