On Friday, I took the day off to finish a scrapbook for two KC retirees and the Baseball Media Guide for Matt's team. I ended up answering phone call after phone call and email after email until it was 4:00 and I had done nothing but work on my day off! So I decided I would take Monday instead. Little did I know then that I would end up sick (same thing Frank had last week) for the weekend. Anyway, this morning when I got up I still felt lousy so I told Matt I was taking half sick day and half personal because I knew I had to start feeling better soon and I still had to get Matter's book to the printer in Asheville. (I did manage to finish the scrapbook around 11pm last night.)
So today I finished up the media guide and went to meet the printer in Asheville, Stew Auten, who by some miracle, assures me he can have it ready by Friday. Afterwards, we went to JC Penney to find some workpants for Frank. Frank worked 72 hours last week after being sick for four days, so before I got sick, I had promised to take him to dinner tonight. He chose Carrabas in Asheville (he doesn't like the one in Arden.) So we headed there after our mini-shopping trip. I was ready for a nap but the thought of Carrabas' garlic mashed potatoes won me over. I hadn't eaten anything but a bowl of chicken noodle and some mini saltines since Saturday so I knew I wouldn't feel like a full meal but the potatoes did sound good. We arrived and took our favorite seat in front of our favorite chef who fixed us a sample of lobster stuffed ravioli. I have to admit, seafood was not on my list of things I wanted to eat, but I tried it anyway. The lobster was so sweet and not at all "seafoody" so it was delicious. I had my taters and Frank had his calamari and we left fat dumb and happy!
Somehow, we ended up driving through downtown where we saw lots of musicians and some great architecture. One of these days, I am going to spend at least a day photographing all the cool buildings in Asheville. But I did manage to get a few shots from the car:
The top of the S&W Cafeteria Building - which has recently been re-opened. Read more about it by clicking here.
Pritchard Park Sculpture
This guy was actually pretty good, his tune sounded a lot like Matt Nathanson
And this one in front of Malaprop's had gathered an audience by the time we circled around to get another photo
Somehow we made our way out to Montford. The homes we saw there are in direct opposition to what I had always termed, "montford people." The homes were old and very stately and we were very much in "want." The neighborhoods were just beautiful.
Homewood ~ is a restored 1920's stone manor located in Asheville's post-Victorian historic district of Montford. The castle features original hardwood floors, cherry walls, 20 foot ceilings, grand Appalachian stone fireplaces and alabaster sconces. Originally built as a private home, the elegance of the 1920's is translated with luxurious wrought iron chandeliers casting graceful lighting. It is easy to imagine F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and The Vanderbilts listening to Bela Bartok play Mrs. Caroles' grand piano as the notes drift through the halls. (Or so, their website claims!)
Neat old apartment building ~ The Frances
Beautiful tiles line steps outside a Montford cottage
Signs of Spring are starting to sprout up everywhere
As we drove we saw the sign for the Riverside Cemetary. I am a history buff, so I said, "Let's go!" It's really cool when you feed your driver Carrabas food before asking them to drive through cemeteries, because then they will usually do what you ask, no matter how weird they think you are :)
Simply put!
Mostly World War I Veterans from the few I got to read
A bit of history
Final solitude
Some of the tombstones were very elaborate
And some held some pretty important people in Asheville's history, including this mausoleum for the Von Ruck family.
Dr. Karl Von Ruck was very influential in creating Asheville as a center for tuberculosis care. Von Ruck arrived in Asheville in 1886 and opened the very successful Winyah Sanitarium two years later. In addition to treating tuberculosis patients, Von Ruck also studied the disease. After the discovery of tuberculin in 1890, the microbe that causes tuberculosis, Von Ruck focused his studies entirely on developing a vaccine. When Von Ruck's son, Silvio, joined him in 1902, Von Ruck was able to devote all of his time to his studies.
