KC here I come

This is not a book review but a travel review. My daughter thought I should blog about it and I figured it would help me to remember the trip more.
I recently dropped off my daughter at SCAD in Savannah and on my home to Kansas City, I decided to scope out some vacation options for my family. I started out by driving up the coast from Savannah on Hwy 17.
I thought this would be like driving down the coast from Oregon to California but on that drive you actually see the coast. This drive up the coast was very different. I was barely ever able to see the coast at all. If a coastal view is what you want I would skip Hwy 17 and head up I-95 for pure speed instead and enjoy the ocean view at your desination.
I did see the Boone Plantation on my journey up Hwy 17 though and decided to take the time to enjoy the place. I believe it was $30 to get in and that included a trolley tour, homes tour and demonstration. The Plantation home was beautiful. The home is still used by it's owners so the tour was rather lame. They only let you in about 4 rooms, the entry way, a living area, an office and a breezeway. The items in the rooms are not from the home, they were put there by the current owners, not related to the original Boone family so there really is no historical significance to the pieces in the home at all.
Next, I took the trolley tour of the Plantation grounds. There really isn't anything of historical significance on the tour. It's just the grounds with a fairly impressive garden that you can pick fruits and vegtables from. I did enjoy the relaxing ride on a hot day.
There are also slave homes on the plantation with each slave home having an audio or video tour inside. This is the most impressive part of the Plantation but still not worth the steep entry fee. This was just outside Charleston so I am guessing there are more impressive Plantations to tour. It was a nice break from driving though.
I continued driving up Hwy 17 and every now and then I would veer off east to see if I could catch a glimpse of the ocean. Most of the time all I saw was homes with pathways to the ocean through high dunes keeping the ocean view a mystery.
I stumbled upon a town called Murrells, SC a small inlet fishing village that has at least 10 seafood restaurants on the water. I found one with the best view and stopped to eat crab legs on the deck while watching the wildlife on the water. It was absolutely a beautiful and restful stop. It was just what I needed. At the time it was the highlight of my trip.
After my relaxing meal I began driving once again up Hwy 17. I reached Myrtle Beach and stopped to get information on the hotels in the area. Myrtle Beach is like Las Vegas without the gambling. You can find everything and anything on this long stretch of road. From what I could see between the small area between the thousands of hotels I passed the beaches in front of the hotels looked pretty nice. Each hotel advertised a lazy river so that is apparantly the must have request for a hotel these days. All along the drive people were busy running here, there and everywhere or simply driving in front or behind me for a very long time. I had intended to stay the night at Myrtle Beach but frankly with no children in tow I was looking for something a little less commercial and a little more quiet so I kept driving north. I ventured past North Myrtle Beach, still bustling with activity but not as dense, and finally decided to head east and see what happened.
I ran quite by accident into Ocean Isle Beach, a very sleepy little beach community with almost no hotels or inns but many vacation condos or something like condos. There were a couple of Inns on the ocean, and I stopped at one to inquire about pricing. I was hoping that being off the beaten path of Myrtle Beach would garner a cheaper rate. It was about $99 for a room or $130 for an Ocean View. I was able to see that it was not just a distant view but that we were right there on the Ocean so I splurged for the Ocean View. The room was large with a table and chairs, a small area with a small frig and microwave, roomy bathroom and nice sized deck with a table and chairs. I thought the price with the ocean was very reasonable. I opened the door enough to hear the ocean waves and went fast to sleep to dream about how much I had enjoyed my trip so far.
The next morning I ate my continental breakfast while looking longingly at the beach. I quickly shed my shoes and headed out to feel the beautiful white sand between my toes. I walked down the beach letting the water run up on my feet as I walked and looked for interesting shells in the sand. I really wanted to get a chair and sit on the beach for a few days but I still have over a thousand miles to go to get home and I was getting home sick without my family so I got my map out and headed towards home, away from the ocean and away from Highway 17.
It didn't take me long to get to Asheville, NC, home to the famous Biltmore home. This is a place I have wanted to see as far back as I can remember. I just had to see it. Unfortunately the place closes at 4pm. It wasn't quite 4pm yet but suddenly the sky opened up and poured and without weather.com I was unsure how long it would last. I decided to wander around the city and decide what to do.
The City of Asheville is quite lovely. I think I could spend several days in Asheville and be very happy and busy. Ashville is located snug in the mountains so it was cool and green. The roads, typical of a mountain town, wind around and around. There is a trolley tour through town and downtown appeared very nice and contained one sidewalk bar/restaurant after the other. My kind of town. The rain and clouds lifted and left behind a beautiful evening. I wanted to explore and enjoy it but I decided to get a hotel and try and sleep early so I could get go to Biltmore in the morning and drive all day after that.
I arrived at The Biltmore just about 8:30am the time the gates open. I had purchased my ticket the night before at the Ingles Grocery Store for $40 to save time and pulled in and parked to get ready for the first tour of the day. When I walked through the trees after parking and saw The Biltmore House, I almost cried. I had wanted to see if for so long and there it was. It was even more magnificent than I could ever imagine. I really am hard to impress but i wanted to pinch myself.
The house opened at 9am so I was right there waiting to get inside. They have several tours available but I opted for the audio tour. The tours are an optional fee, the audio tour was about $8. SO worth the money! The audio tour allowed me to move at my own pace while learning everything I could in a short amount of time. The home is still owned by the Vanderbuilt family. It is 175,000 SF of living space. Wow! It is the most beautiful and organized home I feel confident that i will ever see. It's NOT beautiful gaudy like I think you might see in many homes of that era and size, it's just simply nice. The tour went on and on and on. I don't know what percentage I was allowed to see but I can tell you functionally I think I saw about everything. It took me over an hour and a half just to finish the home audio tour. We were allowed to see every floor, there are five in all. I saw maids quarters, the master and mistress bedrooms, quest bedrooms, the gym and indoor pool, dining rooms and sitting rooms a plenty, several kitchens and the library. I wandered up and out on a balcony and up and down at least 4 separate stair cases.
With a long drive still ahead I had to prioritize what to see next so I opted to see the winery before heading home. I drive around the beautiful and massive gardens, I'm gonna see that next visit for sure, and past the farm to get to the winery. I was barely past 11 and the winery doesn't open until noon so I drove out and to the main entry shop that also has wine tasting and sells wine. They let me taste at least 10 different wines. I liked several and bought several to take home to share with my husband and friends.
It was finally time to hit the road for real, no more stopping and sight seeing. So sad to leave Asheville with so much more to see but that's okay, it's just a good reason to come back and I will come back!

Savannah up Hwy 17

Ceremony in Death by J.D. Robb

There is a funeral of a respected fellow police officer who died suddenly of a heart attack with no warning. At the funeral Eve mets the officer's grandaughter who requests a private meeting. Eve Dallas then enters the secret society of Satanism and also of Wicca, a religious order of Witches.
Several deaths occur and Eve meets a member of Wicca who's father was a serial killer and she relentlessly pursues him as her killer after another member says he's the killer. Peabody thinks Eve is being too hard on the suspect and Eve lashes out at Peabody pretty hard.
While waiting at the Wiccan leader's place of business Eve is abducted and becomes part of a "Ceremony".
I don't think Wiccan members would appreciate the portrayal of Wicca in this book, even though it is found to be a white witchcraft and the religious order members are found to be innocent, I don't believe it is portrayed accurately. I've read other books about Wicca and the ceremonies and practice in other sources had more to do with the planet and less to do with witchcraft and sex.
Every reader knows immediately who is evil and who is good in this book. It's a shame that more time wasn't invested in trying to link the evil characters to the murders by methods of investigating. That's what I like about the future books by J.D. Robb, our heroine uses a lot of technology and whatever else she can to solve crimes. It's almost like Nora Roberts couldn't figure out how to solve this one investigatively so she just had the killers wrap it all up in the end. I know she's capable of doing better, i've read the evidence.
The banter between Dallas and Peabody is enjoyable in this book and of course there is lots of Roarke being loving and sexy! Romance is "Roberts" strong suit and she does not disappoint there.

Immortality in Death J.D. Robb

This is another Lt. Eve Dallas book with sidekick Peabody and billionaire Roarke. In this story Eve has to solve a mystery surrounding the use of products or drugs that make a person seem younger. People are being murdered and in at least one case, Eve's best friend Mavis is arrested for the Murder. Eve is fiercely loyal to her friends so clearing her freind is very important.

I liked the ending of the mystery. It was a surprise. At least it was to me. I usually always figure these things out but this one caught me by surprise. I like that.

This is an earlier book in the "Dallas" series so some of the best things that develop later are missing. The relationship between Dallas and Peabody hasn't quite developed yet. Peabody is too timid around Dallas yet and I missed her witty comebacks in this book. Dallas is having nightmares but they are only about her killing her father as a child and they are not used to help her solve the crimes like they do in the future books.

There are plenty of things in this book though that are usually in the book. Roarke and Dallas are madly in love with each other and have sex often wherever they are, usually preceded by Dallas putting up a little fight. Roarke is always protective of Eve and he's always hungry for her. Do you really wonder why women would like this series? Dallas works relentlessly to solve the murders and brings in Roarke to help her with his security and computer skills.

This is just an easy book to read about a women who had some very bad luck as a child but is a kick ass police officer with a gorgeous and loving billionare husband and caring loyal friends. There is a brutal murder to solve and Eve works endlessly until she solves it.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

I felt left out because I was not forced to read this book in high school. Everyone else had to read it and now my kids have had to read it so i wanted to know what all the fuss was about.
What the heck is all the fuss about? Someone, please explain to me why this book is a classic. I do think that the character sounds just like most teenagers sound when they go through their negative period. Whoa, what a downer, huh? Could a person be more negative? I know nothing about the author but if this book was written after the author grew up then it is "most" impressive that an adult could channel their teenage side again. Wow is all I can say. For some, I would say it's spot on how strange and dark it is inside a teenager's head.
Since I missed getting this assignment in school I also missed the discussions of the book as well. In the end he goes in the hospital. Is that because he's mentally ill or is it because he has a tumor perhaps. I don't know enough about all the medical possibilities to know what is going on here. Is there a reason why the author chooses not to tell the reader why Holden goes in the hospital? If he goes in for mental reasons then I am assuming it has something to do with his brothers death. Please someone out there help me. I spent hours on this book that I can never get back and I don't know why............

Next by Michael Crichton

If you have read Crichton before then you know that each book is completely different than the last. That's good news and it's bad news. It's good news because each book is a unique experience. There is no formula. It must take him so long to develop each book this way. The bad news is that just because you loved the last book you might not really like the new book.
For example, I absolutely loved "Timeline". I really loved it because of the one thing Crichton does do with each book is he does his research. Just as in "Timeline" the reasearch for "Next" was extensive. There is so much to learn and yet to be discovered about genes. The story in "Next" while non-fiction is based on a lot of facts abouts genes, the medical and legal side of genes.

Gene technology is very complicated. I liked the way the book would educate using "news bulletins" to educate us on some of the complicated parts of gene technology or just to bring us up to date with a part of the story. What I didn't like was that I think Crichton was trying to educate and even preach to us on every facet of gene technology in one book. There were so many stories going on in the book it was hard to follow.

Okay, loosely there was an issue of lab employees selling body tissue and bones, there was an issue of a man wanting to do DNA testing on his wife to show that she has a future desease to prevent her from getting the kids, there is an issue with a hospital taking tissues from a man who had cancer and survived and the hospital patented the genes and now the genes belong to the hospital, a lab tech gave experimental gene therapy to a person without approval, a scientist inserted his own genes into a chimp and a talking and thinking chimp was born. That's just the issues on the top of my head, there were more. So, understand why it was hard to follow?

I think this book would have been a lot better if just a couple of connected issues were discussed and developed into a story. Also, using interesting characters that people care about. There were several sub-stories with characters that we don't care about but they all get stopped in one way or another.
I understand that gene technology is dangerous and if we don't make changes it will be even more dangerous, but I almost gave up on this book early because it was just too much and I didn't even like most of the characters so I didn't care what happened to them. I did like the two main stories, the chimp/boy "Dave" and the story about the man's genes who had cancer. Those two were good stories with interesting characters AND it made me think about the current technology and laws surrounding gene patenting and gene experiments. If those were the main stories in the book and the other story lines weren't discussed in this book I think the book would have been better.

I love science so I hung on to the brutal end and I'm glad I did. If you are not in to science and learning more about science through fiction. You probably won't like this book.

Shoot Him if He Runs by Stuart Woods

This is a Stone Barrington and Holly Barker novel. They go to St. Barts to try and find Teddy Fay a "rouge" retired CIA agent who escaped in the last Holly Barker novel. I know when I read a Woods novel about Stone B. that it's going to be a very light and easy read. There's something wrong that needs to be fixed and along the way to fixing the problem Stone gets himself in a real jam that he manages to get out of and he gets the girl in the end, having lots of sex along the way and that there is going to be lots of funny conversations between Stone Barrington and his sidekick Dino.
In this book they don't really do anything at all, everything is done for them or drops in their laps. The closest thing to a tight fix Stone finds himself in is getting arrested but a contact on the inside gets him out pronto. There is no sexual tension between Holly and Stone, yes, they have sex but it's about as exciting as saying "they had sex". Dino is in the book but I don't remember a single interesting conversation that they had. The worst part is, the problem does not get resolved.
This book was still an easy and breezy read. I was able to start and finish it which is more than I can say about other books but if you haven't read it and you read Stuart Woods, don't waste your time on this book. Read a different "Woods" book. This one was started for a reson and nothing at all came of the book. There is no resolution to the book, the ending is very very disappointing. All there is in the middle of this book is people eating breakfast, lunch and dinner close to a beach on a tropical island. I am thinking "Woods" wanted a tropical vacation and needed to be able to write off the expenses. Not much effort in this book, even by Stuart Woods standards. I have not given up on him yet. Some authors like James Patterson have written more than one lazy novel and I don't waste my time on them anymore. I'll try Woods again.
Currently reading "Catcher in the Rye", "Teenage Boys" and "Next".