Sarah and I spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Blowing Rock, North Carolina at The Village Inn. We splurged and got the room with the huge king-sized four-poster bed and jacuzzi on the deck; it was well worth the extra $20 or so a night. We just spent a couple of days relaxing, reading, and exploring Blowing Rock and Boone. The weather was cloudy and rainy, so we were not able to hike. We did do some shopping, though. I found a copy of Ellwood Cubberly's Public Education in the United States (1919) at a used bookstore, which is a pretty cool book to have if you are in my profession. We got some Mellow Mushroom pizza to go and ate it in our hotel room while watching the All Star Game. We checked out The Blowing Rock, which was not at all worth the six-dollar -per-person admission. It was a good getaway and helped to relieve a lot of the moving/new job/new town stress.