A brief break

Hey y’all, we are still alive!  Bryan and I are coming off of a vacation hangover because we actually went out of town for longer than 4 days.  Amazingly, it wasn’t a family trip AND we didn’t have any animals with us.  The last time we did this was before COVID when we got engaged.  We did five days in Savannah and Asheville, which was my first time visiting either of these places.  I am out of practice as it relates to going on vacation.  My body was in catch up mode and so I spent a lot of time sleeping and adjusting to eating out constantly.

Bryan and I have made it a general vacation practice to have one scheduled “thing” for the day and then leave the remainder of the time to happenstance (or naps).  It leaves quite a bit of time for serendipity and sometimes those are the coolest moments of the entire trip - such as when we decided to do a night stroll through Forsyth Park and saw the park and fountains in the twilight.  In Georgia and North Carolina, we walked and walked and decided not enough walking, why don’t we try a hike too.  We also drank a lot of beer and ate some excellent food.  Some of the stand out food places in Savannah for us were Cotton & Rye, which was right down the street from our AirBnB, and Bull Street Taco.

Bryan is always encouraging us (okay maybe forcing is a better word) to explore, take the unbeaten path, or get lost in an unknown place.  Which is how we end up eaten by mosquitoes and black flies but able to see the cannonballs still lodged in the fort walls at Fort Pulaski.  And also driving (two hours round trip) to the top of Mount Mitchell for the highest peak east of the Mississippi River.

The only attraction that we booked during the entire trip was the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, which has been on my “to see” list for a few years now.  Do you like tours of old homes / regular homes?  Well then, we would be very good friends, alongside the hordes of very elderly people who came to tour the mansion.  You’d also really enjoy the Biltmore house tour.  Fun random fact: do you know how they dust 100 yr old furniture and tchotchkes?  With a Swiffer duster.  The grounds were extensive and gorgeous, and they do have horseback riding trails if you bring your own horse or schedule a ride through their stables.  We did not and looking at the price list, it did seem a little excessive but may have been worth it.

But now we’re back at home and it’s May.  Texas is going to have mid-90 degree temps for the next few days so I guess we’re also in summer.  This year has rushed by and I’m not quite sure how I feel about it yet.  What have y’all been up to?