Tag Archives: RCI

Ashville, N.C. – Cute as the proverbial Button


What makes travel fun for me is the element of surprise – will this hotel/guesthouse/resort live up to expectations, will I find a yummy restaurant (or two), will the museum be worth visiting, will there be fun stores to shop at, is the location going to be beautiful, will it rain?

So many variables – so many chances for things to wrong – or to go right.

Good news – Lake Lure and Ashville, N.C. exceeded even my high expectations. After a rough start – check out my ‘why, oh why’ blog on travel – I finally arrived in the rolling hills and startlingly jagged stone cliffs of Western North Carolina. And how about this for a ‘I didn’t know that’ – The Last of the Mohicans and The Hunger Games were filmed right here!

But I wasn’t here to see movie sets – I was here for a ‘sister’s’ retreat. Our idea – spend time getting to know each other – without the distractions of husbands, kids, jobs. My middle sister picked me up at the Ashville Airport (tiny – truly tiny. You know it’s small when it cost $5 to park for over 2 hours), and headed out to our home for the weekend, and RCI resort called Wyndham Resort at Fairfield Mountains.

On the map – the resort is just 30 miles from Ashville – but the GPS said our ETA was an hour and a half. We soon found out why as we wound our way passed glorious scenery on a 2 lane winding road that changed elevation often enough to have us clearing our ears and allowed for a max speed of 20 mph. We drove past Chimney Rock State Park – with its gloriously huge waterfall cascading down from a rock face hundreds of feet above us. This Park is the setting for the movie – “Last of the Mohicans” – and to honor that – they were showing the film on Saturday night. For free. Got to love the price point.

Eventually we arrived at our destination – good job iphone and Telenav to discover that you needed a code for the lock box. Yikes. Good thing the guest arriving right behind us had that code – or we would have definitely been stranded. RCI – you have to give resorts the email of incoming guests. And resorts – if you don’t have the email for a guest – make an effort to get it! The good news – when we reported the ‘almost’ problem the next morning, the extremely pleasant receptionist apologized profusely – and reported the problem to her team. Nice handling of that – Wyndham people.

But all turned out OK (It wouldn’t be an adventure if nothing went wrong). We got our key, found a map explaining where our unit could be found in this huge resort, and made our way to our palace for the weekend. It was a palace at the mid-of-the road level – but the king sized bed was super comfy, and the view of the mountains from our window was awe-inspiring. My sister who loves to walk found lots of places to get exercise, and for me – hey, the coffee was great.

Dinner that night was at Larkins on the Lake – We loved it – but if you want to know why – you’ll have to check out my detailed review.

We’d decided that despite all the really neat stuff to do around Lake Lure and the Resort – including kayaking, a beach, a swimming pool, bike paths, hiking paths, etc, what we really wanted to do was to check out the Biltmore Estate – the home of George, Edith, and Cornelia Vanderbilt. (Again – want more details – that’s in another blog!)

GPS to the rescue again as we navigate our way back to Ashville by a different, and much less windy route past Bat Cave (didn’t spot Batman though).

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On Saturday – we opt to return to the Biltmore – that place is huge, and we felt we needed to see more stuff! But that afternoon – we finally manage to make it into Ashville. What a completely cute town. The shops were adorable, they had a wonderful arts and crafts market with lots of beautiful things to touch (I love the feel of wood), and my favorite – the Mast General Store.

If you are in Western North Carolina – and I’m not exactly sure why you would go there unless you were visiting the Biltmore Estate – you must go to this store. I loved it! They had everything. It was hard to decide what I just had to buy – and thus I wound up with a cast iron Bacon press in the form of a pig.

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Trust me – going thru security leaving Ashville was a hoot with that in my luggage. After they looked at it – everyone wanted to know if I even knew what to do with it. Hey – it’s my husband’s Father’s Day Present – he loves to press the Bacon!

Bottom line – Ashville has tons of stuff to do and see – lots of neat restaurants, including the Posana, the general store, cute art shops, and a young vibe that totally took us by surprise.

Go and have fun. But don’t forget the reason for your visit – in our case – the Biltmore and getting some much-needed Sister time.

Missions accomplished I’d say

Signing off – The soup lady.

Ya win some, Ya lose some – Kensington Resort – Seorak Beach


We’ve been spending the last few days in the lap of luxury – a timeshare resort just 32 km (18 miles) from the DMZ in the far North East of South Korea. When we arrived here – after a 7.5 hour bus ride from Busan – I have to admit to being conflicted. On one hand – the resort had polished marble floors – and the check-in counter had 3 staff – in uniform. Honestly – I thought the taxi cab driver had taken us to the wrong place.

The ‘resort’ is huge – 5 floors of suites – mostly 1 bedroom, some 2 bedrooms – 2 restaurants, a tiny CU (Korean Convenience store that sells some groceries and veggies along with dozens of different brands of instant noodle soups and ‘chips’), an Ocean Spa, and a conference center. Quite the change from where we’ve been staying, I’ll tell you. The resort is directly on a soft sandy beach. Our suite is on the 5th floor and features a partial kitchen – which in Korea means a 3/4 size fridge, a sink, and a 2 burner hot plate. No microwave, no toaster, no dishwasher (but that’s ok – there are only a few dishes anyway), and a tiny garbage can. The bathroom is a palace in comparison to what we’ve been enjoying – the shower has a glass pane that separates it from the toilet and sink. Oh Luxury! Our generous sized bedroom even has a closet – something else we’ve been doing without for the past 3 weeks. Our balcony overlooks the East Sea – and we’ve been enjoying the sound of the waves as we go to bed each night.

So why the conflicted feelings? Well for starters – everywhere we’ve stayed up till now has provided shampoo, toothbrushes, toothpaste, unlimited towels, and a fully stocked kitchen with salt and pepper, oil, butter, jam, and chili paste. At Kim’s House we even had plastic wrap, at the Agit – there was ham and eggs, even the traditional house provided unlimited white bread and coffee. But here – nothing is provided besides little bars of soap, 2 frying pans, and dishes for 4. It’s pretty bare in comparison – and that’s a shock. And the location is great for the beach – but a long (1 km) walk into the village if you don’t want to eat at the restaurants at the hotel. And they are, in Korean terms, quite expensive. And worse – they are buffets – ie: All you can eat. My least favorite option. A large grocery store is a 30 minute bus ride away, as is the town of Sokcho. So we feel a bit isolated.

Worst thing is the internet – its free – but you have to go to the ‘library’ to use it – the signal doesn’t reach the rooms. Quite a shock from free high-speed all thru the house like all the other places we’ve stayed.

But after a few days – the pleasure of enough space, and a private kitchen, a private balcony, a private bedroom and a private bathroom make the annoyances feel less important. The walk to the village for a delicious BBQ lunch seems just part of the fun, and exploring the largish fish market a hoot. The fish market features crabs, octopus, and flounder in huge numbers – all fresh and swimming around. If you don’t buy them today – they just feed them, and you can buy them tomorrow! This is really fresh fish. It looks great. We just need to figure out how to get some to eat at home!

And the beach is wonderful, particularly now that we are traveling in a much larger group – Jill’s son, daughter-in-law, grand-son Marcel (5) and grand-daughter Sophie (3 months) have joined us – and the trip is now one of family not traveler. But still fun!

The weather has been strange – hot, than cold (I wore everything I brought – at the same time), wet and rainy, then sunny but seriously breezy. But we’ve gotten in a walk every day – and eaten some amazing Korean take-out including a sweet and spicy fried chicken the defies description except to say I love it – but it makes my mouth burn! One night Blanche and Chris even treated us to deep-fried Shrimp (cooked complete – including the head and shell)), deep-fried peppers stuffed with pork, and the very traditional Korean Sundae – a sausage made by stuffing Squid with pork and rice. Don’t ask me why it’s called a Sundae – it’s one of many mysteries here in Korea.

So good food, good company, amazing fireworks every night – and lots of space. I can learn to enjoy this.

Signing off – The Intrepid Traveler and the Soup Lady

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