May 2011 Storm

Tree knocked down on a street near us

Jenn and I were both kept up last night by a very violent storm. It sounded like the rain was coming in at a 180 degree angle at our window (which it may have been). From what we heard, it may have been a tornado, or it may have just been a few very strong gusts of wind, but you can see the damage accrued.

Power lines down

More trees down

More damage

Video Jenn took of the damage

Spring Break Trip to Asheville, NC

Jenn and I at the Biltmore Estate

We finally made it to Spring Break and Jenn and I decided to treat ourselves. We took a multi-day trip to Asheville, NC to visit the city, the Biltmore Estate, and hike some trails on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The first part of our trip included a trip into Asheville. We took the urban trail, which is a walking tour around the city with a brochure explaining the various (25) sites along the trail. Probably the neatest site during the tour was the Basilica of St. Lawrence. It was built in 1905 and is said to have the largest free-standing elliptical dome in North America. Not sure if that's impressive or not, but the lady who worked there bragged about that statistic and online it is mentioned, so I guess it's a big deal. Another interesting thing about the Basilica was that it had a gift shop. Not something we see in a lot of churches. Asheville itself is very artistic. Lots of street musicians, lots of interesting architecture, lots of colors, and from what it looked like to me, lots of homeless people. It seemed a safe and pretty city, but I'm not sure if I'd want to live there. The area around it though is hard to beat.

Me in the center of the city

Jenn in front of one of the old buildings in the city

Our campsite

The following day, Jenn and I decided to go visit the Biltmore Estate. This amazing house was built by George Vanderbilt over 1oo years ago. The architecture is amazing and the grounds are beautiful. We actually got pretty lucky as they called for rain so the crowds were not very large the day we went. It didn't really rain until around 4:30 so we had a full day in before the weather turned on us. We enjoyed walking the grounds around the house, visiting the gardens and bass pond. We visited during the Festival of Flowers so the gardens were especially pretty with many flowers in bloom. The Biltmore is a very expensive trip, but worth doing once. I found the history very interesting, and we both really enjoyed the Biltmore wine tasting. There is no limit to the amount you can taste, so Jenn and I had our fun trying about 8-10 types each. After that we were a little worried we looked like Winos as our tour group were all gone, and the tour group that came in after us were also all gone. It was fun though.

Jenn and I in the gardens of Biltmore

Jenn and I in front of the Biltmore

Jenn enjoying the wine!

That night was a huge storm. Jenn feared for her life and I was a little nervous, too. The tent didn't provide a lot of protection, but we didn't get wet at all, and the wind wasn't awful. Anyway, we survived the night albeit with an hour or two less sleep than we would have liked. That next day we spent hiking around the area. We visited the arboretum and its greenhouse and bonsai exhibit which was really neat.

Jenn at the quilt garden at the arboretum

Pausing along the trail

The boat challenge