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A Wonderful Weekend in Westmoreland

Whispering Winds and two great restaurants

by Scot Noel

In May 2006, the owners of InWestmoreland.com, Jane and Scot, celebrated their 8th wedding anniversary. While the continuing success of our business afforded us little time to “get-away,” we determined to make the most of one entire weekend. And it was wonderful!

If you have a weekend to spend in Westmoreland County, here is the tale of one great possibility. The following is taken more or less directly from Scot’s journal of May 19, 20, and 21.

Can you believe it, Jane and I will have been married for eight years on the 22nd. We want to celebrate, but there is too much work for us to take extended time away from the office, so we have opted for a weekend off. It’s Friday, a little after 6 pm, and we are driving down to Mount Pleasant and the Whispering Winds Stables & Retreat, a bed and breakfast where we plan to stay this night and next, heading back home on Sunday afternoon. Our plan is to relax, read, eat good food, and enjoy the surroundings.

Whispering Winds is remarkable, our room gorgeous and beautifully furnished. The owners are Claire & Bob Kemp, and they immediately come across as people who were born to succeed as hosts. As the name implies, their bed and breakfast is situated on some beautiful farm land, some 22 acres, where they also breed Rocky Mountain Horses, a very gentle and intelligent breed. At the highest point on the property, where a gentle wind blows, there is a walking labyrinth. It is not a maze but a kind of meditation path. The theme of Whispering Winds is all about mental and spiritual balance, a kind of peace and mental relaxation that Claire especially seems to understand.

No sooner have we arrived and gotten oriented, than it is time to go out for dinner. On this night we are meeting family and friends at Carson’s Premier Catering in Scottdale, which features a seafood buffet on Friday nights. In addition to Jane’s parents, we share a table with two other couples, and it is not long before all eight of us agree that the selection and quality of food is exceptional. The hot crab legs prove to be a favorite, and Jane goes back for seconds more times than I can count. I had a crab cake, deliciously seasoned, along with hush puppies, beef burgundy, chicken nuggets, shrimp, both with bay seasoning and without, golden potatoes, seafood bisque, and fresh rolls and butter. They were also serving several cod dishes, tilapia with mango salsa, mussels, oysters, calamari, fried clam strips, and great salads, including a seafood salad (but that’s all I can remember off hand). And did I say there was shrimp, shrimp, and more shrimp!

Even stuffed and well satisfied, it would have been a shame to pass over the dessert bar. From the chocolate fountain to Carson’s selection of pies, lemon meringues, and devil’s food cake, there was something for everyone, even if you only wanted a taste of sweet after such a hearty meal. We all had a great time, even though the weather on Friday night was rainy and there was a bit of a chill on the air, we could not have had a better start to our anniversary weekend.

Upon arriving back at Whispering Winds, we sat for a few moments with Bob and Claire in their spacious living room near the big bay windows, talking about our vacations and theirs, about the beauty of Colorado and Wyoming, as well as Scot and Bob’s mutual love of old Westerns, from The Big Valley and Rawhide, to Gunsmoke, Maverick, The High Chaparral, and all the rest. While our hosts finished up evening chores and prepared for bed, Jane and I sat in another quite corner near a window, nibbling on nuts and sipping drinks as we read our books by the light of a beautiful little table lamp, a soothing music filling the room from a hidden sound system.

Saturday morning began around 8 am, not the earliest start, but we had a wonderful night’s sleep and it was a shame to break the spell. Actually, it was the smell of breakfast being prepared that penetrated our sleepy brains and got us moving. We were up and downstairs in no time. Claire and Bob served us at their dining room table, which was all decked out with elegant serveware. Breakfast was unforgettable, prompting both Jane and I to assure our hosts that, although we have been to bed & breakfasts from Colorado to Nova Scotia, Claire’s home cooking stood head and shoulders above the rest.

Breakfast consisted of orange juice and a wonderfully fresh fruit cup to start, with our choice of tea or coffee. We opted for Claire’s special iced-tea, sweetened with honey. The star of the show was Claire’s French toast. I’m almost convinced that you have never had French toast unless you have experienced it at Whispering Winds; this was something more of a confectioner’s creation topped with whipped cream. It could easily have served as dessert for an elegant meal. Accompanying the French toast were golden potatoes seasoned with rosemary and thick, hearty slices of bacon. Each bite was wonderful and it seemed impossible to turn down seconds. In fact, we found lunch to be superfluous. We simply could not have eaten another bite before dinner.

After breakfast we went to meet and take pictures of Whispering Winds central attraction, its beautiful and gentle horses. In all we met Cool Hand Luke, the big stallion of the herd, Clover and Honey, Rainbow and Hope, Miss Kitty, Holly, Brandy, and Blue, aka “Rhythm & Blues.” Hope and Honey were the new arrivals, quite literally, with the former 30 days old and the latter only about 18.

For any recently born creatures, these were big animals. Hope, with head held high was nearly as tall as I am, and she proved quite curious about the new humans who had come to visit, except in the presence of any of the barn cats, for which she demonstrated an exceptional curiosity. So, come a cat and Jane and I became second rate citizens. Cat goes away, and Hope once again had time for us. The cats, by the way, were quite aware of this and had fun teasing Hope, who was never allowed to get too close before they took off like little rockets.

We were able to get quite close to Hope when she came over near the barn where we were standing. She proved a bit skittish about being touched and would sometimes jump away, but we found her appreciation for being scratched along the neck was even more powerful, and besides she seemed to think our camera might be really tasty. All the time, her mother, Rainbow Chaser, stayed nearby, mowing the grass with gustatory enthusiasm.

After a while, Clair and Bob put Rainbow Chaser and Hope in the same field with Clover and her foal, Honey. By watching their interactions and listening to Claire and Bob, we learned that Clover was the lead mare and “in charge.” By the movement of her ears and tail, by the way she held her body and how she moved with head down or up, by how she breathed and the noises she made, Clover was communicating. And today she was telling everyone, including Hope, who desperately wanted a playmate, to stay away from her own younger foal Honey. Even among horses, there are overprotective mothers.

Our job was to take innumerable pictures, of horses running, playing in puddles, rolling over, or just coming over to see who the heck we were.

Walking Labyrinth.  Later in the afternoon we walked to the high point of the property and took a turn at the walking labyrinth. Upon hearing the word labyrinth, you may think of a maze, but that is not the experience. There is nothing to “figure out,” no puzzle to it at all. A winding path made up of bricks and bordered by a circle of bricks makes up an aesthetically pleasing design with a clover-like shape in the center.

The labyrinth is a meditation tool, something that helps quiet the mind as you walk its winding paths toward the center. By design, and to make a spiritual point, the labyrinth gets you so close to the center you think you must almost be there, then suddenly you are moving away to spend an extended period walking around the rim, as far from the center as it is possible to be. Then, as your thoughts slow and you get used to the path once again gradually approaching the center, suddenly you just turn a corner and you have reached your goal!

We found our walk in the labyrinth to be very relaxing. We took it while listening to some of our favorite music, playing on personal MP3 players (although later we discovered we were both listening to the same selections anyway). I would be remiss if I did not mention that Betty Boop accompanied us on our labyrinth walk. Betty is one of Claire’s barn cats. A youngster herself and with more personality than you can shake a stick at, Betty Boop stayed with us the entire time at the labyrinth, sometimes following the path at our feet, sometimes being carried, sometimes finding her own way through the winding paths.

The balance of the afternoon we passed in reading in the pool room. If you like swimming, the pool room is a fantastic attraction, but we opted for music, books, and napping.

Later we took another long walk around the property. Upon our return we found Bob and Claire both concerned for the health of Honey, whose temperature had gone down and was obviously not the same lively foal we had so much fun watching in the morning. They had called the vet and planned to stay close to Honey all through the night if necessary, even taking their dinner in the barn right next to the stall for Clover and Honey.

When it came time for our dinner, Jane and I were off to Bell’s Steak & Sea House, which is located in a marvelous 200 year old barn right near the intersections of Route 31 and 981. Inside, the beams and rafters are high overhead, while crystal chandeliers hang down to illuminate a welcoming dining area where the paintings of local artists decorate the walls.
Being our anniversary, Claire had called ahead for us to make reservations, and when we arrived we met Beverly, one of the owners, who directed us to a table in a quiet corner of the restaurant. The wait staff was attentive and very friendly. Jane couldn’t resist the evening’s special: chicken and shrimp asiago, along with a baked sweet potato and a salad. I enjoyed the prime rib, along with a baked potato and horseradish sour cream. As usual, we each tasted a little of the other’s dinner and decided that we had both made good choices. From the beginning, appetizers were not part of our plan, as too often we find we have reserved no room for dessert. Tonight, for reasons of nostalgia, we choose two crème brules. This was the dessert we remember fondly from our honeymoon, and the ones served by Bell’s Steak and Sea House did not disappoint us. It was another wonderful dinner, and we hope to return soon.

Upon our return to Whispering Winds, we found Clair and Bob out walking Clover and Honey. In addition to being sick earlier, Honey had wanted nothing to do with being walked on a leash and would only follow at her mother’s call. Now she seemed much less stubborn and a bit more sprightly. We thought things had taken a turn for the better, but the vet still had emergencies ahead of Claire’s call and had not yet arrived, so the night of worrying was not yet over for Bob and Claire. Before we went to bed, we told Claire not to worry about us in the morning, especially if she were going to stay up all night with a sick horse, but she only said “but I have something special planned.”

Again on Sunday we slept late, not getting down to breakfast until 9 or 9:30 am, where we learned the vet finally arrived around midnight, and that Honey was fighting a bout of colic, which can be serious for young horses. However, she was getting better rather than worse, so Claire had determined to make another spectacular breakfast. Today only proved the rule that Claire is a gifted cook. In addition to our delightful cups of fresh fruit and whipped cream, we had huge, fluffy croissants with butter, cream cheese, and lox. Where yesterday’s French toast was the star, today two marvelous quiches took center stage, enough to feed at least six people, and again there were thick, smoky bacon slices, this time with fried potato rounds. We ate until we could eat no more.

Once we finished nibbling at our third helpings, we went back up to the labyrinth to walk in and out of the winding paths one more time. It helped to center our thoughts and prepare us for the return to work and the week ahead. We wrote our "thank yous" in the Whispering Winds guest book and sadly took our leave of Claire and Bob Kemp, looking forward to another mini-vacation, hopefully not too far away, when we will once again enjoy such incredible food, peace, and quiet.
 

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