OK, so last/last weekend? Was fun!
Annnnd it’s only taken me a week to write about it.
When we last left our story, Tori was unexpectedly flying out to North Carolina to A) go the the Asheville Homecoming concert and B) spend a couple days at the Grove Park Inn. (I know. I’d hate me too.) I’ve actually never been to the Grove Park Inn before, but I have really wanted to go ever since they shot that Homecoming video there and Russ called me and said it was absolutely gorgeous and we had to plan a trip there immediately. That was in, I believe, 1999. It took us a while. So when Bill and Gloria said they were going to stay over a couple of days and did we want to join them, of course I said, “Oh, H*LL YEAH!!!” OK, I totally did not say that. I would never say that, especially out loud to the nice lady at the Gaither offices. But I hope you will not think less of me when I tell you that I absolutely yelled that inside my head. And possibly out loud to Russ. I’m not entirely sure, there was a lot of happy dancing, hanky-waving and glory shouting going on at the time. Mostly from me.
Anywho, I called our beloved Bridget to see if she could stay with the girls, I went to Costco and loaded up on stuff to stock the fridge– and yes, I realize a better woman would have whipped up batches of heathy homemade meals to leave them, but whatever– I packed my suitcase and I was out the door! There was a layover in Charlotte, and I spent a lovely hour in the airport eavesdropping on a couple sitting next to me in the waiting area who were trying really hard to have a nice quiet inconspicuous Major Disagreement. So of course I had to tweet about it:
Yeah, it’s probably not ever a good idea for me to be in a public place with time on my hands AND a portable means of mass communication…
So I finally landed in Asheville and was whisked away to the Grove Park Inn where it was love at first sight. The setting is breathtaking, the hotel is historical and has a rustic kind of elegance, with giant fireplaces and Mission furniture everywhere. The interior is decorated in the Arts and Crafts style, completely authentic to the period and it was just big piles of GORGEOUS with a side of AWESOME SAUCE everywhere you looked. I settled into my room and almost didn’t want to come out again. Seriously, there are few things on God’s green earth I enjoy as much as a really fine hotel. I’m like Eloise at the Plaza… remember those books? Yeah, I was born for hotel life. Here are some photos:
**One of the lobby fireplaces
**Hand-forged copper and iron light fixture– sadly, would not fit in my suitcase.
**Elevator door detail
**Vintage framed print
**(Interesting bit of trivia: E.W. Grove, the guy that built the Inn made millions by selling this ‘elixir’ called Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic, which was basically quinine that he added sugar and lemon flavoring too, because quinine by itself is bitter and nasty. It was supposed to be a preventative and a relief from the symptoms of malaria, which was prevalent in the mosquito-ridden South. Back in the days of high child mortality rates, it was considered a sign of health to have a chubby kid, which was a big selling point for Grove’s product. I love this ad so much. I might want to get that big-headed pig-kid tattooed on my arm.
** ‘Hall tree’– GET IT?!
**This was in our ROOM!
I finally was forced at gunpoint to leave my room and head to the concert, which was fabulous. (This is where I would be inserting concert photos if I had actually taken any, which was kind of impossible to do since I left my camera in the aforementioned hotel-room-I-would-like-to-be-buried-in.) I sure missed Michael English, but it was so wonderful to catch up with Marshall Hall. He looked and sounded great, things are going well for him and his family in Arizona. I also got to meet some Babybloomr readers, which made me all kinds of excited– I just love it when I get to do that! (And if I hugged any of you guys too hard or too often, I apologize. I had a lot of coffee.) After the concert, Bill, Gloria, Russ and I sat on the bus for a while and talked to the GVB while they sucked down every snack in sight– singing is hungry business, ya’ll. This little interlude was especially entertaining for me because Gloria kept going through the bus cupboards like the Nutrition Police and confiscating any crappy, sugar-laden breakfast cereal they had squirreled away behind the healthy stuff. They cried like little girls. Then the four of us got in Bill’s rental car and promptly got lost eventually found our way to one of those exotic after-hours spots you’ve all heard so much about; I believe it was called the International House of Pancakes. Ate facefuls of pancakes, met even more concert folks and then retired back to My New Favorite Place On Earth and went to sleep and dreamed of angels.
The next morning we woke up to a gentle, misting rain.
The mountain were shrouded in clouds, and under other conditions I might be a little disappointed that we didn’t have perfect weather– but since this was such a quick trip, and since a beautiful sunny day has a tendency to make me try to cram an entire week’s vacation into 24 hours, I actually really LOVED our rainy day. It was the kind of day that gives you permission to just putter around and be lazy, which we did.
Gloria and I spent hours poking around the hotel’s incredible shops and galleries, while Russ and Bill headed down to the spa to get on the treadmills and then relax in the pools. Gloria always has her eye out for all kinds of special treasures that she can order for the Gaither Family Resource Center. Here she is waaaaaay at the top of the stairs talking shop with one of the gallery owners:
I just love her.
OK, but here’s the best part! It was Bill’s birthday, right? Well, we found out that Buddy Greene had also stayed over in Asheville because he was going to be performing at a retreat over at the Billy Graham training and conference center, The Cove, so B & G invited him to join us for dinner that night at our hotel. When he got there, we were seated at a lovely table by the window– here’s what it looked like outside:
Gorgeous.
So we’re sitting there with Buddy and he’s telling us all about the event at the Cove, and how incredible it is to be working with living legends like Cliff Barrows and George Beverly Shea– who is 101 years old, by the way! Russ and Bill chime in too, and they’re all telling stories about these guys, and all of a sudden we look up and there is is this distinguished white-haired gentleman slowly walking by with a cane, and it’s Cliff Barrows! In the restaurant! And George Beverly Shea is right behind him! It was so cool– Russ and Buddy and Bill looked like little kids, they were so delighted to see them. Everybody hugged everybody, and they sat down to visit for a minute. Cliff and Bev Shea were like an old married couple, they finished each other’s sentences and listened to each other’s jokes like they were hearing them for the first time. And trust me, there were definitely some jokes being told! They may be old, but dang, they were sharp– honestly, they didn’t miss a thing and they were FUNNY! It was a big ol’ sloppy lovefest, and here are some pictures that say it all…
(Russ kinda looks like he just got asked to the prom in this one…)
Bill had a great birthday, and we had a wonderful weekend– just wanted to share it with you guys, thanks for indulging me!
