GRAY, Tenn. -- Rosemary Kleske had spent hours online.

Some venues required her group to pay for their cooking services – a tough bill to swallow when her group of church ladies could certainly whip up a good meal on their own.

Other retreats restricted the use of alcohol, but Kleske was planning a wine tasting 101 session for the 40 women from the Holston Valley Unitarian Universalist Church (HVUUC).
 
Other venues also had lengthy, complicated contracts.   

But the women’s retreat was a simple weekend event, and they just wanted to have fun and relax.

“It was very hard to find someplace that fit all of our criteria,” she said.

Eventually, she found Sugar Hollow Retreat. Now she’s planning her third woman’s retreat there for 2010.

“The beauty speaks for itself. It’s just gorgeous and everyone loves the hikes,” she said. 

The rain is coming down steady today, slowly dripping from the eaves, and watering the wildflowers and lawn behind the Lodge.

Fall is one of the most beautiful seasons, but lately, it’s been pretty rainy at Sugar Hollow.

When it rains, we spend time making sure your Sugar Hollow cabins are shipshape – light bulbs, any minor things that need to be fixed.

But what about you?

Here are 10 ideas to keep you busy if Mother Nature just isn’t outdoor-friendly during your stay with us:

Halloween is less than a week away and I still have no idea what to wear.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I love the fun of dressing up, the idea of getting scared, celebrating fall with corn mazes and hay rides and of course, rotting my teeth on lots of candy.

I have trouble getting scared at haunted houses these days, but I still love the idea of slinking through the dark, hands out in front of me, hoping some ghoul doesn’t jump out from the shadows and send my heart into my throat.

To that end, I’ve been digging around online to see if there are any good Halloween scares in our area.

These days, it's not so common to see a deer or a wild turkey. But at Sugar Hollow, you can.

The 300-acre wooded retreat is on the Tennessee-North Carolina border. The upscale cabin getaway now has feeders to ensure wildlife fill the area.

Such ideals are part of Sugar Hollow, but as you travel this fall, here are some green travel tips from the the North Carolina Center for Sustainable Tourism.