So Joe decided he needed to see John Hodgman and there just happened to be a book signing in North Carolina in November over a weekend, it seemed like perfect timing. Which it actually was. We drove up to Winston-Salem, NC Friday the 13th to see Mr. Hodgman at the Salem College for women.
We got to the college a little early and it turned out good because the college campus was actually really interesting. This college is the oldest educational institution for women in the United States, so there are some awesome old buildings around the campus that were fun to check out while we waited for the reception to start.
There was also this neat graveyard. It dates back to 1771 and is for the Moravian church.
We decided to pay a little extra for a reception so that we could actually meet and chat with him a bit. The extra price included hors’doeuvres; a paperback copy of More Information than You Require; a booksigning; and reserved seating at the Conversation event! It actually was totally worth the money.
We were hanging around the hors d’oeuvres waiting for Mr. Hodgman to show up, which when he did the mood changed, everyone got excited for him to start coming around greeting people. The people that were hosting the reception from Bookmarks came around to make sure we knew Mr. Hodgman would take the time to talk to everyone. So we waited around and watched him talk to a few people. There were some people that definitely wanted to occupy his time, and we soon realized that we would need to approach him to get any introduction. We walked over to the circle that had formed around him and stood around the outside, until he noticed us and said “Hey look everybody: It’s the Griggs!” [we were wearing name tags!]It was totally awesome. He then shook our hands and introduced himself as John and we introduced ourselves. Joe really wanted a picture with him, so we asked if that was OK, and he of course said yes. We went out into the hall (the mood lighting in the cocktail room was too dim) and John asked how they should pose, and Joe said “Well I have a picture of John Cleese punching me in the face, we could do that” and John made a witty remark and then consented to the odd photo-op. It was pretty awesome.
As you can see John likes to punch downward, and he made some jokes about that. It was all very funny and very Hodgman. After a few other photos (as you can see Mr. Hodgman also enjoys Saucony shoes) it was time to set up for the book signing.
We thought we would be able to tell him what we wanted signed, but instead he came up with his own jokes :)
After we got our books signed we walked over to the auditorium to sit in our reserved seats. We took the front row! The “conversation” with John was moderated by Justin Catanoso, who has done work with NPR, among other things.
The conversation was fun and there were some way funny parts, but there were some also very political moments which I didn't care for and I actually found it ditracted from the lighthearted nature of the conversation. Periodically the moderator would read questions that were submitted before the program began, and Joe's question was actually read! It was something about "now that you are a minor internet celebrity, is there anyone from high school that you'd like to give and 'in your face' to?" John's response was pretty funny, he was nonchelant about it, saying that no one really harrassed him with his long hair and total nerdiness playing dungeons and dragons, etc, and then said "no, I don't think I need to give an in your face to anyone......except John Smith (he said a different name but I can't remember what it was)" It was fun.
After all the fun we got on the road to Asheville, NC. We decided that since we were going to be in North Carolina we should take the opportunity to vist The Biltmore!
The house was built by George Vanderbilt and was completed in 1895, it remains America's largest privately owned home. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the experience of visiting Biltmore, but I was pleasently surprised. The family still owns about 8,000 acres of land which surrounds the home so it makes for quite the feeling of seclusion. When you arrive at the gate to the Biltmore property you feel like you are entering something special! Driving throughout the property is actually really awesome, the grounds were design by Frederick Law Olmsted who designed Central Park, so there are a lot of neat things happening.
We didn't get to the estate early enough to get into the house first thing, so while we waited for our time we toured some of the gardens and looked over the exterior of the house, which is very interesting. The area was so pretty we decided we would definitely have to visit the estate again. Hopefully we'll be going in May. The green house was actually a lot of fun to look through. Since there weren't many flowers outside it was nice to see beatiful blooms.
Of course you can't take pictures inside the home, but it was beautiful! It took us about 2 hours to get through the house and we listened to just about everything on the self guided tour audio guide. It was the version they put out for Christmas, so there were lots of stories about the Vanderbilts throughing Christmas parties at the house for all of the staff, and how they would purchase gifts for all of the staff's children. The most impressive Christmas decoration was the 35-foot fully decorated tree they put in the dining "room" which has 70-foot ceilings. It was amazing! I think the most exciting thing about the house was the "technology" involved in building it. There are 43 bathrooms in the place, just about every guest room has an attached bathroom! The house was build from 1889-1895 when having indoor plumbing was such a luxury. Not only did they have tons of bathrooms they had a huge! indoor pool in the basement. It even had underwater lights. Other awesome technologies of the home: refigeration rooms, washing machine, laundry drying racks, electric dumbwaiter and elevator, servents call system, and internal telephone. Anyway, it was amazing.
There are more things to see on the grounds of the estate like the Winery and the farm area, but we were so burnt out with walking through the gardens and house that we settled on just eating at the winery. That was actually the low light of the visit. We ate at the Arbor Grill, which was supposed to be closed, but happend to be open that day. I'm guessing that the food they offered was not their normal fare because it was terrible! The sandwiches were all pre-made and squished, and the soda that was $2 was a little 6 oz. class bottle! Ridiculously expensive and way upsetting. Hopefully they work that out for next year, because it totally made them look bad. After the bad food we decided to just make the loop around the property and head out, especially since we planned to visit again in the spring.
It's only about 2 hours from us, so it will be fun to spend another weekend there. I'm also looking forward to visiting more of Asheville and seeing what fun artsy things they have to offer. I also want to do some touring around the Blue Ridge mountains, they were beautiful.
Check out the Picasa album for tons of pictures!
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