Run little gingerbread man....

....as fast as you can, your house is about to win a prize. :)
Let me start with our final breakfast at Sobotta House: today was apparently a banana theme day. We started with a parfait dish of cold oatmeal, mixed with vanilla yogurt and sliced bananas, and some sliced peaches and blueberries. At first, I wasn't sure, but it was really good. That was followed by a banana nut muffin, with a light cream cheese frosting ON THE BOTTOM ! Yummm. The entree today was buckwheat pancakes with bananas foster (minus the ice cream) on top. SO MUCH POTASSIUM !!! Sooooo good !
We loaded up the car, got gas and hit the road south to Asheville. The ride went well, Christmas music all the way. Two hours later, we drove up to an exquisite former 200 room inn, built in 1919, with 350 additional rooms added in two more modern wings. Not for us, though, we are in the original inn in a lovely room that looks out over the gardens, golf course, and the Smokies. Photos first, then we wandered around to one of the five restaurants. No BBQ lunch today; Mel had a gorgeous Chicken Bruschetta, with a grilled chicken breast with Argentine parmaggiano, crispy procuitto and fresh tomato, with a side of really great warm German potato salad. He started with a Oyster Brie bisque, topped with a fresh fried oyster. Lovely bits of chopped oyster throughout the soup. Mel was very happy. Me, too ! I had a lovely grilled Salmon BLT, without the B. I had the potato salad on my plate, as well, and the sandwich was delicious. We both missed the barbeque, but were very happy with lunch.
Then, we walked the entire property, enjoyed all 400 Christmas trees, and wandered through the 115 entries in the National Gingerbread House. AMAZING what you can do with a little flour, ginger, sugar and fondant. Pictures will be available so that you can enjoy all of that delicious beauty. The top 25 of the houses are going to New York next week to be on display.
Decorations everywhere.
We stopped in the Great Hall lobby bar for a beer (Mel) and a virgin coffee and Kaluah (well almost a virgin, half a shot) for me. We watched a little football and a lot of the humongous fireplace in the hall. We had a live entertainer (who thought he was one of the Little Rascals (the singing group, not the 1939 TV show characters). Lots of great 60's music. We moved to barbequed chicken wings (YAY for US, bar b q after all) that we shared---walked to the Vanderbilt wing to view even more gingerbread houses and even more decorations.
We just returned to the room to find a charming Chanukah ornament depicting the inn, and now we're going to find something on TV that is NOT football. I had a bad day for me---good for Poppa.
Back down to the 30's tonight, after tryiing real hard to make it to 40 today. Our window coverings are open (the mountains can't see in), and we'll see the sun come up in the morning. The sunset was a little cloudy.
Tomorrow, the BILTMORE estate. Tickets were included with our room and apparently that is some gorgeous place, dressed for the holidays.
We're very happy to be here; but miss you all very much. More manana. xoxoxox