One of Todd's favorite things to do is go driving in the mountains. A few weeks before his birthday, I had read about Swannanoa Palace, an old estate just off of the Blue Ridge Parkway, one of his favorite places to drive. We had seen some kind of large tower above the road before and drove around looking for it to no avail, but I found the address. I didn't tell him about it so I could surprise him sometime.
The day before his birthday, Todd suggested going for a drive on Saturday afternoon and I thought this would be a great chance to surprise him and find the mansion. My plan was successful--Todd was SO surprised to stumble upon this huge estate in the mountains! And better yet, it happened to be open that day for public tours. What luck!
We spent a few hours wandering around the mansion and the grounds. This place was amazing, a must-see in both of our opinions. Decrepit opulence, I loved it. I wrote more about the interior on my design blog.
Todd found the tower we had seen from the main road. It was away from the main house, so I'm not totally sure what purpose it served (housing Rapunzel?). I think he was trying to figure out how to get to the rope and hoist himself into the window.
I spent most of the time we were outside trying to keep bugs out of my eyes/nose/ears/hair. Todd stepped back to take this picture and yelled "act natural!" then a swarm of bugs attacked. This is me, natural.
After our tour of Swannanoa, we had Todd's birthday dinner. We ate at the Melting Pot for the first time a few weeks ago and Todd was really bummed I wouldn't order Swiss fondue (I don't really like Swiss cheese). So I made some for his birthday dinner. Big party, I know! Everyone we hang out with left Charlottesville for summer internships, so we just did our own thing.
After dinner, we opened presents. I was really excited to give him his present, because it was perfect and I'd been talking it up for a while. When I took the photo on the left, I believe his exact disappointed/annoyed words were "What the heck, Cuisinart?" Then he saw what it was: an ice cream maker, the perfect gift. He has since made two batches of graham cracker ice cream... which are so good, I may let him make ice cream for dinner from now on.
Happy 28th, love!
1 comment:
OH goodness! I have heard of Swannanoa before but didn't realize how big of a mansion it is! I've heard of it because the same guy who built it (James Dooley) lived in Richmond at a place called Maymont. Maymont is gorgeous and is always our go to when we have visitors. So how far from Charlottesville is Swannanoa?
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