What a weekend!

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day, because I sure did! First of all, I had a great time all week while he and I did a whole lot of nothing. Since he works from home, he'd take me to work in the morning, work at my house, then he'd drive downtown to meet me for lunch. Thanks to a good suggestion from the Holbrooks, we had a rather nice inexpensive lunch at Tic-Toc Diner two days in a row. The other days, Dan and Colonel Mustard brought lunch from home and the three of us ate outside on the benches.

On Saturday, we got up early and drove to Asheville, North Carolina for a little day trip excursion for Valentine's Day. The surprise? We went horseback-riding outside a little mountain town called Marshall. It was a little cold and foggy, but it was absolutely beautiful. If you've ever wanted to do something like it, I would highly recommend Sandy Bottom Trail Rides, the people were so nice and the area was so beautiful.

When we arrived, we were quickly assigned horses. Dan got a HUGE workhorse (seriously, it used to be an Amish horse, and easily held all 6'5" of Dan), and I got an older, but really energetic white horse named Cotton. Cotton and I got along really well, so long as I let him drink his water pretty often and stuck directly behind our guide. Our guide was an older gentleman (I forgot his name) who seemed to live in the area his whole life. There was one other couple on our ride, as well as another member of the team...Roscoe, the dog. Dan and I both noted how much Colonel Mustard would have liked to go on a trail ride, although I'm sure he wouldn't know why he couldn't ride on the horse with one of us.

We rode all over the 550-acre property with our guide, and though it was a bit foggy, we could still see for what seemed like miles...

About halfway through, the guide had us hitch up our horses to a little area at the edge of the woods and then gave us a bit of a surprise. Normally, the 2-hour ride that we were on doesn't include this, but he showed us the gem mine that was on the property. It looks like a cave, and really isn't even that big, but Tiffany & Co had the mining rights to it for years and it was one of the largest garnet producing sites in the US. We were careful as we walked in (our guide's warning was "it's slipperier in there than snot on a doorknob") and we met two gem-hunters who were chipping away at the rock with some tools. I don't have a picture of her husband, but this was the woman we met, and her dog, Sabrina. Every weekend, they go gem-hunting at some place or another on the East Coast. Seems like a fun little hobby they've got.


They showed us what to look for, and in less than ten minutes, we found HUGE garnets ourselves. They're still in the rock, and you have to get a rock polisher/tumbler to get them out, but I took home several pieces that have garnets in them the size of quarters. Tiffany & Co had the rights to this mine for almost 200 years, and they left somewhere around 1940. We liked the cave, however, even without the garnets we found.
We got going to get back to the barn, and our guide pulled us over to let the horses drink some water. I realized then why Cotton had to be the number 2 horse, following our guide. Seems he has a crush on our guide's horse. I guess the guide's horse likes tall blondes just like me, because she liked to play with him at the well.
We meandered our way back over the mountain, admiring the view along the way. Roscoe kept a good lookout for us, and stopped a few times to tease the cows that were along the route. I have a bunch more pictures from the day, I'll see if I can get them up on Picasa.
We got back to the barn and dismounted, at which point Dan and I looked at each other and realized the same thing - we were HUNGRY. We decided to check out the city of Asheville, and we were surprised that we could walk right in and get a table - it was only 5:30, but it was Valentine's Day - reservations should have been impossible! We ate at a place called Early Girl Eatery, which was one of the best meals I've had in years. I had amazing lamb, and Dan had trout - both were fantastic, and both were CHEAP - with a slice of homemade cherry-chocolate stack cake for dessert and a glass of wine apiece, I seriously doubt the entire check was more than $50 including tip. I highly recommend the restaurant if you're ever in the Asheville area, everything is homemade and made from local, sustainable crops and meats. Some of the stuff they're doing is really neat, they're part of a local initiative that teaches tobacco farmers how to transition to organic, sustainable crops, which I really liked the idea of. The staff was great, our waitress even wrapped up the bone from my lamb to take home to Colonel Mustard.

After dinner, we trucked it back to Charlotte to get over to Meghan and Matt's house, where we had a couple drinks and chatted so they could finally meet Dan. Luckily everyone seemed to like each other, Dan commented that he really liked them when we left, and right when I got home, Meghan sent me an email saying they liked Dan as well. Maybe couples who meet in cheesy tourist bars just tend to flock together ;)

Finally we came home and went to bed after a thousand hugs and kisses for Colonel Mustard, as well as his bone from my dinner. Let's just say he REALLY enjoyed that one. He took it outside, hid it, then when we called him inside, he dug it back up and took it inside. Guess he wanted to save it for later, but he's like his mamma - delayed gratification is a better in theory than in practice.

Dan left this morning, he'll be in Rome and London for the next two weeks - I know, poor Dan. I was really sad to drop him off at the airport, we were both commenting on how fun it was to hang out all week. I'll see him in two weeks (I'll be going up to DC this time), but I already miss him. Colonel Mustard came with us to the airport and he whined and stuck his head out the window when we pulled away. He doesn't like it when the two of us are separated, and he really likes his buddy keeping him company while I'm at work. I feel the same way, Colonel.