Valentines and the Big 3-0

I had mixed feelings about turning 30, and Josh was burned out from working a lot in January, so we decided to treat ourselves and get away to the fabulous Grove Park Inn, Resort, and Spa in Asheville, NC last weekend to celebrate my b-day and Valentine’s Day. It was awesome! (Grandma and Pawpaw graciously offered to take Lydia for the weekend.)

The Grove Park is a beautiful place with unbelievable mountain views and cool amenities. I would highly recommend it to anyone! We got there on Friday afternoon and spent some time relaxing on the huge back porch in one of the rocking chairs looking out over the mountains, then we went to downtown Asheville to our favorite restaurant, Salsa. After dinner, we went back to the Grove Park for the “Starlight and Chocolate Party.” Inside, they had chocolate and wine pairings, a huge chocolate fountain, and classical music and dancing. Outside, they had high-powered telescopes, astronomy experts to tell you about what you were looking at, and a big fireplace with lots of blankets. It was a blast! We finished the night at Elaine’s, the Grove Park’s dueling piano bar, which was packed and was a lot of fun.

On Saturday morning, I got a nice surprise. I’ve been trying to get Josh to watch Twilight with me since it came out, but he always finds convenient excuses to not be able to. Well, on Saturday morning at 7, he woke me up and said, “Okay, let’s watch that vampire movie you’ve been bugging me about.” So we ordered it and laid around in the room and watched it. Very cool. Josh actually liked it too—especially the Radiohead song at the end. He won’t commit to read the books, but he did say that he’ll see the next movie with me.

After the movie and a nice breakfast in the BlueRidge Dining Room, we went back to the room and took a loooong nap (one of Josh’s fave parts of the trip) and then went to the amazing spa (the outside of it is pictured above) for massages and body treatments. In the afternoon, there was a cooking demonstration (one of my fave parts of the trip) where a chef that has been on the Food Network (and is totally hilarious) showed us how to make cocoa spice rubbed pork tenderloin with bittersweet chocolate-cherry sauce and then how to make chocolate boxes with tuxedo strawberries. Finally, Saturday night, we got dressed up and went to the Valentine’s Gala where we had a tasty five-course meal and then danced all night to this really great band that played mostly seventies music like “She’s a Brick House” and “Play That Funky Music, White Boy.”

The pictures above are from our weekend. It was sooooo nice. Can’t wait to get away like that again!