North Carolina Getaway

Every summer, the admissions representatives from music schools all over the country go to a few summer music programs and recruit future students there. These summer recruiting trips have always been PJ's favorites. He has wanted to take me to North Carolina to experience Greensboro and Asheville and Brevard with him ever since he got into music admissions.

Well, this year we decided to make it happen. We left the kids with some WONDERFUL and SAINTLY friends of ours here in Burbank, and spent five glorious days together. It was the best "mini-moon" I could have asked for.

Of course, PJ had to work two different college fairs and stay up with work via his laptop, but beyond that, we were free to sightsee and sleep in and eat out and do nothing to our hearts' content. In Greensboro we took advantage of a "blue bike program" that Dasani has at a park and checked out two blue bikes to ride the trails in the park.

The trails went by some incredible lakes and through gorgeous wooded areas. They were not wonderful bikes, by any stretch of the imagination: one gear, pedal backwards to brake, squeaky and a little rickety. But they got the job done and it was so fun.

We stayed in Greensboro for three days, and then drove 3 hours to Brevard, just outside of Asheville. Our hotel was right next to the entrance to the national forest with a total of 250 waterfalls in the neighboring counties. We decided to go hiking one afternoon and check it out.

Of course nobody told us that you could SWIM at the falls!!! We wish we had brought our swimming suits.

The picture above is Looking Glass Falls.

This one below is Hooker Falls. We were so sad about not bringing our suits that we got up at 7am the morning of our 11am flight home and drove back to the falls to swim in the now freezing water!! But it was totally worth it.

You could walk right up to any of the falls, and we finally did on this one: High Falls. It was rather slippery, but so cool to be right next to the rushing water. Don't ask me why we both thought the appropriate pose was the "chicken wing" pose in these two pictures.

PJ was fascinated by these falls, especially the little outcropping of rocks that caused this big spray in the upper left.

Our non-nature experiences consisted of 1) incredible food at various bakeries and restaurants. PJ showed me his favorite place in Greensboro, Ganache, with AMAZING cakes and delicious entrees. Our favorite breakfast diner served the biggest and tastiest biscuits and gravy I've ever had. We ate lots of barbecue, but I found it odd that none of the restaurants offered any kind of beef---it was all pork and chicken. Hush puppies abounded however.

2) movies, movies, movies. We went to the THEATER and saw Night at the Museum 2, State of Play, and Harry Potter 6. I wasn't a huge fan of Harry Potter, unfortunately (too slow and anticlimactic for my taste) but the others were great.

3) Reading and sleeping and otherwise lounging.

Contrary to my previous beliefs, I didn't really miss the kids. Is that bad? My mom swears it took her 5 days away to miss us, so I guess my 5-day trip was perfect. I was very happy to see them when I got home, of course. I think getting away for awhile makes me a better wife and a better mom. We're taking them with us on PJ's next recruiting trip to Aspen, Colorado tomorrow, so we'll more than make up for lost time with them in the CAR. I anticipate a much less restful trip this time.