Lush white bedding. No air conditioning. Gorgeous flowers. Ping pong tables. Screened in doors and windows. Large fans. Afternoon tea. Dining room meals with other guests. Wooden walls. Wake up knocks instead of wake up calls.
Welcome to The High Hampton Inn. A step back in time, really. After 6:30 p.m., “Gentlemen are required to wear coat and tie,” and ladies are required to wear a dress, skirt, or something else that meets the “nice” requirements (jeans are, by no means, included in that category). What sounds like fancy fuss actually ends up being really a wonderful thing. Today, we have gotten so casuallllll with absolutely everything! Guests now value dinner as something special and out of the ordinary, and children feel as if they couldn’t look any better (and it by no means hinders them from playing around barefoot on the grounds immediately after dinner).
Also, with no cell service or Internet, one might at first almost have a panic attack from the lack of connection with the rest of the world, but soon after, all is well. What? Family? Board games? Bingo?? Who would have thought those things still existed!!! Seriously, after dinner all the guests head downstairs to watch the kids play a game all together, while the moms drink wine, the dads discuss basketball, and my mom and Grandmother read or write. I even wrote like twenty letters. Okay, not twenty, but a lot.
My third time here, this time around it is different. I experienced it as a child, and man was it magical. Running in and out with screened in doors slamming behind me, finding shelter behind bushes during hide and go seek, canoeing in the lake, hiking on the mountain…blah blah blah. I even met a kid and was pen pals with him for the rest of the year one of the times. But this time it is remarkable in a very different way. Conversation is the main form of entertainment, you gotta leave the windows open so you don’t roast at night, and the wait staff becomes your new best friend (Ricardo totally offers to bring us extra goodies at dinner and breakfast).
Southern charm and hospitality are provided here like nowhere else. It’s definitely not for everyone, but it really is something to be bragged about (yes, even from a girl who loves her phone, Internet, and a big city…trust me).
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Oh Abby, that sounds wonderful! I wish my family did stuff like that.
Sweet memories! In my head, I am SO there. Even the aroma of High Hampton is special.
I was in heaven until you mentioned no AC. No phone, okay, no internet, okay, but in the Carolinas, Air Conditioning is no luxury, it’s a necessity! And I don’t see any way that it could interfere with family time.
Excuse the rant, lurved the photos. I feel like you’re really starting to have a photographic “style.” Also enjoyed the blocks of text–you don’t always write so much 🙂
no no the interwebz and phone is what interferes! and it is coooool in the mountains remember? no need for air! and there are big fans and you leave the windows open for breeze! its totally comfortable.
and thank you so much for both complements!
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