On the road to Hogsmeade!

Our hotel, Four Points by Sheraton

We purchased this 2-night mini-vacation package back in July when they finally opened the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Hogsmead in Islands of Adventure at Universal Orlando. It was to be my 52nd birthday present. We're back now and my 52nd birthday was my best ever! It was just a great day! Thanks Clay and Universal Studios and Hogsmead and Harry Potter! I wish I had a Butterbeer to raise a toast to you right now! Traffic was pretty light on I-95, we didn't get rained on after we got out of NC and crowds were relatively light at Universal. A cold front came through while we were in Orlando. All good!

Our package was $441.28 total for the 2 of us. It included: 2 nights accommodations at Four Points by Sheraton  (within 1 mile of the park, easy walking distance for us, also the hotel included a $20+pp breakfast buffet each morning but we only ate there on checkout day since we ate 3 Broomsticks breakfast on the first day), 1-day base ticket to Islands of Adventure per person, Three Broomsticks breakfast at a reserved time (9:30am for us on my birthday!), schedule park transportation (didn't use), Commemorative Tickets for each (inexplicably we got numbers 192951 and 192101!), CityWalk Party Pass (didn't use), Early Admission to Islands of Adventure (1 hour early, I was first at my turnstile! This extra early hour made all the difference in our enjoyment! The crowds really pick up after that first golden hour.)

Since the park hours at Universal Orlando had been shortened since the time we purchased our Wizarding World of Harry Potter package with will call tickets, Clay decided to take an extra vacation day. We headed out early in the morning for the 9 hour drive. This way we were able to go to the ticket kiosks at Islands of Adventure and pick up all our tickets and vouchers, etc. before the park closed the night before. In the morning, we were able to go directly to the entrance turnstiles before the early entry began. We were in the first group to open Ollivander's Wand Shop. We saw a little girl of about 9 or 10 years old get chosen by a wand. It was fun to watch but the line was very long most of the day after that first hour and it would have been crazy to wait a long time for a little 5 minute, single audience member participation show!

After we stood in a very short line for a very long time to pick up our tickets, we walked back to CityWalk for dinner. (I had printed 20% discount coupons at home for the restaurants. I forgot to use them! Grrr!)

We wandered around and read menus and did a little shopping at the Universal Store in CityWalk and then ate at Latin Quarter. Clay had a Negra Modelo, we shared Queso Fundido, I had 4 cheese chicken pasta with chorizo and Clay had carne frita. We were too stuffed to order dessert! Not a great meal. The queso fundido is served with not great corn tortilla chips, not the traditional tortillas. Likewise, Clay's carne frita was not served with the traditional tortillas, but with fried plantains, which were huge and heavily breaded and tasteless. A disappointment. My 4 cheese chicken and chorizo pasta was the best dish of our choices and was very nicely flavorful. It was a lot of food and very rich and heavy. We couldn't finish it and we'd have felt happier about the meal if I had remembered to use the 20% discount coupon!

Bob with Clay's beer (sorry don't know the price)

Bob with our Queso Fundido ($7.99)

Bob with my 4 cheese pasta with chicken and chorizo ($15.99)

Bob with Clay's Carne Frita ($14.99)

We wandered some more around CityWalk after dinner. We pondered having a bag of beignets at Pat O'Briens for dessert and decided we were just still too stuffed. Clay thought about having some ice cream but it was cooling off by then and he was still too stuffed. He wound up just buying a $2.75 bottle of Diet Coke and we headed back to the Four Points Sheraton and an early bedtime.



Bob with Pygmy Puffs in the CityWalk Universal store




Bob with plush Buckbeaks in the Universal CityWalk Store



Our room at the 4 Points by Sheraton, number 1512



Note the scrim curtain! We didn't find the blackout one behind that night!

Room 1512 faces Wet N Wild Waterworld

Bathroom in 1512, Four Points by Sheraton

needs a nightlight!

ice bucket and complimentary water



A filling Sunday afternoon

Old Fort on I-40

Holding to the pattern, we may have been a bit late leaving the Highland Lake Inn and arriving in Snow Camp at Ye Old Country Kitchen for a buffet lunch. http://www.yeoldcountrykitchen.net/

The drive was mostly on Interstate 40 again. Though this time we got off around Greensboro and took a NC Scenic Byway to get to Snow Camp and on to Chapel Hill. That was nice. http://www.milebymile.com/main/United_States/North_Carolina/byway/Football_Road.html

Scenic drive

We arrived at Ye Old Country Kitchen around 3pm. Since we were supposed to be back in Raleigh by 4pm, we were late and we voted not to rush at lunch. So we would get to back to Raleigh at about 5pm.

Ye Old Country Kitchen, Snow Camp

On to lunch. We had the Sunday Country Buffet. It was great. We had a huge selection and everything we tried was delicious. We each only actually tried less than half of the offerings, there was just too much. But, Clay's favorite was the fried chicken livers, big and juicy and crispy. My favorite was the fried yellow squash slices. They were so thinly sliced and so lightly battered, they were otherworldly and ethereal. I know I can't make anything that light and crispy that is fried! Bob G. was promoting the fried chicken and the Brunswick stew. We both liked the chicken and Clay liked the Brunswick stew. It was good, but I didn't love it, it had a flavor of something like KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce. I prefer the kind that tastes more like Campbell's Tomato Soup, which Clay does not like. So there you go, different tastes. I did not like the macaroni & cheese, it had some kind of a spice flavor that I could not place but did not appreciate. Bob loved it. All the vegetables were really fresh and good. The chicken stew (or chicken pastry) was the chicken and dumpling style, with the big, puffy dumplings instead of the strips of dough. Tasty, but not my favorite. We both liked the homemade persimmon pudding. I also had (oink oink!) the banana pudding and chocolate meringue pie. (I also cannot make meringue like these 2 desserts had on them!) On the way out, we bought a whole chocolate meringue pie to take home and had it for dessert all week long. It was even better than the slice I had in the restaurant! This place was another real gem of a find and way off the beaten path! Oh, and how full were we? Well, they had a soft-serve ice cream machine with cones and Clay did get one! He said he was too full! There's a first time for everything!

Ready for some food porn? Scroll on down and enjoy! Remember that clicking any photo will show it full screen size and then click the back arrow to return here.

L to R, chicken livers, chicken stew, fried chicken



L to R, apples, yams, cabbage, limas & red taters, field peas







L to R, macaroni & cheese, squash casserole, fried yellow squash!



L to R, mashed potatoes, roast beef, gravy, country ham, chicken stew, fried chicken livers





Meringue pies



Banana pudding with meringue topping





Persimmon pudding, all gone!

 
That is the end. The rest was just the drive on home. Oh, one other note. There were about 6 people from the Triad area on the trip. Bob Garner arranged to pick them up at a parking lot off I-40 in Burlington on the way over on Saturday. On Sunday, he had a van and driver pick up these same people from Ye Olde Country Kitchen and drive them back to their cars in Burlington. That was a nice touch. The next Bob Garner Restaurant Road Trip is in February of 2011 and goes Down East from Greensboro. If we go, hopefully there will be another arrangement like this that for us to use. http://bobgarnerbbq.com/road-trips  Also, we noticed that the price dropped by $50 per couple to $700 for us. That is still expensive for an overnight trip, but moving in the right direction.

Signing out for now on this trip. Next up is a day in Hogsmeade for my birthday! We will drive down to Orlando and spend 2 nights in order to have all day on my birthday to spend at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. WWoHP is in the Islands of Adventure amusement park at Universal Studios Orlando. Check back later for our report. http://www.universalorlando.com/harrypotter/

A wonderful Sunday morning

Season's breakfast buffet, part 1

From 7:30 – 9:00 a.m. at Seasons Restaurant on the inn grounds, just a few yards from The Lodge, a buffet breakfast was served. Bob Garner and UNC-TV filmed a segment for “North Carolina Weekend,” featuring Highland Lake Inn’s Country Buffet Breakfast. It included him going through his usual routine of sampling and commenting on the food. He also featured on camera some of us who wanted to comment on the breakfast. This included the guy sitting next to me just as I was finishing up my pancakes, we'll see, but hopefully I am not in the shot. (Oh dang! They got me! http://flash.unctv.org/ncweekend/12232010highlandlakein.html I appear at about the 5 minute mark next to Carl Curry. I appear to be pigging out! It is true that the camera puts on 20 pounds 'cause that cannot be my real double chin!) Outside of the filming, the buffet was really impressive. The cheese grits were extraordinary, very tasty, cheesy and firm, not runny at all. Grits to eat with a fork! The bacon was crispy and smoky tasting. I had the biscuits and sausage gravy and they were delicious. The chef said that she makes her own sausage! The oatmeal was a special concoction with different fruits in there daily, I think she said she had apricots and figs in there, but I didn't try it. Bob raved about it and said he always eats the oatmeal here. It was probably delicious.

L to R, cheese grits, oatmeal, egg & vege casserole

Croissants, biscuits, bacon, potatoes, sausage gravy

Season's breakfast buffet continued...

Bob Garner at work!

all white peacock by the greenhouse

Clay and I walked around the grounds some more after breakfast. We tried the swings again, as well as a porch swing on top of a hill hanging from a tree limb! We walked around the lake and down past the dam to see the reconstructed mill house. It was very scenic. We went down to the organic garden and greenhouse and saw the goats and a turkey and the hens, as well as an all white peacock! Bags to the lobby by 10am and keys turned in then too. The bus was loaded and we headed off shortly after that.



Turkey and hens

Highland Lake

Highland Lake

Clay just above the dam

Dam and Mill house at Highland Lake

Tree swing above Highland Lake



A night at Highland Lake Inn

Our room, 7, at Higland Lake Inn in Flat Rock

We found ourselves running about an hour late getting to Flat Rock and the Highland Lake Inn, so we didn't have as much time to relax and sightsee as originally planned, but it was fine. Highland Lake Inn was ready for us and I believe we were all housed in the Lodge building which must have streamlined things. We walked or rode golf carts up to the Lodge building where they were ready at the bar to hand out keycards and have us sign our registration forms. Check in was that easy. We were assigned room 7, which was 2 doors down the hall from the bar and the last room, so a corner room. Very easy and convenient.

Bob Garner's personal pig cooker!

We wandered around the lobby area and where we would be eating our pig pickin' indoors since it was in the 30's that night. We found some maps and took a short outdoor walk to get oriented and stretch our legs before the evening's activities. We found the pig cooker outside behind the Lodge. I took a turn on the swings, then we got back in before it got too dark. The bear warning signs had us a little freaked out about being out after dark!

Beautiful tree. The view from the swings.

Debbie trying to scare Clay

Debbie and Andrea, with Cami speaking behind us

As it was getting dark out, we went inside to get ready to hear about the Highland Lake Inn. Cami (sorry, didn't get a last name or title) gave an optional presentation in the Lodge lobby at 6:00 p.m. on the fascinating, 100-year history of the Inn, which has been a military academy, a camp and a school over the decades. http://www.hlinn.com/  While we were waiting for the talk to start, Andrea Weigl from the News & Observer interviewed us. Corey, the N&O photographer with her, told her she was going to get some room photos before the 2 of them had to go spend the night and the Holiday Inn. Andrea told her she needed to finish with us, so we offered to show her our room before dinner as she interviewed us. That worked out just right timewise.

The main event, Bob's BBQ pork

Time for the big event. This was to be Bob Garner's pig pickin' recipes, served indoors. It was advertised as a dinner event only for $50pp for local residents that were not part of the road trip. As far as we could tell, there were no people at the dinner who were not part of our bus group or the band. Because of the expected chilly temperatures, the pig picking was served inside in a large, rustic room behind the lobby of The Lodge at 6:30 p.m. There was bluegrass music by “Appalachian Fire” before, during and after dinner. While the dinner event was fine, it was a bit of a disappointment. The sides were hot, but the pork was not. It was very coarsely chopped and lightly sauced, but there was no BBQ sauce on the side to season to taste. So, the meal consisted of BBQ pork, BBQ beans, BBQ potatoes, Ruthie's cole slaw, Bob's hush puppies and for dessert Bob's peach cobbler. Now on the way up here on the bus Bob Garner had shown a DVD of one of his PBS specials about pig pickings and had shown his recipes being prepared that would be the same as those served tonight. Peach cobbler was our only dessert choice (no ice cream) and it was most definitely not Bob's recipe! So, while it was a good evening with bluegrass and old time spirituals played by a live band, it was a bit of a letdown. Bob's beans were very similar to my triple bean bake. The hush puppies were huge crispy balls and had no onions in them, excellent.

Bob's BBQ beans and BBQ potatoes



Ruthie's recipe cole slaw



Not Bob's peach cobbler!



“Appalachian Fire” performing during dinner

After dinner, we went back to the room to add some clothing layers before heading out to the optional lakeside campfire at 9pm where Bob Garner would talk about NC BBQ. Cami and the Highland Lake Inn staff handed out flashlights for the walk or offered golf cart rides. We walked down. It was very dark out there! It was just about cloudless all day and so it was a very clear and starry night as well. One of the other guests was a Canadian mariner and he pointed out Jupiter in the sky and said it would not be that clear for another 12 years. He said with binoculars you could see at least one of Jupiter's moons. So sad to be without binoculars! We packed light for this trip and honestly, if I had packed binoculars, I would not have carried them to a campfire in the dead of night! Oh well... place that one in the missed opportunities category. While there was plenty of talk of roasting marshmallows, there weren't actually any, so we sat around the fire for about an hour while Bob told stories about BBQ and we enjoyed the warmth from the fire and reflected on the day and BBQ history.



Sorry so blurry, but it sets the mood without flash

A fine German lunch



Hickory's Olde German Schnitzel Haus

So, our first meal on this Inaugural Restaurant Road Trip was at the Olde German Schintzel Haus in Hickory. We like German food and haven't had much of it while living in Raleigh, NC. For some reason, we just haven't had access to many German restaurants. This one was excellent! http://www.oldgermanschnitzelhaus.com/

We had to email in our lunch choices during the week before. Below are the choices we had and our selections in color. Water, tea, coffee, soft drinks and gratuity were included, while beer and other alcohol were at our added expense. Given that they had an extensive beer menu and German wines, and we weren't driving, we ordered extra beverages.

Lunch Menu at Olde German Schintzel Haus

Appetizer: Choice of small house salad or two potato pancakes with applesauce

(We both had potato pancakes!) 

Main course: Choose one (all are lunch portions)-Jaegerschnitzel (breaded pork cutlet with cream mushroom gravy) served with Home Fried Potatoes & Red Cabbage
- Rheinischer Sauerbraten (marinated beef potroast with dark gravy) served with Home Made Spaetzle and Red Cabbage (Debbie)- Bratwurst Sandwich (pork sausage) topped with caramelized onions and sauerkraut, served with chilled German potato salad (Clay)

- Beer Battered Tilapia Fish Filet on German Roll with salad plate & sauce remoulade
Dessert: Applestrudel with Vanilla Sauce (Debbie)or Black Forest Cake (Clay)

Our extra German beverages

I had a glass of the Madonna Kabinett Riesling ’05. It was very good and was perfect with my meal. Clay had a Franziskaner Hefeweizen Dunkel, which he really enjoyed. Later he ordered a Rauchbier, a specialty of the Bamberg area of Germany . He had tried to order one when we were there in 2003, but they claimed they did not understand what he was saying and he never got one. It turns out he really did NOT like it anyway! It is clearly one of those acquired tastes. If you are interested, read more at the link below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoked_beer



Clay's medicinal Rauchbier!



Potato pancakes were hot and crispy! Yummy!



Clay's bratwurst



Debbie's sauerbraten with spatzle!

Debbie's apple strudel

 



Clay's Black Forest Cake

 



We had live entertainment with lunch!

Bob Garner with Chef and Owner Ulf Menzel

Ruthie Garner in the Olde German Schnitzel Haus

A view of some colorful leaves along the road

A last view from the bus before arrival at our destination

Just a reminder... to view any photo in full size, click it and it will blow up to full page, then back arrow key will return you to regular blog view.

Also, below is a link to Bob Garner's PBS NC Weekend review of the Olde German Schnitzel Haus.
http://flash.unctv.org/ncweekend/4152010_oldgermanschnitzelhaus.html