A getaway for Mom and Dad

Biscuit spent another week at his grandparents' house recently, and Jeff and I saw two - count 'em - two movies!

That Thursday through Sunday was supposed to be my annual girls' weekend away, but one of the girls had a family emergency, and we had to postpone it. Luckily, the people who own the condo we rented were willing to change the dates for us. So we have a prepaid trip just waiting for us to set the dates.

But I had been looking forward to being away from home, and I already had the days off. And one of the other girls felt the same way. So we decided to do a couples' trip. Jeff and the other husband got the days off, and I started looking at hotels at the beach. Ugh! Do you know how expensive it is to get a room at the beach right now?!

I was disappointed, especially since we had the boys get the days off, too. 

Then Jeff said, "Does it have to be the beach?"

I immediately thought about a place Jeff and I stayed about eight years ago. It's an old, pretty inn in the mountains. It was built in 1923, and there are no TVs or phones in the rooms. And there's no air conditioning. For Southern people, that's a scary thing to say. And even though it was hotter this trip than it was the last time Jeff and I went, it was still nice with the windows open and ceiling fan running.

The things I like about this place are numerous. Here are just a few:

1. There's a big front porch with rocking chairs and a mountain view. So even though it rained the first day, we could still sit outside and enjoy the view.

2. Dinner and breakfast are included in the price of your room. So for less than one night at the beach, we got a room, dinner and breakfast at this place in the mountains. The way the menu works is that you get soup, then a salad, then you pick your meat (roast beef, prime rib, sirloin, NY strip, trout six different ways, country ham or Virginia ham). The side dishes are brought out and served family style. The side dishes change each night, but they included green beans and almonds, veggie jambalaya, macaroni and cheese and others. Then you get your choice of desserts. The dessert change each night, too, but while we were there, they included blueberry pound cake with glaze, peanut butter pie, Tollhouse pie, hot fudge cake, lemon chess pie, cherry pie and others. Breakfast was good, too. Grits, eggs, bacon or sausage, pancakes, French toast, omelets and lots of other good stuff.

These are pictures of the dining room from the
inn's website. Everything there is very rustic-looking.

3. Because there aren't TVs in the room, people who would normally be propped up in bed watching go to the lobby to socialize and play games. There is a TV in the lobby, but the only time I saw people watching it was during the news. There are four sitting areas with upholstered chairs. There's a round table with chairs for playing games. And there's a long table with eight chairs, also for game-playing. Both times we've been, there has been a partially assembled jigsaw puzzle on the big table. They have games and cards, magazines and local newspapers, and everybody just hangs out. It was really nice because I think we often depend on the TV just for background noise.

A picture of the lobby that I grabbed from the inn's website.

4. The grounds are so pretty. The building is made of wood with a stone foundation and stone accents. Many of the sidewalks are just big slabs of stone. And many of them have bright green moss crawling along them. The grounds have tons of trees and flowers.

5. Mine and Jeff's bed had a covered wagon on the headboard. It didn't really do anything for us, but I took a picture of it and showed it to Biscuit, and he was all excited. "Mom, did anything else have a covered wagon on it?" "No. Sorry," I told him.

6. The inn is on the outskirts of town, but the downtown area is close by and filled with fun little shops. And because it hasn't been as hot there as it's been here, their flowers are still in full bloom. They had these beautiful arrangements around town, but the ones that I liked the best were the ones on the bridge. There's a river that runs right through town. Half the shops are on one side, and half are on the other side.

Jeff's mom loves bears, so when we saw
this bench, Jeff had to get his picture taken.  

One funny thing about the trip was that eight years ago when Jeff and I went the first time, we sat down in the rocking chairs on the porch. We were there for about 10 minutes, and I said to Jeff, "Okay, let's go do something. I'm ready to go," I said.

"Don't you want to just sit here for a while?" Jeff asked.

"I can't sit still," I said. "I'm ready to go somewhere."

But that trip was pre-Biscuit and pre-kindergarten. On THIS trip, it was all different. I parked my butt on the porch and told Jeff and the other couple that I wasn't budging until it was absolutely necessary! And that's what I did. It was a nice trip, and the inn is definitely on our list of places to visit again.