WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama and wife Michelle head to North Carolina today for some R&R.

The first couple will spend the next three days in Asheville, N.C., at the Grove Park Inn -- a resort famed for its kitchen, its southern hospitality and its views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Obama is familiar with its charms, having prepped for one of his campaign debates with John McCain in a Grove Park ballroom made over to look like the debate hall.

Obama has no public appearances planned until Sunday, when he speaks in West Virginia at a memorial for the miners killed in the Upper Big Branch explosion.

So why Asheville? Officials say it's not because Obama's the first Democrat to win North Carolina in three decades. They say he's coming for its scenery, dining and recreation.

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