Cemeteries

One of the things I wanted to do on this trip was to visit some ancestors' graves. Thanks to Find a Grave, I knew were to look, so this morning we set off with google map instructions.

Our first stop was Emert's Cove Cemetery. It is the final resting place of Frederick Emert (1754-1829) and his wife Barbara Neidig Emert (1755-1842). They are my 6x great-grandparents.

Our second stop was the Middle Grove Cemetery where we found many other Emerts. I just wish I'd known how close some of the others were and we'd have visited some more!

Cades Cove - Smoky Mountain Park

It had been recommended to us that we should visit Cades Cove in the national park. The Cove is actually a valley that was home to a farming community for more than 100 years. The park was established in 1934, displacing most of the people who lived there.  They left behind several old cabins, a grist mill, two churches and a few cemeteries, which are still open to burials.

It's a beautiful drive into the Cove. We saw several deer and a black bear wandering across one of the meadows to an apple tree.

Asheville to Pigeon Forge

Today we said goodbye to family and headed west across Great Smoky National Park. Our final destinatieon was Pigeon Forge, Tennessee where we're going to spend a few days.

The park is really nice. We stopped the visitor's center at either end of the highway. We also stopped for a few photo ops along the way.

Reunion!

Today we spent the day with family. We all met for coffee/breakfast at a local Shoney’s. Then we were off to Ken’s for some porch sittin’ and visitin’. Ken and Jewel have a beautiful home set in the rolling hills outside Asheville. Their house has a fabulous wraparound porch. After lunch we visited Michael Israel’s gravesite. 

This evening we held our annual dinner and business meeting in order to make plans for our future reunions. Looks like next summer we're going to California!

Chimney Rock & Flat Rock

Today we headed off on a little adventure, just the three of us. We started out at Chimney Rock State Park where we climbed up to the to the top of the rock, and then up to a feature they call the "Opera Box". It would have been great to climb all the way up to Exclamation Point, but with 92+ degree weather, we decided to save some energy for part two of the park....

The hike to the bottom of Hickory Nut Falls. It's a 404 foot waterfall with a nice little wading pool at the bottom. This park was featured in the final scenes of the movie Last of the Mohicans with Daniel Day Lewis and Madeline Stowe. I love that movie!

We made a brief stop in the village after leaving the park to eat ice cream  and wait out the sudden cloudburst at The Rocking Leprechan.

For the second half of our day, we headed to the village of Flat Rock. It's the site of the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site. We caught the last house tour of the day. It's kind of remarkable. When Mr. Sandburg died in 1967, his widow sold the property to the National Park Service. It literally looks like they just stepped out for a walk around the farm.

Knoxville to Asheville

We started our day with a drive through downtown Knoxville, Tennessee. We saw the University of Tennessee (Go Vols!) and spent a little time wandering through the Mast General Store. For those of you who have never been, it's a fun place to shop. You can find everything from camping gear to castile soap, toys to candy.

After leaving Knoxville, we headed northeast to Greeneville, Tennessee where we had lunch at the Tannery Sandwich Shop on Depot Street and visited the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site and Cemetery. Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States, and unfortunately had the responsibility of Reconstruction.

Our next stop was Jonesborough, Tennessee, which is the oldest town in the state. It's a picturesque little town with brick sidewalks and old buildings. We had ice cream at the Old Sweet Shop, and visited the Chester Inn Museum.

At this point, we headed south to Asheville, North Carolina to meet up with the cousins for dinner. We had a nice visit, catching up on the past year's activiites.

Traveling....

Can be really tiring. Today we set out for our family reunion trip. Leaving Portland at 6:00 am meant a 3:00 wake up the hotel to catch the 4:30 shuttle to the terminal. Luckily, the trip went fairly well. The only "blip" was the delay of our connection out of Houston. Somehow, the first officer on our flight was double booked/late arriving on his connection. Bottom line, we were then an hour late arriving in Knoxville, where it was a whopping 92 degrees!

Our dinner tonight was at Puleo Grille. It was so yummy! I had amazing lasagna with meat sauce. Tomorrow we head to North Carolina. We'll see where the back roads take us.

More berries!

Today we picked Raspberries. 30+ pounds of raspberries. They are one of my favorite berries, so I don't mind picking them. When they're ripe, they just fall off the canes into your hands, so it's easy.

But what do you do with 30 pounds of berries? My answer is....freeze them! I froze berries in syrup. Mom made freezer jam. Traci froze some whole to use later for something else.

I need a bigger freezer.

Don't Rush My Summer!

So, I made a little trip to the store today and discovered that the local box store is stocking school supplies!!!!! What are they thinking????? Don't they know that teachers and students are really NOT ready to think about school yet. I'm not even a month in to my summer vacation yet!

Independence Day!

Happy Birthday America!

The Sounds of Liberty Program at the State Capital Liberty Bell replica.

And then a little family BBQ with fireworks before the toddlers headed to bed.

Look Who's 1 Today!

She did not like the tutu that her mama made.

She loved the ladybug cake!