Presidential Visit

So President and Mrs. Obama were in Asheville for a weekend getaway and the whole area was buzzing with excitement. Friday, I started following a local blog about their visit. Around 1:00 I heard Air Force One (which was impressively loud). There were no politicians to meet the Obamas at the airport and no photo ops - this was strictly a weekend vacation for a married couple.

The couple went straight from the airport to 12 Bones Smokehouse, which is a very funky restaurant down on the river, in West Asheville. The Obamas waited in line to order with everyone else. They ordered ribs, which are THE best you could possibly ever imagine, along wth some delicious sides. (This restaurant has the most amazingly delicious sides.) The woman taking their order, handed over their tea glasses, and their table number stand. Mrs. Obama hung the number stand - #99 - on her husband's shirt pocket and proceeded on to the urns to fix their glasses of sweet tea, while he paid.

They went for a hike on the gorgeous and astounding Blue Ridge Parkway (my personal favorite thing about living in these mountains). They stayed at the Grove Park Inn, which is old, historic, luxurious, but not exclusive (you may be familiar with their annual Gingerbread House Competition.) They toured the Biltmore Estate (a requisite when visiting Asheville.)

Sunday morning, I was thinking of driving over near the airport to see if I could sight Air Force One, when I learned that before President Obama left town, he was going to visit Billy Graham. Aha! You can't go see Billy Graham without passing by our house. So I just stayed put and saw the Presidential Motorcade twice from my own front yard. It was impressive, I tell you.


There were several pairs of these.

Several of these.

Blackhawk helicopter overhead, which incidentally was audible all weekend. As you can see, it was a beautiful day.

If you can zoom in on that open window, you will see a Secret Service Agent pointing an automatic weapon right at me. Also in the open rear hatch are two more Agents with automatic weapons on the ready. And there were a multitude of other support vehicles. Serious, serious business.