Lately all Oshie does when we go outside is look for the lizards that hang out around the deck. He begs to go outside and then just stands around and looks for them. He tries to chase them but he just isn’t fast enough. Sometimes the lizards even use Oshie to escape. They jump down off the railings onto him and scurry down his body and sprint off and under the deck. He needs to stick to playing fetch.
My two loves sitting in front of the waterfall. We had to hike down a logging trail to get to this waterfall. The trail was off the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Pisgah National forest and at the head of the trail there was a noticed saying the trail was closed until further notice. Well we ignored the sign and were going to claim ignorance if we somehow we were caught. We also had driven pretty far from where we were staying and wanted to see a waterfall. We were a little disappointed when we found it but it was an excellent backdrop for some photos!
1 year of blogging! If you had told me over a year ago that I would be a blogger, I would have called you crazy. Sometimes I still can’t believe I have one. I have to admit it has been fun and I am looking forward to continuing to share my photos and stories about Oshie with you all. Thanks to everyone who has followed the site and also those that just stop by to comment and view my images. Cheers and happy blogging!
Saturday afternoon was spent canoeing with Nancy, my brother Ethan, his roomate Scott and their dog Boston. Oshie and Boston seemed to enjoy watching us struggle with manuevering the canoes but they enjoyed the swimming even more.
Oshie loves the water but he has only ever been to the beach so he has never actually done any real swimming. He did well especially when we had the life jacket on him. When we took it off he struggled a bit but a few more trips to the river and he will be like a fish.
As I mentioned in the post I made yesterday, we stayed at the Asheville Green Cottage for 3 nights during our Memorial Day weekend trip to Asheville. We ended up staying here because we waited way too long to book a hotel for the trip and by the time we decided we should probably find one, all the hotels had raised prices to 400 dollars a night. The hotels we were looking at were nice and were dog friendly, but we did not think they were worth 400 a night and at that price we would have obliterated our trip budget.
With hotel prices going through the roof for the holiday weekend I decided to take a look at Airbnb and as fate would have it I found the Green Cottage. It ended up being the absolute perfect place for us to stay during the trip. The cottage is dog friendly and even more exciting was the fact that the owners, Vicki and Neeraj, actually had a two Golden Retreivers of their own. After a quick phone call the room was booked and we were ready for our trip. During that phone call I also found out that one of their Goldens had just had a litter of puppies. Talk about the perfect place to go stay.
The cottage is a beautiful old stone home that was built in the 1920’s. I overheard Vicki telling one of the other guests that Italian stone masons were brought in to help build the Biltmore Estate and how they had an influence in many of the granite block homes found in the area. The picture above is a view from the street of the front of the cottage. The neighborhood was very quiet and beautiful and even though there were houses all around, the cottage was set further back from the road and felt more secluded. The driveway to guest parking wound around the back of the house and down a small hill which helped hide guest vehicles from street view.
The stone work of the home was beautiful and there were also gardens and vegetation all over the property that really gave the cottage that mountain/secluded feel.
Beautiful Landscaping
The Guest Entrance
Flowers
Random Garden Statue
Off to the right of the guest entrance and down a small grass hill was a side yard that Oshie had a blast sniffing around.
The cottage has four themed rooms with individual full baths. Located on the second floor are the African and Indian themed rooms and down stairs are a Zen Garden and Mediterranean themed rooms. Due to our procrastination in planning this trip, we ended up in the Mediterranean room which was the smallest of the four. It was still an excellent room and plenty big enough for the three of us. It was probably best that we were on the first floor because Oshie gets restless at night sometimes and I wouldn’t want to hear someone walking around above me while I was trying to sleep.
The cottage also had a large sitting room/library with board games and books for guests to use. Across from this was the dining area where a delicious vegetarian breakfast was served. Each morning we received a big bowl of freshly chopped fruits, homemade bread/muffins, delicious scrambled eggs, coffee and a warm greeting from out hosts. Vicki had plenty of information about the area and I am sure she would have been able to answer almost any question we had.
My two favorite people.
Oshie was ready to explore.
Our 3 night stay meant that we didn’t spend much time at the cottage during the day. We wanted to make the most of our time in Asheville and explore. Thankfully the cottage was close to everything we wanted to see. It is less than a mile from the Biltmore Estate entrance and Biltmore Village, five minutes from downtown Asheville and only a short car drive off the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The time that we did spend at Asheville Green Cottage was comfortable and fun and I would recommend it to anyone planning a trip to Asheville North Carolina with and without pets. Thanks to Vicki and Neeraj for providing such a lovely little place for us to stay!
Jesse
Nancy
Oshie's World 
Recent Comments