dixieland delight

We had an absolutely fantastic weekend! We arrived in Asheville around 5 or so. John's parents were five minutes behind us, so we met up and did a little Chinese firedrill for the last hour of the trip. Their car is in the shop, they had a new Volvo XC90 as a loaner car, which I got to drive. I love love love that car and totally want one now! My birthday is coming up next week....


Anyway, we checked into the Grove Park Inn, which is gorgeous. We met up with John's parents, Matt and Noreen, and Sam and Dave for a Seafood Buffet. I ate way too much (quelle suprise!), but it was yummy. After dinner, the guys headed back to the main bar to meet up with the wedding party while Sam, Noreen and I made our way to Elaine's Piano Bar. We had an absolute blast singing and dancing along with the dueling piano guys.

On Saturday morning, I woke up and headed down to the Spa for an 80-minute hot stone massage. It was absolutely amazing. If she had asked me if I wanted to pay $500 for 20 minutes more, I would have done so in a heartbeat. After the massage, I stuck around the spa for a few more hours. I did the contrast pool (alternating pools of 64 and 100 degrees), the sauna, the outdoor hot tub and had lunch on the sundeck. Then I headed back to get ready for the wedding.

The wedding was gorgeous. A friend of the groom is a minister and performed the ceremony, and his dad played the piano. The food was fantastic and their band was incredible. Lots of dancing by the entire Short clan. A couple of the wedding guests told us that they recognized Sam, Noreen and I from our hijinx at Elaine's the night before...slightly embarrassing, but whatever. After the wedding, we headed back to Elaine's and closed the place down. The end of the evening was a little fuzzy for me, but I'm pretty sure I had a great time despite EVERY request that I made to the piano guys being shot down. Bastards.

Today, we woke up and headed home. There was one 20 minute stretch where I thought I was going to die, but because John is AWESOME he did most of the driving and let me sleep pretty much the entire way home. The girls had a great time with Nonna and Pop-pop....but they definitely missed us. A didn't let me get more than a foot away from her without screaming bloody murder, though she's kind of a mess because all four of her molars are coming in.

But, everyone else is tucked in their beds and asleep...and that's where I'm headed as well. I have work meetings Monday through Wednesday that include dinners and the like, so most likely I will not be posting until later this week.