Up To Brevard

Brett and I ventured to Brevard, NC last week for his family vacation. Clint and Susie found an exciting mountain cabin on a lake, and beat everyone there on Monday afternoon. Jeff, August, and Julian came next, and Brett and I pulled in at suppertime. Julian just turned 5 and August was counting down the days to his 7th birthday which was yesterday, I think. After a bit of mountain porch sittin', we all had spaghetti and were in bed by 9:00. 
Age is a funny thing.

Day 1: Ah, the unbridled enthusiasm of small children on the first day of mountain exploration. (I woke up most days to excited shrieking.) The day started at the fishing pond. Brett, Clint, and I took August and Julian down the driveway to the trout pond. I'm happy to tell you that the fellas did catch fish but they all swallowed the hooks and died. (The fish, not the fellas.) Clint felt real bad about it. We tossed them back into the water, you know - circle of life - but later read something that told us not to do that. It made Clint and me feel worse. 

The fellas started most of the mornings down at the pond - Brett and Clint in particular. The boys would usually come too, but then they'd have to poop and go running back up to the house. I'd wander down to sit on the little bench swing and take picutres of the flowers. It was wonderfully nippy up there. A chilly fun change from our hot August. I rotated between pretending I was in Scotland and Canada.

Susie arrived to Brevard with a snotty cold and spent most of her time sneezing and sniffling. We all felt bad for her. She did join us for a venture into Downtown were we ate lunch at a slow moving food truck, shopped for rain coats, and found a great little coffee shop. Jeff let August and Juju share a Pepsi at lunch and the sugar hit very quickly. Then Susan gave them a cappuccino and all hell broke loose. Clint convinced them that sitting very still and mediating would make them levitate. It worked for a few minutes. 

Shortly after, we wound up in an antique store full of expensive, breakable things and the children were like sticky missiles, narrowly missing glass lamps, and picking up old kitchen utensils and clanging them together like swords. Brett finally snapped at them in a dad-like fashion and all three of us looked up at Uncle Brett with horror. "You cut that out!" he snarled, quiet but firm. "You can't act like that in here. Go sit outside." They ran off giggling but I stared in amazement. I have never seen him bark at anyone. Ever.

We came home for naps and emails. Bubbs and I made supper and then introduced the family to Pig. It was big hit with August and Julian. August became rudely competitive while Julian preferred to soak his fingers in his mouth inbetween turns, lending the dice a refined dampness one simply can't find in those of public establishments.

Day 2: Lots of sniffling and sneezing in the house. We began this day with a short hike that August and Juju ran four or five times in the time it took us to climb up and back down again once. 

While Clint and Brett headed back to the pond for fishing, Jeff and I sat for one of our therapeutic chats. He and I are so different you see. He is all motivated to succeed, feels duty bound to tradition, and values the rewards of hard work. I'm unimpressed by societal success, feel I owe nothing to anyone, and can't really come up with a good reason to spend a beautiful day on temporary things, like invoices. So Jeff asks me lots of inner peace and relationship questions while I absorb his concepts of having goals and strategies for things I may want in the future. Even he became a little indifferent once I couldn't come up with something big I wanted to buy someday. "What about a nice car? Do you want to drive a Porsche by 40 years old? Set a financial goal."

"But don't you ever drive by someone in a really expensive car and wonder what insecurity made their priorities go all wonky? I feel sad for people in expensive cars."

"Tell me more about that," he'll say, and then later he'll give me three or four valid reasons that a person might just want the more comfortable commuting experience of a nice car.

We found out about a year ago that we're a good match for meaty conversations, so we used the assorted wooden porches of this trip as settings for our musings. Brett often joins in with his ethics based and heavily researched opinions, but when it gets to relationship stuff he bails out. The truth is so unromantic isn't it?

For lunch we went to a Mexican restaurant where August and Julian were mistaken for my children and the concept made me panicky. "No! No no, those aren't mine!"

I foolishly gave Juju a ride on my shoulders as we walked back to the car and then he wouldn't go anywhere without insisting on being carried - preferably on the shoulders.

Later that day, Clint accidentally picked his teeth with his soapy fingers and my laughter was uncontainable.

We had another afternoon of naps and emails before Jeff seared some tuna steaks for supper. We played more rowdy dice and card games and got the kids all whipped up just before bed. 

Day 3: Clint, Susie, Brett, and I went into Asheville to visit the Biltmore. We had perfect weather for the scene and we milled through the house with heaps of other visitors. Susan's cold took a turn and she had to bow out a little early. She went and laid down in the car while we peeked at the colorful gardens. 

Before heading back to Brevard, Clint drove us around Asheville to show us where all of his best memories happened. We saw the little white house he grew up in, his best friends house, the place where got mugged once, the store he worked in, and the highway where he unintentionally took part in his first drag race - he was cowering in the back seat. 

Day 5; On our last day, Jeff and the boys packed up and headed home. We all piddled around until then, out of politeness, and then Brett and I went back to downtown Brevard for coffee and pastries. We also went on a hike up a bumpy dirt trail that spits you out at a little waterfall. There were only a few people on this trail so it was very easy to pretend you were wandering unspoiled wilderness with wild abandon.

Brett and I got back to the house just in time to do a quick change before dinner. Clint and Susie had made reservations at a place they've frequented and Susan was very excited for the meal. It was all delicious but Susan couldn't taste anything so she hardly ate and then we all felt bad again. Brett was afraid the waiter would think she didn't like it, but we were even more afraid for him to find out she couldn't taste anything.  Covid family at table 12! Poor Susie went home hungry and got straight into bed. 

We helped Clint check off the items on the Guest Checkout sheet. We did dishes, straightened up, and found lots of used tissues under August and Julian's bed. We had a final mountain porch sit and sacked out in our heavily quilted beds. It was a quick turnaround that morning. We stripped the beds, repacked the fridge into coolers, and were on the road by 9:00. Brett and I swung by the coffee shop one last time and then barreled down the road to see our pups.