We all create moments in our lives. We all have moments where our brain seizes the moments takes a snapshot in our memory to carry with us throughout our lives. There are two I recall recently that set a reminder to me of what can be created long after the building has been completed.
Travelling is a great way to discover different people, food, love, and discover something new about yourself too. I am recalling moments when my breath was taken in a gasp of wonder.
Asheville, NC is a beautiful place full of small-town goodness when I was there so many years ago. Rounding the corner from the dense forest of shaded green, I came into the clearing before The Biltmore Estate. My mind took a picture as I was struck by the beauty of the building. How could a person live in such a home of such size and brilliant splendor.
Lucy, I’m home!
Is what I imagined. As my mind imagined Lucy and Ricky Ricardo living in The Biltmore Estate where the fireplace is bigger than my kitchen and bathrooms combined.
However, magnificent The Biltmore Estate and Property is I felt a certain melancholy, a sadness, or a unfulfilled desire driven to dust lying everywhere about. It is remarkably grand. It is precise and carefully laid-about. Perhaps it is the burden the Estate demands to stay alive that I felt.
Nevertheless, The Biltmore Estate was a moment witnessed I can not, nor do I want to forget.
My twenty-fifth birthday I got to celebrate with a cruise and a trip. The cruise kept me up drinking and laughing, so when I started on my trip to Canada I was beat. Interesting snapshots of the metropolis of Montreal in juxtaposition with cathedrals. The best potato soup and bread ever at a little diner of a truck stop along the road. The Victorian house B&B we stayed at before crossing the St. Lawrence River.
On the ferry, crossing the river, standing on the highest perch, I saw Le Chateau Frontenac. I was struck. My mind took a snapshot. It was gloriously magnificent. Overseeing all around with a grand un-apologetic splendor. Funnily enough, I still remember the man at the front desk who flirted with me as we checked-in complimenting me on my glasses. Which I took great trouble in finding the half-tortoise shell/half rim-less glasses that were way too chic and fashionable for the small town and state I arrived from.
There is no doubt in my mind when they started to build on Le Chateau Frontenac it was to create a statement of claim and superiority.
I am still awe-struck.
The great thing about travelling, the reason I travel is more than to create the memories and bring back photos of great times and beautiful places. I need to smell the air, feel the sun on my skin, the wind in my hair, watch how the sun makes shadows on the pavement. These are the small things that cannot be taken with a photo, or a blurb on a blog, they can only be felt and witness by the traveller.
Which was me.
WE - DO NOT AGREE! 