Jeff Billimek’s Journal

I spent the morning working from home. Jen worked on packing up and getting ready for our trip. Jen was excited to use her new free bag from Victoria’s Secret. I tried to cram all of my clothes and multiple pairs of shoes into my cool pelican case.

A little after 1pm we hit the road. Jen started off driving and we finished listening to Ender’s Shadow. I had previously listened to it. Jen had two more CDs to listen to and I agreed to listen to them again. The audio book made the drive go by really quickly and overall the drive up to 85 was uneventful. Traffic was moderate allowing us to make good time.

When we hit South Carolina we were startled to see fallen trees, traffic lights out and storm weathered streets. The big ice storm a few days ago really did a number on SC.

After 3 hours of driving Jen was a bit exhausted, so she had the bright idea to pull off an exit that looked like it had a lot of places to stop at. She was secretly looking for a Starbucks - what a mistake this was. Traffic was horrible. The exit she selected was the equivalent to our Barret Parkway.

There was mall and traffic was horrible. We finally stopped at a grocery store. Jen bought two fancy Starbucks drinks and I grabbed an energy drink.

Next I took over driving and fought the traffic back on to the highway. We arrived in Asheville, North Carolina a little after 5pm and checked into our hotel, the Doubletree.

The cool thing about Doubletree is that they always give you fresh cookies when you check in. I love this amenity! The room was nice and we started to unpack and plan our evening events. I used my kool-rad laptop + cell phone (GPRS) internet access setup to check on tickets to the Biltmore. I bought tickets to the ‘Biltmore Candle Light Tour’ and made reservations for us to have dinner at the fancy restaurant on the Biltmore property called ‘The Dinning Room’.

‘The Dinning Room’ is located on the bottom floor of the Inn on the Biltmore Estate. Dinner was wonderful. For a fixed price you get a salad, main course, and dessert. We also got a bottle of the Biltmore Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley. I was a bit confused about how a Biltmore wine could come from Napa. Our waiter enlightened us: apparently after a storm came through Asheville a few years ago and destroyed a huge portion of their vineyards, the Biltmore purchased a vineyard in Napa. They still make all of the wine at the Biltmore but a lot of the grapes are shipped in from Napa Valley. I wonder if all the shipping degrades the quality of the grapes?

As we ate our dinner we saw an interesting device on another table. After inquiring we discovered it was a ‘Belgium coffee service’. This science experiment-looking device apparently makes coffee without the use of a filter. There are two canisters with tubes connecting them. The first canister is heated by a sterno flame below it. As the water gets hot it moves through the tubes to the second canister. When the first canister is light enough the candle is extinguished as the other canister flips a lid closed. As the coffee cools in the seconds canister it moves back through into the first canister via the laws of thermodynamics. We of course had to get this fun coffee device at our table (which sadly cost $30).

(This is sort of what it looked like)

After dinner we headed over to the Biltmore house (The tour was for 10:30pm). At night you park and take a shuttle bus over to the main entrance. The tour of the house is self guided and the place was packed full of people. We had a great time walking through the house and seeing the many decorations. The house is magnificent and serves as an excellent snapshot of history.

Once we concluded the tour I went back to the car and headed out. The long & winding drive takes you in front of the house. I stopped and prepared to take a photo of the house at night. With the camera securely fastened to the tripod, I took a 25-30 second exposure of the house. Actually I took multiple shots but ended up with one in particular that I was most happy with.

(25-30 second exposure of the Biltmore house at night)

Jen and I both slept in a late. After checking out of the hotel we opted to head back to Atlanta because we couldn’t find many exciting things to do in Asheville aside from the Biltmore Estate.

I drove and Jen worked on a scarf that she was knitting. Jen also popped in one of the audio books that she brought along, The Gunslinger by Steven King.

The book is interesting but the reader’s voice tends to put you to sleep. Jen convinced me that Commerce (a small town in Georgia) was a good place to stop and take a break. This also happens to be where a ton of outlet stores are. So we were able to do a quick run through the Banana Republic Factory Outlet there. They had a great Christmas Sales and we both bought a few things. Jen offered to drive the rest of the way and we headed home.

Because today is our actual anniversary we opted to cook dinner in and use the good china. We stopped at the grocery store on the way back.

Jen ran into the store to buy a few items while I waited in the car and made a few phone calls. I was shocked that we were going to actually use the china since it seems to be such a big deal.

For dinner we had salad, steak, and potatoes. For dessert we pulled out our year old wedding cake and had some. We were both pleasantly surprised to find it quite tasty after a whole year.

After dinner we concluded the first season of “Lost“. It’s a good show like everyone says it is. We were hoping that the conclusion would offer some answers but it pretty much just created new ones. That’s pretty frustrating.

Jen didn’t have to work today. I also took a ‘personal day’ so we had all day to do stuff. This, of course, meant that we went shopping!

We went up to Costco near Perimeter to buy some stuff and we stopped at ‘Rolly Poly’ for lunch afterwards.

This evening we went to an engagement party for Lisa and Allen. It was at one of Lisa’s uncles’ house. Lisa’s parents were there as well as many of her relatives. Jen and I were pretty much the only non-family people there when we arrived, so we didn’t know anyone.

A little while after we got there Katie and Chris showed up. Lynne showed up too. Last to arrive actually were Lisa and Alan. I guess they were being fashionably late.

They had food catered from a Mexican restaurant as well as a lot of other snacks and drinks.

When Jen and I woke up this morning we went downstairs and had some coffee in our fine china. We then exchanged gifts with each other in the living room. It was a nice moment for the two of us as it was our first real Christmas together.

We had a pretty full schedule today so we didn’t wait around too long. I did notice, however, that it was really foggy outside this morning. Particularly around bodies of water there was a thick fog. I used my camera to take a picture outside the front door of the lake in our neighborhood.

(Christmas Morning fog)

When I went back to look at the picture later on, it almost has an impressionism feel to it - I suspect the fog everywhere gives it that look.

We got dressed and headed up to Woodstock to spend Christmas Day with Jen’s parent’s. In addition to her parents, Katie, Scott, Jen’s grandmother, and Jen’s Dads sister were there.

(Portrait of Jen and I at Christmas)

We had fun snacks to eat in the morning including some good coffee cake. Jen’s parents made me a stocking and there were some cool things inside like a voltmeter, pocket knife, toy gun, screwdriver, etc.

Jen’s aunt gave me a cool LED flashlight that works on an induction charge by shaking it a lot. I later found out that you have to shake it a whole lot to get just a little light.

(Scott and Adi)

We had a very nice time at Jen’s parent’s house. We all exchanged presents and then had a late lunch.

Later, Jen and I headed to Mom’s house where we had dinner with them.