Fourth Stop – Asheville, North Carolina!

(Photo of Asheville PUG Coming Soon Once I find Our Card Reader)

Asheville was awesome. The people were great, the city was very hip and artsy. We felt right at home in this town. Regina Holder, the PUG leader for Asheville had the PUG in the conference room in her building and it was the perfect meeting place. (She also has a VERY cool studio in the building that we got to see. It smelled like cookies!) The photographers in this town were very cool and it was fun because after the meeting we all went to dinner and got to know everyone that much better! I’m so excited to reconnect with many of these people at the conferences coming up, like Pictage Partner Conference, PPA and WPPI.

The next day Michael and I took a tour of the Biltmore house. This house was amazing! It was built by George Vanderbuilt (who built it when he was 35 and still a bachelor!) It was build in 1895 and was really cutting edge for the time. It had electricity throughout the house, for one thing and it peppered with amazing works of art and other priceless pieces. A couple things that I thought were cool was that he owned Napoleon Bonapartes Chess Set. He also commissioned John Singer Sargent to paint the architect of the house as well as the landscape architect. There were also a couple Renoir’s in the house. Also, evidently George Vanderbuilt was extremely well read and had an amazing library. It was said that he read over 3,000 books by the end of his life, averaging something like 2 books a week! No wonder he was able to double his fathers fortune in 10 years! (Hint Hint – Join the book club on photoforthepeople.com) hehe ☺
Again, I love history so this was a really fun place for Michael and I to visit!


After the Biltmore house, Michael and I went to dinner at the Laughing Seed in downtown Asheville. This is a really yummy vegetarian restaurant that was recommended to us by some of the PUG members. It was SO nice to sit down at a restaurant and actually be able to choose anything on the menu! It was quite yummy!
All in all, we really enjoyed Asheville! Thanks Regina Holder and the Asheville PUG members for making us feel so welcome!



Weekend with Family

So, Michael and I have been reconnecting with family members that live out on the east coast. As mentioned in a previous blog post, we stayed with my cousin Dakota and his wife Charlotte in Raleigh, NC last Tuesday. And this weekend we are staying with my other cousin Eric and his wife Emily. Both of my cousins were so nice to have us come and stay. I was hesitant to call them since we really don’t get much of a chance to see either of them and I didn’t want to be annoying or intrude. But I’m glad that I was! It’s been really nice to reconnect with family. I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity while I had it!
Family first!