Aaaaaaaaaaaah Asheville

Just got back from a short culinary tour through Asheville. All the restaurants we tried were wonderful (Mayfield's, Doc Chey's Noodle House, Limones, and Zambra). We would have gone to Tupelo Honey but the wait was 50 minutes so we went next door to Mayfield's and had a wonderful breakfast of coffee and spinach and goat cheese omelets. But our all time favorite place was... Limones!

We sat in the front of the restaurant and the light was beautiful! Hmmm, maybe I should paint this?



I had the Chile Relleno with mole and the asparagus for an appetizer.

The highlight was the Margarita, made with REAL lime juice, imagine that! Hubby got a spicy one and he now has a new favorite drink.

Versailles Gardens

What better place to have a Zen moment than in a garden? Since I can't get there for now, I used Google Street View to 'walk' around the gardens of Versailles. These gardens date back to the 1600s and are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. History aside, I can only imagine all the interesting tête-à-têtes and secret meetings that happened here!

Click here to find your own hidden corner of this gorgeous garden!





These two pictures are in the same area near the gardens. If anyone knows what these two pictures are, let me know.

Vacation among the animals!!

Below are some great places to vacation where the wild things are! I picked some hotels, inns and lodges that allow guests to live among exotic animals.

Click on the pictures for lodging websites.

At Costa Verde hotel in Costa Rica, rare monkeys are part of the every day charm.

Photo by Donna62 on Flickr.com

Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge is a great place to experience the exotic animals of the African wilderness without leaving the United States.

This is Four Seasons Golden Triangle in Thailand, where you live among the elephants, help care for them, and stay in luxurious tents in the midst of a lush jungle. For a much cheaper alternative, try Elephantstay. They're on facebook too.

Do a search on Flickr.com for giraffe manor africa and you'll see all the pictures of giraffes kissing
guests and poking muzzles into second floor windows for snacks. Tripadvisor.com has some fun pictures too. This would be Rachel heaven!