Many people I know go on a last-chance pre-labor fancy vacation, often called the "babymoon." Well, Elliot and I decided that we wanted one last chance to get away, too. Unfortunately, we couldn't quite schedule in the big fancy honeymoon level vacation we were originally hoping for (Hawaii will have to wait yet again!), but we did find time to get away for the weekend to the Greenbrier in West Virginia!
We decided to drive out there, and we left on Friday around 11:30 in the morning. Along the way, I noticed signs for Skyline Drive, so Elliot and I decided to detour along the route. Unfortunately, my morning sickness is not completely gone, and too much time in the car seems to exacerbate it . . . so, of course, we had to pull over so I could throw up! After that, I made sure to take my phenergan, and I was feeling better the rest of the ride. Here are a few of the scenic views we saw on our drive down Skyline Drive:
We arrived at the Greenbrier at 4:30 pm . . . just in time for a complimentary afternoon tea and pastries! We indulged ourselves then checked in, and off to our beautiful little villa we went. I have to say, this must have been one of the nicest places I've ever stayed. Somehow, we were upgraded to a villa on the property, and we had a private "cabin" all to ourselves - complete with living room, a 50 inch television, wood-burning fireplace, huge bathroom, dressing area, walk-in closet, and big master bedroom. The decor isn't quite my style, but you can see the luxury of the room:
We settled in, changed our clothes, and then decided to head to the main dining room for a fancy dinner. The dining room was beautiful . . . but dinner was a bit of a disappointment. Not to complain, but we had pretty high expectations for such a high-end resort, especially for the prices they were charging for the food (and they required a jacket and tie at dinner). The service was unbelievably slow, the bread was stale, and I was totally unimpressed by the salad I ordered. It was supposed to be a romaine salad with parmesan cheese dressing and asparagus. Sounds lovely, right? It was a ceasar salad (and yes, I am well aware that I am not supposed to eat caesar dressing while pregnant) with chunks of parmesan and the smallest pieces of asparagus I've ever seen (I needed a microscope to find them, and I think we only found 5 in the whole salad - less than a full piece of asparagus!). I did order a delicious glass of zero proof pinot noir wine . . . basically, red grape juice made from pinot noir grapes. My main course was good . . . it was an interesting pasta (I believe it was a homemade spinach papardelle) with a madeira mushroom sauce and some other vegetables, but to my dismay, the pasta was unevenly cooked. Some of it was really mushy, some was perfect, and some was hard as a rock. We passed on dessert - nothing looked overly enticing to us. I guess I just expected more! Nevertheless, we had an extremely pleasant dinner, and we were thrilled to be on vacation.
After dinner, we wandered around the hotel a bit, enjoyed a quick little dance by the bar area, then went over the the hotel movie theatre to watch the newest Indiana Jones movie. They had an old fashioned popcorn machine in the back, so Elliot loaded up on popcorn. It was a fun evening, although I apparently fell asleep during the last 5-10 minutes of the movie . . . ahh, the joys of pregnancy! After dinner, we decided to head back to our villa, and light a beautiful roaring wood-burning fire! We spent the rest of the evening in front of our fire.
We woke up early on Saturday, and headed off to brunch. I woke up STARVING! I think I was eating off the buffet before they even seated us! The food was delicious - I was particularly in love with the waffles! After breakfast, we decided to tour the property. Our tour turned into a full 2 hour tour of both the inside of the hotel and the outside premises. It was quite fascinating, and we really enjoyed learning about the history of the resort, the interim government ownership, and a tasting of the history of the formerly hidden Congressional bunker beneath the hotel, but I was exhausted! I guess 2 hours on my feet wandering around is harder than it used to be! After the tour, we stopped off at the museum, then wandered down to the golf club and made dinner reservations at the club restaurant, and wandered around the pool, golf and fitness facilities. Here are some pictures we took, but I'm not sure we really captured the interior beauty of the hotel:
We finally made it back to the room, and I was EXHAUSTED and sore. I stretched out for about 15 minutes, then we decided to change into our bathing suits and move our lounging to the indoor pool at the hotel. On our way to the pool, we were sidetracked by a cooking demonstration. I then left Elliot and headed off for a luxurious spa treatment! I ended up getting a body mud mask . . . so relaxing and refreshing. Elliot apparently wandered around the property, and managed to get access to the Presidential Suite and the fanciest villa on the property called the Top Notch. We met back up at the indoor pool after my spa treatment, and spent an hour in the pool.
On our way back to the room to shower/change for dinner, I started realizing I was having some strange cramping all over my belly. It dawned on me that they might be contractions, so I had Elliot start timing them. In the meantime, we stopped to play a game of croquet on our way back to the room (we weren't 100% sure of the rules, so we may have invented some). Elliot claims to have won our game . . . . of course, I think he cheated, and when we discounted his treacherous, cheating turn, then I won! Since we couldn't agree on who won, we called it a draw - but at least we had fun! I have a feeling we are terrible croquet players. Here is a picture of the croquet field, and a few pictures of us playing. You can see our villa just up the hill on the left in the first picture:
In the meantime, I had a few more contractions while we were playing croquet. After Elliot checked his watch, we learned that lo and behold, I was having contractions every 20-25 minutes. I was a bit worried, but I lay down for a bit in the villa, and started drinking water and juice. Unfortunately, that did not seem to slow the contractions down at all. We decided to keep our dinner reservations, keep pumping me with fluid, and then call the midwife if the contractions either increased or failed to stop by the end of dinner. Like clockwork, the contractions continued throughout dinner. I have to say, however, that dinner at Sam Snead's restaurant at the golf course restaurant was AMAZING!! The bread was delicious, we skipped appetizers, I ordered a wild mushroom crepe that was unbelievable, and we shared a side of boursin cheese mashed potatoes that were heavenly. We almost ordered the snickers pie for dessert, but we were so stuffed! The atmosphere was perfect, and the dinner was so much better than the previous night in the main dining hall. I made sure to eat lots of food, drink tons of water, and I enjoyed another glass of that delicious pinot noir grape juice! We were at the end of dinner, and I was realizing that a phone call to the midwives was imminent. I did remember that alcohol used to be the "standby" to slow/stop contractions, so I decided to have a few sips of Elliot's wine. I have no idea if it was the wine or coincidence, but I had one more contraction at the 40 minute mark, and then they stopped completely. I can't tell you how relieved I was! I was so worried during all those hours of contractions. Here was our view of the golf course from dinner - if you look closely, you can see some deer on the edge of the course:
Anyway, with the contractions in check, we decided to head back to the hotel movie theatre for the evening screening of
Get Smart. It was cute . . . nothing spectacular, but a pleasant movie. After our movie, we again went straight back to our villa and lit a beautiful fire and spent the rest of the evening planted in front of it!
We woke up again early on Sunday morning and decided to take an early tour of the Congressional bunker they have ensconced under the West Virginia wing of the hotel. It was a fascinating tour! We really learned a lot, and just were amazed by how they hid the bunker in plain sight in the hotel for so many years. For those of you who don't know, the Greenbrier bunker was the site for Congressional relocation in case of nuclear war. It was designed to be a fallout shelter big enough to house all members of Congress, Congressional staff, and enough hotel staff to serve the bunker for 60 days. Some of the bunker was open to the public for exhibit hall space and meeting rooms.
After the tour, Elliot stopped to do a few putts on the putting green, and then we went for a brunch buffet at the golf course. The food, again, was absolutely amazing! We were disappointed that the snickers pie was not on the buffet . . . we were regretting not seizing that moment the night before!
After lunch, it was time to check out. We packed up our car, checked out, did a few last minute pictures on the property, then went on our way at 1:30 pm. Here is a picture of a beautiful monarch butterfly I saw in the gardens and just couldn't resist!
Once again, the road signs called to me, and I made Elliot take a detour to see the Natural Bridge on our way home. Here is one of the pics we took there:
It was a beautiful site, and I'm so glad we stopped! We did not arrive at my parents' house until 7:30, unfortunately, because our detour sucked up a lot of time. We had dinner with my parents, picked up Nugget, then headed home. I was ready for bed about 5 minutes after we got home, but it was truly a wonderful weekend!
