Summer Days

It's been a great summer so far, we've gotten lots of pool time and took a short trip to the mountains (pictures here). We stayed at The Inn at Blue Ridge - it was very nice indeed! There was plenty of space and it was situated close to Caverns and Grandfather Mountain. We had a blast! The weekend started with the drive up - it was nice until Luke decided to scream for the last 30 minutes. If you're a parent you know what this does to you after 4 hours of heavy traffic - let's just leave it at that.

After checking into the Inn we unpacked and went to play in the Catawba river which starts here just behind the Inn. That was really fun but about 30 minutes after we went down to the water we heard thunder. We w Linville ent back inside and ate, then went on a short drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was really neat as we were driving right through the clouds! Seth and Luke thought it was really cool to see the clouds and drive right through them. We also took some pictures of the clouds below us - they're in the photo gallery (link on the left). Loads of fun riding and as it got dark we headed back to our room.

The next day we were up early (by "we" I mean Luke was up before 6am). So, we had breakfast and played around a bit before packing everything up to head to Grandfather Mountain. The Mile High Bridge was closed due to the excessive wind and so we decided to go to Caverns instead. We all had a blast. Seth thought that the rock formations were really cool, and felt the need to talk to everyone as we walked through the cave. We went to Duggar's Falls (right by Linville Falls) and Seth and I got out and played in the water while Luke and Celena took a cat nap in the Pilot. After that we went to the output of Linville falls (small river) and Seth, Luke, and I all played in the water and had a great time!

We decided to g Linville ive Grandfather Mountain another try and sure enough, the bridge was open!! So we went up to the Mile High Bridge and it was amazing. Celena and Luke made it about halfway over the bridge before heading back. Seth and I went to the other side and most of the way up to the peak. The problem is that to get to the peak there is a slightly precarious set of maneuvers required which Seth was not up for. Instead we hung out over near the peak and took pictures - but we hung out too long. The wind picked up and it started storming! So, we headed back over the bridge. By this point, it was hailing and raining lightly but the wind was fast enough to make the bridge sing - literally. I took video of Seth and I rushing back over the bridge and you can hear it whistling and rocking, man was that fun!

We went back down the mountain, stopping at the museum to see the animals. By this point we were all quite tired and so we stopped at a little Italian restaurant to have dinner before returning to our room. Luke was completely covered in spaghetti, and his favorite thing to do was to dip the bread into some marinara sauce and then just suck off the sauce before dipping again. He did eventually eat the bread - but took quite a bit of sauce with it. We went back to the room, had baths and all went to bed.

Coming home was fine - everyone was happy for the most part - as a side note I love the DVD player in the Pilot. :)

Update: It's Monday as I post this and I have a fever, headache, and complete body ache. Sure do hope it isn't Rocky Mtn Spotted Fever! If I don't feel better in the morning I'm going to the Doctor.