This morning, very early, we got everyone in the car, muffins in hand, and went up to the Blue Ridge Parkway! This is our annual tradition and we try to do a different section each time! We got on at Hwy 221 near Marion and went north to Grandfather Mountain.
We spent the majority of our day at Grandfather Mountain and it was sooo much fun! They weather was so warm which we were not expecting, but it was a pleasant surprise! We made the short trek up to the swinging bridge and crossed it and the rock outcrop at the other side. We kept and white-knuckled grip on the boy while the girl cowered in fear against us! Oh they are so different! C and I do not have a fear of heights at all, M and S on the other hand, well... We all survived and were ready to move on to the next activity...LUNCH:) We had packed a picnic and enjoyed it near the visitor's center. There were several "animal encounters" going on that day, so we were able to get to watch the otters play and chase after toys which was super cute. We also saw deer, black bears and eagles in their natural habitats. We checked out split rock which was C's favorite and I think he could have crawled through the crack of that rock 100 times and not tired of it, but we bribed him away with homemade fudge promises there at the visitors center:) After some chocolate fudge deliciousness, we decided we'd seen all we needed to see, and drove back down the mountain. The line to get into the park was unbelievable! I'm so so so glad we got there early! While we'd been visiting Grandfather Mountain the kids had picked up the Junior Ranger information and had worked diligently to complete it while we were there! On the way out we stopped at the ranger station and they received their Junior Ranger badges and certificates and were beyond proud to wear them!
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| Bridge Trail |
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| He was comforting her and patting her head! |
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| Working hard on his Junior Ranger packet! |
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| Split Rock |
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| Fudge!! |
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| So proud of themselves!! |
We drove back down the Blue Ridge Parkway the same way we had come in, and made an impromto at Linville Falls because we weren't quite ready to go home. We hiked the short trail(about .7 miles) to the top of the lookout and were so glad that we had done it! It was beautiful from up there - as we held a certain little boy with white-knuckled grip again!
It was finally time to head back home at this point and we stopped in Landrum at Hare and the Hound as has also become tradition because we've discovered that not much else is open on a Sunday night up there! We were a tired out bunch by the time we went to bed!!!
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