A Victorian Weekend in the Mountains of Western North Carolina
Air conditioning makes your throat dry and your head ache, so replace that with a nice mountain breeze and some home cooked food at the NuWray Inn. This quaint Victorian Inn located on a small town square was in business long before the town was built up around it. Established in 1833, the NuWray Inn has 27 rooms each decorated differently and a dining room that fills up regularly with locals looking for home-cooking. You can request high tea and spend the afternoon sipping a properly brewed cuppa accompanied by fresh baked scones with strawberries and cream. Friday night is English fish and chips and on Thursday night, a local blues band entertains on the veranda out back with an ample spread of all-you-can-eat barbecue (and all the fixin’s). You’ll want to save room for the Prime Rib on Sunday. A hearty country breakfast is included with the price of your room and reservations are recommended. Worried about parking? Don’t–because you can park at the front door. Don’t worry if you see Elvis lurking in the hall; he liked to sneak down to the kitchen for a midnight banana sandwich when he was a guest.
After you’ve settled down and a walk around town won’t satisfy you, load everybody into the car for a day filled with local culture. Potters of the Roan is a guild of professional potters who work in their individual studios shaping earth into vessels of beauty and usefulness. The pots are works of art, will grow in value just like a piece of real estate and are one of a kind. There are 9 professional studios linked by scenic roads wrapping through mountains and hills, and each offers distinctive professional pottery for sale. Surf the potters website, download the handy PDF map that shows the route to each studio and call ahead before you leave. Each artist maintains a unique gallery of work and sometimes you can catch them actually working the clay on their potters’ wheel. This can be a real learning experience for the whole family without spending a fortune. It also presents some real opportunities to start collecting art instead of shopping at the mall for it.
Plan on spending the next day on a trip to Grandfather Mountain. It’s an hour’s drive from the town square and was named for the uncanny profile of a wise old man. The views are magnificent and on a clear day, you can see the skyline of Charlotte, a city over 250 miles away. If you like to hike, there is a trail that offers great variety, running in and out of wind-dwarfed spruce and fir trees, around rock walls and into expansive vista views of rolling mountains in all directions. More advanced hikers will enjoy the hand-over-hand and extra steep sections where in-place cables and ladders are required.
For the less adventuresome, pick a day with a calm wind to cross the hanging ladder expanse. This will raise your adrenaline without endangering your life. The Mile High Swinging Bridge was built in 1952 for easy access to the views from Linville Peak. The 228-foot bridge spans an 80 foot chasm at a mile high. You can work off that country ham you had for breakfast by climbing the 50 stairs to the bridge. Otherwise, you can enjoy the view from the parking area. The Mile High Swinging Bridge is 5,305 feet above sea level. Don’t panic, though, because all suspension bridges sway a little! Later, after you’ve worn the kids out and are ready for a little quiet, you can visit the Grandfather Mountain Nature Museum and see a 165 pound amethyst one of the locals found and displayed in a Spruce Pine jewelry store for 25 years.
You’ve successfully combined quiet respite, authentic artistic expression and physical exertion into a weekend and should now be ready to conquer your opponents on Wall Street.
