So yesterday’s post takes me straight to The Greenbrier.  Have you ever had the experience of hearing about a place, thinking it sounds cool but not being able to imagine when you’ll ever be anywhere near it and you completely forget about it because of that?  For me, that place is The Greenbrier.  (Mind you, I reconstructed my prior knowledge after I was there so I may get the timing wrong).  I think I first read about it a few years ago on a blog called The Prippy Handbook & kind of loved the description of a Waspy-Alice in Wonderland style place.  But I didn’t think I’d ever be in West Virginia, so I failed to bookmark it.  Then, last year, Matchbook Magazine (which my love of is well known here), profiled the resort in its February 2012 issue.  Again, I think I read and dismissed it as somewhere too remote for me, but I remembered loving the over-the-top Dorothy Draper decor.  As you can see, somewhere in my head, I had this place noted, but it was buried deep in there.

I might have missed it all together on this trip if I hadn’t decided to order dessert at the Livery Tavern.  You see, I usually skip dessert but I was feeling vacation-ish on that particular evening & I had the most amazing apple pie.  I wasn’t expecting much from the pie really, but it turned out to be simply the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten – it had some kind of bourbon-esque/brown butter sauce on it and it was topped with homemade ice cream and the crust was a flaky pastry.  The couple sitting next to me was debating dessert and I couldn’t keep my mouth shut and insisted they try the apple pie.  So we got to chatting and they told me that the Greenbrier was nearby and “something to see.”  Somewhere in the back of my mind I recalled the place but I couldn’t remember why exactly.  I decided to drive out there to check it out.  I wish I had gone sooner or booked a spa treatment there – the place was over-the-top (as you can hopefully tell from the pics above).  Just a pure visual feast.  So, to follow up on yesterday’s post, should you find yourself in West Virginia, I would personally check out The Greenbrier.  I’d also be prepared to pack a lot of Lily Pulitzer and her ilk as it seems very very very preppy, to the Nth degree, and I do like to play the part.