Kanuga Recap

Thanks to an email to my friend in Texas, I finally got around to typing up a recap of our trip to Kanuga. There are lots of pictures on our website at http://www.theleibys.com. Enjoy!

Friday we drove up to Hendersonville, NC. Lots of people around church have talked about it, but had never been. They are supposed to have a lovely downtown. They do!

We walked for a little while, but couldn't go in to many stores. Lots of nice little antique stores. Two little boys in an antique store... well, it would be like that saying about a bull in a china shop! I told Greg that I thought the town would make a nice weekend getaway for me sometime!

We did stop in to the Mast Store. They are a small local chain of.... well... it's hard to explain! It's almost like a throwback to the old general stores. I found the one in Hendersonville rather disappointing. But the one in Greenville is great, so I guess I'm a bit spoiled. Neither compares to the original store in Valle Crucis, NC though. Now that is one cool store! Especially the incredible assortment of old-time kids toys.

Lunch was at a place called "Mike's on Main Street". Looked like a standard sandwich shop from the outside, so we thought that would be good with the boys. (The martini bar was out. haha!) We made the best choice in going to Mike's!

Apparently the building was originally an old pharmacy, so it is somewhat decorated as such. But it's also an old soda shop, so it's got the big soda counter, and other decorations that match that.

I got the BLT. Okay, not trying to get too many details here (a la, who rode in what seat in the car!), but the BLT is significant. It's my favorite sandwich. But I have yet to find an authentic BLT around Greenville. They just don't know how to do it here.

But Mike's knew! It was a perfect BLT! The first authentic BLT I've had in the South! Oh it was so delicious! I would go back just for that BLT. And yes, I told our server, and she said she would tell the cook.

Speaking of the server, she was amazing. Everyone in there was so friendly. It's not always easy when you're dining with kids. They get restless, and frankly, they like to drop food on the floor. Our server was perfect. The boys got a little restless, and she was right there with a bowl of crackers to hold them over. She even told us not to bother cleaning up the things they dropped, because she cleans up after kids all the time. We cleaned up anyway.

Certainly we'd love to try other restaurants in Hendersonville too, but it will be hard not to go back to Mike's over and over again.

So after that we drove over to Kanuga, the Episcopal conference and retreat center for our diocese. We couldn't check in until 4 pm, so we killed some time on the playground.

We had a nice cottage, 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, a living area and a screened porch. Michael called it our "Kanuga house". In fact while we were there, if it was a noun, it had the word "Kanuga" in front of it. "We're going to Kanuga dinner to eat Kanuga chicken and have Kanuga drink while we sit in our Kanuga chairs...."

Friday night was a presentation by Bishop Gray, the retired Bishop of Virginia. Fascinating guy. His parents were missionaries in the Philippines when he was little. During WWII, they were all held by the Japanese in an internment camp. He watched the bombing of Manila. Wow!

The evening wrapped up about 9 pm, and we all went back to go to bed. Matthew crashed immediately. But Michael did not want to sleep in his "Kanuga bed". No, he wanted to sleep on the "Kanuga floor". But not just at any spot. In our room. In the closet. Yes, he wanted to sleep on the floor in our closet! Okay, whatever floats your boat. As long as he sleeps. Which he did.

Saturday morning was another presentation. I went and helped with the preschoolers, and we all went on a big hike around the lake. I loved that! Afterwards we all had lunch, and then the afternoon was free-time. We napped, we walked, we went back to the playground. But most importantly to Michael, he got an ice cream sandwich! Matthew also enjoyed is teddy grahams snack.

The day wrapped up with dinner, a skit by the clergy (which was so incredibly funny, I will probably never forget it!), and then an incredible puppet show. Michael sat right up in front. (Matthew was in the nursery.)

Sunday morning was church and then brunch. Afterwards we headed home.

So, what really stood out?

Getting to know more of the families and the kids. Michael definitely has a couple close friends in the group. Matthew was enjoying playing with the younger kids as well. And even made friends with some of the "older girls"! It is so neat having people around you who you feel so comfortable interacting with. It's easy to take a couple of the kids off to run around while their parents finish eating undisturbed. And it's easy to let other parents take your kids too.

Michael's excitement. He was so in to this trip. He had been talking about it for quite a while. He was so excited to get a Kanuga shirt to bring home. Of course today he is saying that "tomorrow we go back to Kanuga". Well, not tomorrow. But next year!

Matthew's growth. When we took him last year, he was only 3 months old. This year he was 15 months old and all over the place. He's playing and he's making friends too. He just seems to love everyone.

Relaxation! No televisions. No phones. Even my cellular service is unavailable up there. Things are kept simple. All food is provided (delicious!) and the staff does all the cleanup.

The only drawback this year was that Greg could not participate in a lot of the activities. After all, he just started grad school last week. By next weekend, he has something like 3 presentations and a 40 page paper due. He's a hardworking student who takes his studies seriously, so while the rest of us were doing retreat things, he was back at the cottage reading and writing. But in a sense it was a retreat for him as well, as he got to work uninterrupted, without having to worry about giving me breaks during the day.

We can't wait for next year!!!!