Trekking back to NC

My poor, ignored blog.  I think it goes hand in hand with my poor, ignored photography.  Haven't been doing much of either.  I was going to head out and FINALLY do some star photography, so it immediately clouded up.

Julie and I made a trip back to North Carolina, visiting both Asheville and Raleigh.  Asheville is still at the top of our list for where we would live next if we left Park City.  The first day we settled in and then went for a realtor tour through a neighborhood we liked called the Cliffs at Walnut Cove.  No serious shopping.  Just seeing what kinds of neighborhoods are available.

That evening, our friends John and Pattie Steigerwald drove up from Cary to stay with us.

Part of our time in Asheville was supposed to be spent golfing.  We wanted to play a round in the neighborhood we had looked at and another at the Grove Park Inn's course.  We managed to get in a fairly wet round at Walnut Cove.  The course was beautiful, even in the less than ideal weather.

We went from damp, to drizzle, to rain, and back again. And again.  And again.

The course plays long already, but when your balls don't roll at all, it gets tough!  I would tell you what I scored, but I quit counting.

The next day we were driving by the Asheville Country Club.  You can see that the entire course was just a wee bit short of a  pond.  Standing water was everywhere and the predominant sounds was "squish".

Here is the cart path bridge across what would normally be a tiny creek.  Needless to say, that was the end of our golf plans.  We spent the rest of our time wining, dining, and looking at art.

We were staying at a really nice little VRBO house a few miles north of downtown.  It was perfect for two couples.  If you haven't tried VRBO, it is a great way to rent.  It stands for Vacation Rental By Owner (www.vrbo.com) and you can get anything from a shack to a mansion.  You have to be careful about anything that looks too good to be true, but we have used it for rentals all over the country.

Even with the rain, we spent a lot of time out on the porch.  It was very comfortable.

On each side there was a bedroom with a new king bed and its own bath.  All nicely decorated.

On several of the evenings, we wandered into the downtown area for dinner.  Asheville has some awesome restaurants and they are priced much more reasonably than Park City.  We didn't go for a ride on the wandering peddle bar, but they seemed to be having a great time.

From Asheville we headed to Raleigh, mostly to see family and friends.  Unfortunately the rain went with us.  Jumping to the conclusion, it rained EVERY SINGLE day I was in NC.  They actually set a record for consecutive days of rain.  I got up to fly back to Utah.  Sunny, clear skies.  That really wasn't fair.

While in Raleigh, we went to an NCSU football game.  I didn't take pictures there.  Why?  It was raining of course.  And we lost to Louisville.  When you only get to go to one game a year, you think they could get around to winning.

Jim and Carmella Saunders were kind enough to put us up, yet again and we got to see their lovely daughters.   Still so sad that as bright as they are, they both went to UNCheat.  We got to see family and friends at almost every meal of every day.  Still a nice trip, even though I was wrinkled like a prune when I headed back for Utah.

Settled back into Utah again and hoping to go out and shoot some photos.