Weekend in Asheville

Just got home this evening from a bachelorette weekend in Asheville, NC. It was a nice, much needed weekend away with my best girl friends. My girlfriend from college who happens to have also been one of the photographers for our wedding, Annie, is getting married next Sunday.

So we all took off to the mountains this weekend to celebrate "Hell Freezes Over Weekend." Because since we have known her, she has sworn she'd never get married. Well, what do ya' know? She happened to meet the right guy and has been forever changed.

Asheville is such a great little town. The downtown area is so great, with tons of cute boutiques and great restaurants. Friday night we went to an Indian restaurant called Mela. I have to be honest - when Miranda first told me we were going to be eating Indian that night, I was a little disappointed. Of course I wasn't going to say anything, but Indian is not my favorite. But I figured I could find something that I would be able to handle.

Oh, man. If you are ever in Asheville, you should try this place. It was so wonderful. We started with some appetizers, one of which was an Indian version of fried chicken tenders that were served with the most wonderful sauce of cilantro and mint. Heaven! So, so good.

My entree was grilled chicken that had been marinated in cashews, yogurt, cream, saffron and cardamom. It was served with a pineapple mango chutney. Wow. I'm going to puree pineapple and mango and dip my grilled chicken into it for the rest of my life now. It was so good and refreshing!

Everyone loved their food. We all had said that we would all kind of share our meals, but halfway through dinner we realized no one had offered to share anything because everyone was so into what they were eating! Not only did we not want to give up any of our delicious food, but we didn't care to try anything different. I highly recommend it.

Saturday morning we headed to a spa. We each had a facial and a massage scheduled. Since there were 7 of us, we couldn't all be serviced at the same time. There were only a few of us being treated at one given time. Not to fear for the rest of us who weren't, though, because we had full use of their heated pool, sauna, and hot tub. Of course, I wasn't able to take advantage of the sauna or the hot tub since that's a pregnancy no-no, but I did put my legs in the hot tub. It was seriously hard to keep myself from just getting on in. Really, I had to keep telling myself that it wasn't worth risking the health of my baby just to feel good for a few minutes. But it was like having a big piece of warm chocolate cake with a scoop of cold ice cream in front of you and being told you can't eat it. Gosh, I don't know which would be worse. But let's hope I'll only have to be faced with one of those situations in my lifetime.

Also making the time pass nicely was the great food that Miranda so graciously brought for us to snack on. She and a couple of the other girls stopped by an Earth Fare on the way over and picked up some fresh fruit, olives, cheese and crackers, hummus and pita chips, sandwiches and orange juice and champagne for mimosas. It was so good! And the ladies at the spa were nice enough to take it and transfer it to nice serving trays and bowls. We pretty much took over the spa for the afternoon. It was quite the experience. We all walked around all day in big fluffy robes and sandals, sipping on hot tea and mimosas, getting our faces renewed and our bodies massaged. What more could you ask for?

That evening the ladies partied it up, but being preggo, I decided to abstain from the festivities. I joined them for dinner but headed back to the house afterwards. I had some sleep I needed to catch up on anyway. It was fun listening to the all the night's stories this morning, though. They had a good time even though it sounded like Asheville may not have been ready for that rowdy bunch of girls!

I was glad to get back home today. Josh and Bennett picked me up from Miranda's this afternoon and I was so glad to see them. They both had huge grins for me when they saw me.

Josh's parents were at our house with them this weekend. We had a closet project that needed to be addressed, so Josh thought it would be a good opportunity to accomplish that while also having a little help with Bennett while I was away. Steve and Lynn were happy to come. Steve is a huge help when it comes to carpentry projects, and Lynn is fantastic with Bennett. He absolutely adores her. They must have had fun - he didn't take a nap at all yesterday! His little engine just kept on running, and they let it, since as soon as Bennett laid down it would mean the work would have to stop. The closets that were being worked on were right next to his room.

Anyway, thank you to Lynn and Steve for all your help, thank you to Josh for being a wonderful dad and husband, and thank you to my girls for helping me relax for a weekend! I love all of you!