Flying North to the South

Melville's Ishmael knew it was time to go to sea when the depression of living on land got to him, when he spent too much time lingering at funerals.

For me, it's time to get some cool weather after about 6 months of Miami's heat, especially years like this one where there are no cool spells even into late October.

So Wifey and I got ourselves to MIA last Sunday and headed to North Carolina.

We flew to Asheville Regional Airport, which looks suspiciously like the remodeled airport in Bozeman, Montana. I guess in the 90s a bunch of small cities needed to renovate their regional airports, and used the same rustic look.

We rented a car and headed for Highlands. Fall was in its full splendor! The colors were striking as we drove up into the mountains. We made Highlands after about an hour, and checked into the Old Edwards Inn, a quaint Inn on Main Street in town.

We met Dr. Eric and Dana there, and shared a check in glass of champagne.

I have to say here that Eric only plays at being the top cardiologist in Palm Beach County. He's at heart a Summer Camp Director, and Dana his extremely capable assistant. Eric planned, researched, and led this week like the terrific tour guide he is. He knew every option throughout Western North Carolina, and gave us all wonderful choices. It was grand!

Eric found out that there was a Fall phenomenom on a local mountainside that occurred only a few times per year, and our first evening in Highlands was one of them: as the sun sets behind a peak, the clear shadow of a bear appears in the valley behind it.

One of the Edwards's fitness instructors led us a few miles out of town, and we parked along the highway. There were easily 50 people there gathered to watch this event.

At first, as the shadow appeared, we chuckled. IT looked more like a turtle than a bear. But, as the sun fell lower into the sky, sure enough a bear shadow in perfect relief was there. It was way cool.

We were impressed, and headed back to town. A culinary adventure awaited. Who knew there were Elk farms?