Asheville is a fantastic town.  Set in mountains of Western North Carolina, it features a funky and eclectic downtown full of art galleries and unique restaurants.  Christina and I spent hours wandering from shop to shop taking in the scene.

We also spent a day at the Biltmore estate.  The largest home in the United States, this palace was built in the late 1890’s by George Vanderbilt.  The photos below do not due it justice as it is a majestic castle set on amazing gardens.  One picture shows Christina  relaxing on a deck, and the next the mountain view.  Simply amazing.  The Biltmore is a must see while visiting Asheville.

On our drive back home we stayed over night in Charlottesville, VA.  Home to the University of Virginia, it has a downtown area about 5 blocks long blocked off to traffic.  We spent a warm summer evening strolling along in search of a spot to eat.  We picked Himalayan Fusion and sat outside not knowing what to expect.  Oh my!  The food was out of this world.  Operated by a family of émigrés from Nepal, this casual bistro serves a mix of spicy cuisine’s from the Himalayans.   We loved it!

P.S.  Sorry about the photo quality.  They were all shot with my Iphone, except for the first two of Ed and Angela.

Christina and I just got back from skiing in Utah.  (Photo 1)  One of my oldest friends lives with his wife and two boys in Salt Lake City.  I have know Tiger (2) for over 35 years and we grew up skiing together.  The tricky part about going on a ski trip across the country is the weather.  Is there going to be snow?  What is the weather going to be?   There is always luck involved.  We got REAL LUCKY.  It snowed every day for almost two weeks before we got there.  They had 12 FEET in 12 days!   Our first day was spent at Snowbird skiing the fresh powder in sunshine.  (3) Incredible conditions!  This is a shot of little L (4) and myself (5) on our first run.  This is  a shot of some untracked powder (7).  Tigers boys (8) are amazing skiers.  Even though the snow was up to their chests in some spots they never complained and always had a great attitude.  T and L were a blast to ski with!  I cannot say enough about how deep the snow was.  In this shot Tiger and I were skiing in the trees (9).  Just look at the snow on the branches! (10)  Snowbird is a fantastic ski area, but it is also unique as one of the only places with a tunnel through the mountain that skiers can use.  In this shot (11), Tigers wife Lori and Christina are about to enter the tunnel.  The next shots (12, 13) show Christina in the tunnel.  Very cool.  In this shot Christina demonstrates just how much snow they have! (14)  The trip took an unexpected turn Sunday night as I slipped in the bathroom and cut my foot pretty bad (15).  Luckily, Lori is a trained Army medic and took real good care of me.  Thanks Lori!!  But Christina and I decided to play it safe and take a day off from skiing.  We went over to Park City (16 , 17, 18) to walk around and grab some lunch. (19)  The next day we awoke to more sunshine and rising temperatures.  A perfect spring skiing day.  We decided to head over to Solitude Ski Area. (20)  The only thing that made a 65 degree day with no clouds better is the lack of people.  We had the whole place to ourselves as this shot of the parking lot demonstrates (21).   Solitude  is a fantastic ski area with a wide variety of terrain.  Here we are passing through the gates to challenge ourselves. (22, 23 ,24)  Here Christina relaxes on Tiger and Lori’s deck after skiing (25).  For our last day we headed back to Snowbird and hopped on the tram after a great breakfast at the base lodge (26, 27, 28).  We had a very challenging day as most of it was spent skiing in whiteout conditions as another storm rolled in (29).  We had a fantastic vacation and cherished the fact that we could spend some quality time with some great friends.