Today was a good day... my classes weren't too hard and I totally aced my psychology test!! As you can probably tell, this isn't Papa typing... that's right! I'm back! This evening Mimi and Papa drove up to Cary in the motorhome to stay with us for the night before heading up to Spruce Pine with us for spring break! They came at the perfect time because Panther Creek (my high school) was hosting the Barnstormers Basketball Tour. A bunch of college basketball players came to our high school to play our Wake County High School all-stars. It was a great game and Mimi and Papa were thrilled to watch live basketball. We all got home exhausted and crashed, preparing for the big day tomorrow.
Friday, April 7
Today might have been the longest day ever. For all of us. Mimi, Papa, Evan and I began our trek to Spruce Pine with a *small* detour to drop the RV off in Gaffney, South Carolina. Papa drove the RV southwest to Gaffney. After we dropped off the motorhome for its annual maintenance, I drove the car to Spruce Pine.
Dad, on the other hand, had a long day trying to get from Utah back to NC to join us in the mountains with mom for the week. He ended up getting stuck in New York and had to drive all the way back to NC with a new friend he met while waiting in line trying to get a flight home. He just yelled out "Anyone want to rent a car back to Raleigh?" (rather than waiting until Sunday for the next flight). Voila! A new friend and a long drive to Raleigh.
Evan and I watched the sunset from the mountain and watched a movie with Papa before going to bed.
Saturday, April 8
Today we spent a lot of the day relaxing around the house waiting for Mom and Dad to drive up from Raleigh. We started with a slow morning before heading down to Grassy Creek Clothing store with Mimi - Evan and I each found a great shirt.
Mimi and I spent the afternoon working on a puzzle and fixing dinner while the boys went out to the gym.
When Mom and Dad finally got here we drove down the Blue Ridge Parkway and walked around the Orchard at Altapass. Papa and I had a good time messing around with Dad's camera and figuring out how to take cool pictures of anything and everything.
And another beautiful sunset!
Sunday, April 9
Now, today was a whole new kind of exhausting. First off, I got up at 7:30... BEFORE the rest of the family. Then once we had the whole crew up and looking somewhat presentable, we loaded up the cars and drove down to Bakersville for brunch. We ate at this cute little place called Harvest Market, it's brand new and super cute! 10/10 would recommend!
Once we all had our fill, we continued the drive to Roan Mountain for a big family hike. There was quite a bit of snow on the ground, and it was rather cold on the mountain. We made it to the top of the second peak before turning back home for some much-needed rest. The hike was beautiful and the whole family (even Sophie) had a great time.
When we got home, Mimi prepared a fantastic barbecue dinner and we all chowed down before we started Evan's movie pick (Jaws). Definitely not my favorite but it's a classic so I can't talk bad about it. :)
Monday, April 10
Today we got up to a late start but had a great time once we got going. Mom took Evan and I down to Grassy Creek so Evan could get another shirt before we met the whole family to head out to Linville.
We drove out to Linville Caverns and discovered that there was a two-hour wait to go underground and tour the cavern, so we gave up on that plan pretty fast. Instead, we drove a little ways up the road to a beautiful winery where Mimi, Mom, and Dad tasted a bunch of 'new' wines while Papa and us kids explored. After leaving the winery we stopped for lunch before heading up to Linville Falls.
Dad found a nice short trail to the falls that we hadn't hiked before, so we all made our way down to the falls to enjoy the scenery. Papa and I spent most of the time working with Dad's camera to try and take 'silky water' pictures... considering we had waayyy too much light, and no tripod I think we did pretty good.
Tonight when we came home Mimi made yet another AMAZING meal, this time fish that she had caught last week in Beaufort (part of her 22 fish batch).
We had to go "up on the roof" to help Papa remove the storm shutters. After we finished, we just hung around on the roof and cleaned the big windows and waiting for another beautiful sunset.
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| We're "up on the roof"!! |
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| Reflections "up on the roof"!! |
Tuesday, April 11
Today Mom, Dad, and Evan had to head back to Cary, so we spent the morning hitting all the shops in downtown, Spruce Pine. I found a beautiful ring, Evan and Dad found homemade spinning tops, and Mimi found a piece of yard art. We ended up in a cute little gallery where the lady told us about some jewelry shops in Bakersville, so of course, we headed that way. Well, since we didn't think to check if the shops were actually open, when we got there everything was closed. Mimi quickly revised the plan and suggested that we all go out to lunch at the Twisted Laurel, a new restaurant in Spruce Pine on the golf course.
Once we all got home Mom, Dad and Evan packed up and hit the road with Sophie, leaving me, Mimi and Papa up here on the mountain. When all the commotion stopped, Papa and I headed down to the gym to get some extra energy out. This man swam a whole mile... that's 70 laps. I probably swam half that and boy was I hurting.
We got home and worked on the puzzle a little before heading to bed.
Wednesday, April 12
Today I drove, A LOT. First, we drove the Blue Ridge Parkway to Linville to get my National Parks book stamped, but unfortunately, their offices are closed 'until Spring 2017.' When we were driving on the parkway there were several overlooks where we were able to see the fire that's been going on on the mountain across from us for the past few days.
After striking out at Linville, we drove down to Crossnore to see if we could hit any of the shops there. Mimi and I went to a cute thrift shop that supported the local orphanage. Mimi found a couple things for the house and an adorable pair of earrings for me. I really hit the jackpot when we were getting ready to leave, we found a whole bookcase full of records. I've officially started my collection of old 78 RPM records, now I have a few from Grandmother, and a few from Spruce Pine.
After we left the thrift store, Papa took us out to lunch at a cute coffeehouse for lunch.
The really interesting part of the day started when Papa and I got out of the car at the bottom of the mountain and hiked up to the house on a trail Papa found. We think we were following the trail that Mr. Calvin Hall's father walked across the mountain to work at Apple Orchard in the early 1900s. Along the trail we found a turtle shell, HUGE piece of quartz (that Papa and I took turns carrying up the mountain), a bunch of pretty flowers, and a little campsite with a well that was dug in 2013 (weird), and a huge piece of land that was leveled out as if someone was planning to build a home there.
Anna carries the heavy quartz up the mountain
We had Kit over for dinner tonight, she was a big help on the puzzle and we all had a good evening together. We're planning on heading home tomorrow, just don't know exactly when.
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