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!