Vacation Part 7- Linville Falls and Mt. Mitchell

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

We hiked to one of the views of Linville Falls on Wednesday morning. It had rained the night before, so we got a later start than we would have liked.

some flowers along the trail

Linville Falls- It was very pretty!

Austin liked to climb on the high rocks.

relaxing by the falls

We stopped at an overlook along the parkway to eat lunch.

arriving at Mt. Mitchell

Mt. Mitchell is the tallest mountain east of the Mississippi.

climbing up to the lookout at the top

enjoying the beautiful scenery

some of the views from the top

The grave of Elisha Mitchell who found and measured the height of Mt. Mitchell.

After visiting Mt. Mitchell, we left the parkway(sadness) and headed to Asheville, NC where we were to camp on Wednesday night. We arrived at the KOA campground around 7:00. We were all relieved to finally arrive at a campground that had showers! ;) It was a fairly nice campground, and it had internet connection which was a plus. ;) We just set up one tent since we would have to take it down right away in the morning, but there was still enough room for everbody. We were all really tired, so we slept pretty good.

~Amber~

Vacation Part 6: Views along the Blue Ridge Parkway

These are some of the sights we saw along the Parkway.

the road

Wilson Creek Valley

rough ridge overlook

north toe river valley

one of the many tunnels along the parkway

It was amazing how fluffy the clouds were!

~Amber~

Vacation Part 5- Grandfather Mountain

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

We arrived at Grandfather Mountain around 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday. Mom and Dad came here here on their honeymoon over 20 years ago.
Anthony- the stick- carrying the rather heavy baby on his back.
Posing with Mildred the Bear

Looking through the gift shop

Andrew taking a snooze on a $150 rocking chair

Bald Eagle- Outside they had some animals that live on the mountain.

Black bear

watching the otters

the otters

deer

Fudge Shop- They had really good fudge!

waiting for Dad who was taking gobs of pictures

Anthony found carrying the baby to be quite exhausting and did not want to get up. ;)

walking up the trail to the top of Grandfather Mountain

taking a break-The trail was almost straight uphill and was mostly composed of rocks.

our first glimpse of the swinging bridge

the view of the bridge from the bottom

the sign at the top of the mountain

It was extremely windy on the top of Grandfather Mountain! When I say extremely, I mean EXTREMELY!!!! It was in the 50s. Alec did not like the wind at all. He kept trying to cover his face up with his hands.

This is what we did while Anthony and Dad went across the bridge. Austin went across the bridge once, but I think Anthony dragged him on with him without Austin knowing that he was going across because once he came back over, he wouldn't go near the bridge. Aaron went about 1/4 the way across, but he clung to the railing and turned around and came back. Anthony went across the bridge at least five times! Andrew and I refused to go across the bridge. Speaking for myself, there was no way I was going to go on a bridge across a mountain that swings when it was so windy out. The railings on that bridge were not that high! Mom went halfway across, and Dad went across a couple of times.

view from the bridge

the swinging bridge

Dad took this pic as he was going across.

The marker where the bridge was a mile up from the ground.

Anthony on the other side of the bridge.

Dad went on the cliff where the guy is standing to take a bunch of pictures. There is no way I would have gone near the edge like he did!

the view of the bridge from the cliff

some views from the cliff

posing in front of the bridge- I don't know if you can tell, but I was clinging to Aaron! ;) I was way to close to the edge for my comfort especially when there weren't any railings up!

Mom on the bridge

Mom on the bridge

the very windy road down the mountain

eating lunch at a picnic area on the mountain

the boys playing "king of the rock"

Anthony was very sneaky! He let Aaron do all the work of getting Andrew off, and then just gave Andrew a little shove that was needed to get him off.

He jumped on the rock and posed as the king while Aaron( the legitimate winner!) held Andrew at bay.

The king is a little too high and mighty! He didn't even do any of the work!

In the next few seconds, Anthony was kicked in the bottom by Andrew.

Austin loved playing with the pocket knife he had gotten as a souvenir.

Isn't Alec so cute? Ya gotta love his thin wisps of hair! ;)

Andrew kept putting pieces of bark down my shirt. Look at his rotten face!

buddies

leaving Grandfather Mountain- It was a lot of fun!

back on the parkway

We decided to stop at this overlook which really ended up being a 2 mile trail up a mountain.

the trail- this pic doesn't even do justice to how rugged the trail was.

a high rock that we posed on going back down

Finally we reached the top! Now we are resting!!!!

some scenery

posing on the rock on the way back down

It is so hard to get everybody to look at the camera at the same time and smile.

The Linn Cove viaduct

relaxing at the bottom

Tuesday seemed like a long day, but it was very fun.

~Amber~