Made a road trip up to Asheville this past weekend just to see what it was all about. I hear a lot about what a cool place Asheville is, so we made a weekend road trip out of it.
We stayed at the Carolina Bed and Breakfast, just a short way out of the downtown Asheville area. I had never stayed at a B&B before, but after this weekend I think it’s now my new favourite type of accommodation. It’s not like a hotel where you check in, maybe have the occasional awkward elevator ride with other guests and other wise never see anybody else. Staying at a B&B becomes a very social thing. I think it has to do with the fact that it’s like staying at a friend’s house. You get to meet and talk with the other guests over breakfast, or socialize while hanging out in the living room. It’s just a lot of fun. Breakfast was really really good too. B&B’s are definitely the way to go I think. Sure, it can be a little more expensive, but it’s a nice comfy, homey and fun way to stay. If you’re headed to Asheville, I highly recommend Carolina B&B. It’s a great place to stay.
Spent the first day in Asheville visiting the Biltmore Estate, which was only a short drive from where we were staying. We started off the day driving to an area called Deerpark, where the trail and carriage rides were based. We managed to get lucky and had the whole 11AM carriage ride to ourselves. It made the ride a whole lot of fun and much more enjoyable. The carriage ride takes you along a trail that winds through the woods, and finally to an area just behind the Biltmore House where you can see it the back of the house. It was a pretty awesome ride.
After the carriage ride it was off to the River Bend Farm and Winery. At the winery, you can go on a self guided tour to learn about the wine making process at the Biltmore. Grapes are harvested from the vineyards on the estate and then shipped off to another nearby facility to be turned into wine. After the tour is the wine tasting, where you can sample the Biltmore’s wine offerings and figure out which ones are your favourites. Then it’s into the wine shop where you can purchase said wines if you like.
Next door over at the farm, you can get in and pet the animals and see a little bit of what early 20th century life on the estate might have been like. You can also wander through the gardens and see what kinds of vegetables and herbs are grown to support the farm.
Afterwards, it was off to the house to wander through the extensive gardens.
Unfortunately the battery in my camera died so I didn’t get any photos from our garden wanderings. I did get some photos of the stunning views out the back of Biltmore House though.
The next day we went back and did the tour inside the house. No photography allowed in the house though, which is kind of a bummer. Check out the rest of my Biltmore photos in the gallery.
Scarecrow family
Hanging out with the scarecrow family at River Bend Farm on the Biltmore Estate.
Dragon*Con photos
Some of the photos I took at DragonCon.
Spartans from 300. These guys were pretty buff.
A group of bounty hunters posing for photos
Phil Plait (BadAstronomy) in one of the Science track sessions
Lou Ferrigno riding in the DragonCon parade
BSG Colonials
Ghostbusters
The Babylon 5 panels and Q&A sessions had me squeeing like a little girl.
Dragon*Con: Way more fun than should be allowed
For the longest time, cons were those places where the weirdo hard-core geeks that dressed up gathered. Not the kind of thing I ever imagined myself wanting to go. Anybody who took their favourite show/character that seriously was just too bizarre to my brain.
DragonCon is really something that needs to be experienced. It’s just too hard to describe, and any telling of the things that go on at DragonCon make it sound like it’s just a collection of weirdos, freaks and geeks.
I went, and I saw. At the first panel I went to (Babylon 5), I squeed like a little girl. And then I got to meet and talk to Bruce Boxleitner, and I squeed some more. I saw celebrities like Lou Ferrigno, Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict, most of the Stargate: Atlantis cast, and many more. More squee’ing when I got Tracy Scoggin‘s autograph and photo taken with her (also a self admitted sci-fi geek). Photo with Felicia Day (OMGSQUEEE!!).
Yes, I became a total fan boy and one of them. Admittedly, I didn’t really have that far to go.
There were lots of people dressed up in costumes and many that weren’t. There were costumes from just about every genre, show and character you could think of. When my friends and I thought about a show or character that would be cool to see or dress up as, sooner or later we’d end up seeing someone else dressed as it.
But that’s not all there is to Dragon*Con. There were the fan tracks that covered everything from your favourite sci-fi/fantasy, literature, arts, costuming to podcasting, science and space. Writers workshops, art shows, costume contests and of course the celebrity panels. There are way way way more things going on than you could ever possibly see at once.
Don’t just take my word for it though. You should think about going to see it for yourself next year.
Pictures soon. Have close to 600 that I need to go through and weed out.
At the roller derby
Made it out to catch Charleston’s very own roller derby team, the Lowcountry Highrollers in a match against the Greenville Derby Dames this afternoon.
It was my first roller derby experience, and it didn’t disappoint. The action wasn’t quite as continuous as I expected, but was still fun to watch and pretty fast paced. Plenty of shoving and take-downs. Before the match started they did a slow speed demonstration to show the rules to the audience (very helpful for newbies like me). It still took me a little bit before I really figured out what was going on and what to watch for.
The crowd that showed up to watch was larger than I expected, which I suppose is a good thing. What’s up with all the little kids sporting mohawks though?
I picked a spot up front in what’s known as the “suicide seats”, named because apparently there’s a good chance you might end up with a roller derby girl wiping out or sliding into those seats and who ever is in them. No such luck this evening though.
The derby track
Getting ready to start off a roundjam
Zooming around the bend
Score card girls
In the penalty box
Not quite sure why these guys were dressed like this.
The final score
Post match congratulations
