Hampton Inn Boone

... feel like they are hiking, but short enough that they don't get tired. The view at the top is amazing. We always head to the left at the top of the trail because the rock area is larger and I feel safer with the kids running around (even though we forbid them to run up there!)

There are tons of wild blueberry bushes up there too and that's the part Caroline likes best - picking the blueberries (even though they are tiny compared to the ones we pick ...

This morning I was sitting at the computer and, since it was mid-morning, was surprised to smell a skunk. The scent was fairly strong too. About a half hour later I saw our neighbor washing down her dog in tomato juice. Oh, oh. I guess it was second-hand skunk smell. Poor dog. It doesn't understand why it's been banished to the outdoors.

It's a cool day and looks like it may rain later. The creek is high from all the recent rains we've had.

... we went out to dinner. We must do simple things because of the kids so we went to Mellow Mushroom - a favorite for everyone. The kids enjoyed watching the guys throw the pizza dough in the air.

It was good to get out for a little while, but we headed back after dinner for ice cream cones at the cabin and a semi early bedtime.

Today was rainy as predicted (we had hoped the weatherman would be wrong). We sat inside all morning but by lunchtime it was not raining anymore, just cloudy. So we drove down the Mountain to the Old Hampton Store for a bbq lunch. It was really good and we got banana pudding ...

Today was the day to go to Price Park. This is a place we seem to visit every year we come up to North Carolina. We started at Price Lake where we rented two canoes. One canoe was for David, Jennifer and David Andrew. The other was Grandmama, Grandaddy and Caroline. We paddled around the lake for about an hour. It's was pretty quiet on the lake since it was a weekday ...

... them up and putting them on the hook all by herself. David Andrew was doing well on his own, but was having trouble casting very far into the pond - so I tried to help him. That's when he fell in the pond! Bad mommy! After about 30 minutes of trying, Caroline caught her first fish and it was a big one. We were there at least another 45 minutes. Caroline caught 5 fish total, David Andrew caught 1 and Jennifer caught 1 too ...

We wanted to visit the Ashe County Cheese company at some point on our trip. Turns out they only actually make cheese on certain days and today was it for the week (on the schedule posted in advance). Rain was also forecasted for today so it was a good day to do an indoor activity. After breakfast at the cabin, we left around 10 am to go to West Jefferson, NC. I've never been past ...

... hit him (or he would hit us) and we'd be dead. David made all the right decisions and was able to stop our car and miraculously, the other guys car spun in front of us and off the road without any incident. I still don't know how we escaped it after playing it over and over again in my mind. We were safe but that's when I started screaming and freaking out - but as soon as I heard Caroline ...

Drove to Blowing Rock (no really) which is another small touristy town. Munchie took a wander around the small shops with MJ in tow. Most amzing thing about the place is the price of large beautiful wood cabins in the mountains. They are complete bargains but when could you use them? A tour of Wal-Mart and a food store followed and a back to the room for lunch and a snooze. It was lovely weather outside when we awoke ...