It has been a while since I have written. We have been very fortunate to have a busy fall and holiday season. We loved seeing many of our regular guests in the beautiful month of October while November and December have been filled with wonderful families in town to ride the Polar Express. 2011 was our best Polar season yet. Thanks to all of you who came and made 2011 a good year for us.
Our family was home for the holidays. Andrew brought his fiance Jeanette Howell (they will be getting married in February in Durham), Steven brought his girlfriend, Sara Loiacono, and John Thomas was home as well. It was a wonderfully full household and we had a great time.
We are now looking forward 2012, hoping, wishing, and praying that it will be an improvement for many of those who have been so severely affected by the economic turmoil of the last few years. I hope your families are well and that you have great plans for the new year that include a trip to Hemlock Inn.
This is another milestone year for us…..2012 is the 60th Anniversary of Hemlock Inn. Seth and Lorraine Haynie opened the inn on July 4, 1952. Raymond and Georgia Johnson bought the inn from the Haynies in 1964 and my inlaws ,John and Ella Shell, from the Johnsons in 1968. Lainey and I have been here since 1988. We have just completed our 23rd year as innkeepers. We are thankful to now have Chad Gilbert, our nephew, here helping us now.
We will be having some special $60 per person per night rates available throughout the year staring with two holiday weekends this winter. We will be open January 13-15 for Martin Luther King holiday and February 17-19 for Presidents Day weekend and will offer the $60 per person rate both weekends. There is room still available for both weekends! Look for this and other specials throughout this special year.
Another important event for us this year will be the reprinting of the Hemlock Inn cookbook, “Recipes from our Front Porch”. The cookbook will be updated, recipes and photos added, as well as with lots of interesting sidebars on the history of the inn and of the various recipes. Much more on this later
Let’s all make 2012 a year of celebration…giving thanks for our families and friends, for the freedoms we share, for the opportunities we have been given, even for 60 years of operation.
We hope you will celebrate with us.
