North Carolina Trip

Ken, Syd and I met Ken's cousin Christi and her family who live in Tampa in Maggie Valley, North Carolina to spend a week in the Smoky Mountains. The Reinharts have come to this area and stayed in the same cabin several times. It was a great place to spend some time relaxing and exploring.

None of us are true campers, but we all agreed that a cabin like that is the ideal camping situation for us -- the best of both worlds. We had a fire in the firepit every night so we could make smores, the kids got to be outside most of the time, and we could see the stars. Then at the end of the night we all went inside to sleep in real beds, got our food out of the fridge, and showered off all the smoke and dirt.

The one thing we did that I didn't get pictures of was white water rafting. It was a first for Ken Syd and I. It was fun, but I wish the water was a little warmer :)

Our home away from home. It was situated on a ravine overlooking a creek. The house had settled so much after it was built that the floors all had a downward slope to them. Cupboard doors didn't want to stay shut, and anything round that got dropped on the floor rolled until it was stopped by a wall.

Part of our creek. The kids (and guys) spent hours wading, catching creatures, and practicing slinging rocks with their souvenier slingshots.



Ken felt like a real explorer with a machete in his hand.

Ken and Joel aka the Machete Twins. They were hacking thru the brush in the creek when I made them stop and pose with their machetes on this midget bench by the creek.

The driveway crossed over the creek. Here is Ken emerging from the tunnel.

The guys spent a large amount of time looking for and then whittling walking sticks for everyone. They even took the time to brand everyone's names into them with hot knives.



One of the creatures the kids found in the creek. They also found salamanders and crayfish.

The first night the crazy guys jumped in the FREEZING cold creek up to their chins for 10 seconds. They were happy to have a hot tub and a cold drink waiting for them after they had proved their manliness.




These Neighborhood Watch trees were all over the woods. I want him in charge of my neighborhood :)



The porch swing was a hit with everyone. It was so relaxing to sit there and rock while listening to the creek rushing by.

When we weren't at the cabin, we were driving all over the Smokies to different places Christi and Joel had found on their previous visits.

Whoever named this waterfall had an ironic sense of humor. The sign said it was called Dry Falls. It was the biggest and wettest waterfall we saw that day in the Nantahala National Forest.

Didn't quite get the waterfall in the background. But I like the picture anyway.

You have to look really close about halfway up on the left hand side to see Ken jumping off the cliff into the pool below.

Splashdown! The water definitely wasn' t warm.

Christi, Jack and I weren't crazy enough to jump off the cliffs. We stayed nice and dry and took lots of pictures.

The adventerous ones walking in the river before we got to the falls.

360 degrees of a waterfall. I love stuff like this.

We passed this overlook every time on our way to or from the cabin. Once we stopped and took some pictures.

Family picture overlooking the Smokies.

After I saw on a map how close it was, the one thing I really wanted to do was see the Biltmore Estate, in Asheville. Ken, Syd and I took a day and drove out there to tour the house and gardens. It was amazing, not only the sheer size of it, but the detail and the amenities included. Only about a quarter of the house is open to the public, and I really wanted to see the entire thing. One tour guide teased us with a little blurb about secret passageways behind fireplaces that the servants used as short cuts. I could have spent all day there looking around and seeing all the rooms in the house, not just the ones we were allowed.

Beautiful Biltmore, all 250 rooms of it.

Another fun thing we did was a horseback trail ride thru the mountains. It was an hour long, and the horses were so used to following each other and being on the trail we hardly had to drive them at all.

We saw signs all over for a petting zoo weirdly called Santa's Land, so of course we had to go. It was the same concept as Deer Forest, only 100 times better. It was clean, there was a bigger variety of animals, the rides were in better condition, and just all around more enjoyable. The weirdest part was all the Christmas decorations and forced Christmas themes all over it. (All the workers wore elf suits, and Santa was there to talk to).

We rode pedal boats in a small pond with literally thousands of koi fish in there. Everyone had a bag of food and the fish swarmed the boats right at the surface. It was like they had never been fed before, even though there were several people besides us feeding them, and I know there is a constant stream of people out on the boats.

Ken tried really hard to catch the fish with his hands. He almost had a few of them, but they were too slippery to hold on to.

This is the feeding method at Santa's Land. It's much safer and easier than at Deer Forest. No one got trampled or mauled by hungry deer.