Weekend getaway.

Jon and I had a little weekend away in Asheville, which is probably our favorite place to escape to if we get the chance. We went up for a concert, so we spent just one night, but it was nice to get away and relax for a bit. We stayed at a new place (literally -- it just opened this past April) called Brookstone Lodge. It was really nice! We were a little leery about staying somewhere so new, but our room was great, and the people were more than accommodating. Plus, as we found out once we got there, it's locally owned and operated, and we like to support places like that whenever we can.

We had a great dinner at Barley's, as is our tradition, followed by a cream cheese brownie and Boston creme cupcake that Jon and I split from The Sisters McMullen. We wandered around downtown a bit, and I got some adorable tie-dyed pajamas for Ella at one of the head shops.

Yesterday, we had some time to kill between checking out of the hotel and the show, so after a yummy lunch at Mayfel's, we headed out onto the Blue Ridge Parkway for a few hours. It was a great day for a drive...the leaves were just starting to turn (we saw more color the higher the altitude), and despite some spots of rain, and literally driving through clouds at some points, it was really beautiful out. A few pictures:





While on the Parkway, we went up Mt. Mitchell, which is the highest point east of the Mississippi. Since it was a pretty overcast day, the cloud cover was low in the sky, and by the time we up to the summit, we were actually walking through the clouds, which was pretty neat. Of course, the visibility was not the greatest...



...but it was still neat to be SO high up, and the blue sky even peeked out a little bit.



(If you want to see more pictures, click on my Flickr badge over to the right.)

All in all, a great weekend, but good to be home...aside from that whole work thing.