Camping Weekend

This last weekend we had a fun, adventurous camping trip with Mindy and Jeran to the North Carolina highlands. Friday night we arrived at a nice little campground called Blue Bear Mountain Camp. Mindy and Jeran were nice enough to arrive earlier and get a fire going.

It's an exciting life.

On Saturday morning, we headed over to Grandfather Mountain. On the way up to the top, we stopped by the nature museum and the wildlife habitats. We had a lot of fun watching the bears and otters. There were eagles and deer as well, but those were slightly less exciting. The cougars weren’t visible at all.  The black bears were funny. One really liked yawning and sticking her very long tongue out. The biggest one liked to sit and clean his paws, walk through the pond, sit back down in his exact spot, and clean all his paws again. Over and over.

We drove up to the parking lot for hikers and got ready for our crazy hike up to the “Mile-high swinging bridge”. The hike was pretty steep with lots of switchbacks, and the path was mostly big rocks like steps. The bridge was AWESOME! Its total elevation was 5,280 feet, but it’s suspended only 80 feet above the gorge. It was pretty swingy though. The bridge takes you out to a rock outcropping, where you can look over the valleys below. Except that one side of the valley was completely covered with some low clouds. My phone lost power pretty quick, but luckily Mindy and Jeran were being good photographers.

We then decided to hike back on a different path, but then decided to keep going to Macrae Peak. There was some pretty crazy hiking, with ladders tethered onto stone walls and cables to help people up steep areas. Also, once we hit the ridge of the mountain, it got kind of windy and pretty chilly. We kept going to the peak. And it was stunning. Awe inspiring. And quite cold.

When we finally made it back to the car, my FitBit said we’d gone 5 miles and 129 floors!

We spent most of the evening hanging out around the campfire and chatting. Mostly because we were really tired and it was downright chilly. Like, 35 degrees with 20 mph winds. Chase even conceded to sleep in the tent that night, instead of in hammocks like we did the first night. (FYI – I find sleeping in the hammock very comfortable, and Chase knows the secrets to making it not so cold).

Our camp with hammocks. 

Sunday morning we packed up and headed our separate ways. We headed towards Asheville via the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was a bit crowded, being a nice sunny Sunday with beautiful fall colors, but it was definitely worth the extra time. We paused in Asheville to visit Grove Park Inn (amazing!) and eat lunch and headed home. It was such a fun trip filled with gorgeous sights and some crazy adventures. Let’s do it again!

Fall colors on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Apple Picking

Do you know what I love about fall? Just about everything!!! In fact, I've yet to decide there's something I don't like about fall. Even though the leaves falling means a lot of extra blowing at work, it's totally worth it to have the cool weather, changing leaves, fall foods and flavors, wearing jackets, etc etc etc. I've been making pumpkin stuff for a month or two now (pumpkin muffins, mostly. They're so good, and you can eat them for breakfast!), but I hadn't done much with apples. Until this last week. I made apple crisp for Chase's birthday and it made me remember how much I LOVE apples and apple recipes. So I made a resolution that Chase and I must go apple picking!

We went up to the little town of Blue Ridge, GA, to the Mercier Orchards. It was rather packed, and there was a long line to pay, and another one for the tractors taking people up to the picking site. Totally worth it. It was a nice day, a bit on the warm side, but it had that smell of autumn in the air. It smells like falling leaves and chilly mornings and a bit of cinnamon. We had lots of fun climbing between rows of trees trying to find the perfect apples to pick. Cameo, fuji, sun crisp (my favorite!), mutzu... Just a few of the nice varieties we found. It was also very amusing to people watch. There were old couples, hippies, families with young kids, groups of teenage friends, all sorts of people. The best moment was when we were waiting in line for the tractor back to the barn and we were watching a little boy ahead of us.
 He was probably a year and a half old. He would take a bite of an apple, and then spit most of it out. Then he spotted an orange cone next to the line, and that seemed like the perfect spot of the bit of apple that had just come out of his mouth. Upon discovering that it was perfect, he took another bite and this time he leaned over and put his mouth to the cone and spit the bite in (I couldn't hold in my laugh at this). This was repeated two more times before he discovered another cone which soon received the same treatment. But where did it go? So he had to tip the cone over and inspect the bottom. His mother intercepted him as he tried to stuff what was left of his apple all the way in the cone. Little kids are just hilarious and I love watching them.

Here's some pictures of me and Chase at the orchard.

And yes, I'm wearing Oriental Trading sunglasses, because
they're all I had in the car and it was BRIGHT.