Weekend in the mountains

Last weekend we rented a cabin for the weekend up in the mountains near Grandfather Mountain in Linville, NC.  It was a nice two bed, two bath mountain-top cabin with a great view from the back deck.  We went up there with Colleen's cousins Christine and Charlene who live near us in Cary.  It was a dog friendly cabin too so Kylie joined us on the trip!  Avery got to visit Tennessee for the first time ever on this trip too!

Here is the great view from our back deck (where there was a hot tub too!)

Kylie enjoyed the view too!

The cabin was great, it was all hardwood with huge windows out back overlooking the mountains

 The first day we went apple picking at an orchard name Alta Pass which was on top of a mountain with a great view!

Avery rode with mommy in the backpack while Kylie ate cores off the ground! We gave Avery an apple and she loved eating them fresh off the tree, just like us!

 Here are the cousins, Christine and Charlene enjoying the apple picking

After we went picking we drove the Blue Ridge Parkway and enjoyed some great views before the sun set.  We then put Avery to bed and we all enjoyed some relaxing time in the hot tub on the deck with some beer and wine.

The next day we went first drove a few miles to hike to a waterfall called Elk Falls right near the TN/NC border.  It was in US Forest Service property a few miles off of US-19E.  What a great waterfall, listed by the USFS at 45' high, with a great clear swimming pool at the bottom!!!  (In the summer it will be great to come back when the water isn't so cold)

Not one to be afraid of the cold water, Kylie loved playing in the water and chasing her water toy, litterally bounding in and splashing into the water each time!

Jim played around with different shutter speeds to try and get different effects from the waterfall.  As mentioned in a photography guide book, this water is beautiful but hard to photograph because it is open/exposed and it is impossible to eliminate the sky in the background.  Oh well, it was still fun for him to photograph:

 We then hiked just a very short distance downstream to a set of smaller pools and rapids.  Avery loved playing the little pools (She had her cool Keene's on of course), and didn't mind that her feet were in chilly cold water.   She loved picking up rocks and throwing them into the water and saying SPLASH!

We were so close to Tennessee that we drove across the state line so Avery could pick up another state on her list of states she's been to:

Then we got a great photo on the reverse side, AVERY COUNTY NC!

Then we ate lunch at a patio in a really neat little mountain town called Banner Elk at a place called Bayou Smokehouse.  They are dog friendly, have a great patio, and the staff even gave Kylie bowls of water and lots of petting.  Oh, and the biscuits are amazing there too!

After lunch we went to another waterfall located at a really out-of-the-way spot!  We drove 8 miles on a gravel road through the mountains (In thick fog too!) to a waterfall near a little town called Globe, NC.  It was a thin peacefull fall with a little ankle deep wading pool at the bottom that of course Kylie got soaked in!

Then we drove back up 3000 vertical feet on another 8 mile gravel foggy road to probably the neatest town in the region called Blowing Rock.  It was so foggy we couldn't even got a good picture of it, but it is a real artsy town and almost all the shops are all pretty stone buildings and tons of art galleries, cafes, craft shops, etc.  We ate pizza in town for dinner and headed back up the winding private road in the fog to our cabin.  We then enjoyed another night sitting on the hot tub on our deck enjoying some relaxing beers.

The next day we ate lunch in blowing rock at a restaurant called Canyons which normally has an expansive view, but was socked in with fog!  Dang.  If you go there, the Buffalo Shrimp was a very unique item and was very good!  It has quite a history, it's been a speakeasy, a brothel, a casino, a grocery store, and now a restaurant and bar.  This is the best photo we could get with our iPhone, the peaks of the taller mountains were hidden by the clouds.

Then we hit the outlets near Blowing Rock before we headed back home.  It was a quick weekend trip but very fun and relaxing!