Blowing into the Hemlock

Blowing Rock is my new favorite vacation destination. It is a clean, cute and perky little town nestled in the mountains, not on the road to anywhere. This gives Blowing Rock a timeless feel; timeless yet not backwards. There is no lacking for Wi-Fi, clean water, quality food,  and educated, friendly residents. I think this was one of the appeals to the city; it was timeless yet not primitive. It was not as isolated as Gilligan's Island, and we did not have to build cell towers out of coconuts. Yet it felt deeply safe, peaceful, sincere, genuine. Deep like the Marianas Trench. When you are in the mountains, you feel connected with infinity. This spiritual undertone is all around you, especially in the Blue Ridge Mountains .

There were so many highlights during our weekend at BR, that I am going to have to divide this into multiple posts, like I did my Bardstown visit.  One of the best things about the weekend was where we stayed; the Hemlock Inn. It was a short walk from the Inn to North Carolina's oldest continuously operating bar; the Antler Bar. On the way out of town, the hotel owner and host directed us to a museum and hiking trails that once was the home of the inventor of denim. This represents a scattered taste of Blowing Rock, like a Whitman's candy sampler without the crappy fake cherry nougat center. 

Front of the Hemlock Inn

I don’t recall ever thinking that a hotel, motel or B&B was the highlight of a trip. Hemlock Inn is worthy of being one of the highlights. I've done tons of traveling. To me, a hotel is a rental bed; just a place to crash, and a place to strategize the next day's expedition. I don’t stay in a hotel to see the hotel; I stay to see the city. I am looking forward to staying at the Hemlock again. The Hemlock Inn was my fiancé's find, and it really was fantastic. Of course, hemlock is a poison, so I am not sure why she was googling it. 

Porch at the front of the room at the Hemlock Inn

Garden Area in front of the room at the Hemlock Inn.

Picnic Table at Hemlock Inn

Brian and his wife Donna are the owners of the hotel. They are extraordinary hosts. The two things that stood out about the Hemlock was the beauty of the Inn, and the quality of the service. Brian and his wife bought the hotel in 1994. They retired from their employed positions and moved to Blowing Rock to run the Inn. They added on to the Inn, doubling the size, but kept the style authentic to the original 19th century structure. You can't distinguish the old part from the new. Brian, Donna and their staff were fun, friendly, and informative, and made sure all of our needs were immediately met throughout our stay.

Brian and his dogs

Brian and his dogs

The Hemlock is around the corner from downtown. It is a short walk to numerous beautiful parks, great shops, restaurants and bars. One of our favorite places was the Bistro Roca Antlers Bar. The Antlers Bar is the oldest continuously operating bar in North Carolina, and remained in operation during the prohibition years. It opened in 1932.  The food is exquisite and the service outstanding. The menu is seasonal and mostly local, with such items as wood fired sweet potato salad with duck bacon, bison tamales, eggplant frites, and wood fired trout with asparagus. The ambience matches the food. It has an old time mountain/woodsy feel. Decorated, of course, The walls of the entire place are covered with black and white photos of puppies. 

On the way out of town, we decided to stop at the Moses Cone Memorial Park. Because how can you go to Blowing Rock and not pay homage to Moses Cone, right? I had never heard of Moses Cone before this trip, either. Although this is only a testament to our lack of decent history education in America. This fellow invented denim, and became a very wealthy philanthropist because of it. His company was worth a million dollars in 1890. He was known as the "Denim King" and was the worlds leading supplier of denim. King Cone built a beautiful mansion on the top of a mountain outside of Blowing Rock. They named it "Flap Top Manor." He died two years later at the age of 51 in 1908. He helped start an academy that later became Appalachian State University, even though he only had a high school education himself. His wife and her sister lived at their estate for another 39 years after his death, and they traveled in the most elite of circles, becoming friends with the likes of Picasso and Matisse. I'm pretty sure Mrs. Cone and her sister did not spend the rest of their lives weaving denim at the Flat Top Manor Denim Loom. The local hospital is named after Moses Cone, and their mansion in the mountains is now a national park. The minute you see the view, you know why they established a home on this plot of land. 

The invention of denim in the mountains of western North Carolina also explains why most blue jeans are blue. The plant named indigo grows in abundance in these mountains. The dye called indigo is derived from these, and is the same as the color named indigo. Not coincidentally, the chemical identification and method of extraction of dye from this plant happened at the same time, by the German Chemist Bayer (inventor or Bayer aspirin). And Moses was a first-generation American of German descent. As someone who is half German by heritage, let me give a double shout-out to German innovators. Go Germans!  I never leave home with out a bottle of aspirin in my blue jeans pocket. Just saying. Ach du lieber.

The Moses Cone estate is in hundreds of acres of beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. There are many miles of hiking trails. On this particular vacation, we had already had 3 long hikes (about 20,000 steps on the Fitbit each hike). We told Brian about some of our toughest hikes; big elevation changes and narrow rocky paths next to drop offs. He recommended the Moses Cone hike to his grave in the middle of a meadow most of the way up a 4,500 foot elevation peak. While it was not narrow, steep and rocky, it was super long, and continuously uphill for two hours, and ironically ended up being the biggest elevation of any of our hikes that week at 80 floors on the Fitbit. The two key destinations along the way were Moses Cone's burial site and a place called "Observation Tower."  Having been to "Chimney Rock" and "Looking Glass Rock" and "Devil's Head," we assumed this would be some cool natural formation. After two hours of sweat-drenched hiking uphill in heat and humidity slightly above acceptable human parameters, we see the four-story tower man-made structure, and of course, had to climb it. I did not completely wear out my sketchers, but by the end of the week, either half an inch of sole was worn off or I was half an inch shorter. 

Moses Cone Mansion

The View King Cone had from his home

Moses Cone grave marker, or as I call it, the "Cone Stone"

Moses Cone grave marker, or as I call it, the "Cone Stone" 

Path to the top of the mountain on Cone Estates

Path to the top of the mountain on Cone Estates

The infamous tower at the top

If you want to go to one of the most beautiful and coolest places in the world, vacation in the Blue Ridge mountains.