Annual road trip to NC

By now, it's become an annual thing- our road trip to the North Carolina mountains.

Last year and in 2010, we made the trip twice. It's the one place where we keep returning - partly because my Dad and Judy live (sort of) close by in Raleigh and also because it's fairly cheap. Each year we try to pick a different corner of the mountains to visit.

This year we chose the Brevard area. We found a cute house with an awesome view by one of NC's newest parks, Gorges State Park, which is just a few miles north of the South Carolina border. Dad and Judy met us there so we could spend some time together.

 

The house where we stayed was called "Simply Gorges," and it lived up to its name. The house was completely renovated with two huge decks over looking the mountains and Lake Jocassee. The hot tub was fabulous and the beds were extremely comfortable, which made for a nice relaxing vacation.

It rained off and on all week, which forced us to relax at the house a little more than we normally do. And that was fine with us.

Whitewater Falls

The famous Brevard white squirrels.......so cute. And the students at Brevard College have made them into little beggars. This one let me get closer and closer.

We visited DuPont State Forest, where "The Hunger Games" was filmed. "The Last of the Mohicans" was filmed there too.

Triple Falls. This waterfall was in the Hunger Games.

Hooker Falls, Dupont State Forest

We also had the opportunity to visit a waterfall on private property thanks to the woman who owned the house we rented, Debbie. She took us on a short, but extremely steep hike to see the property. This is the view of the waterfall from their tiny but awesome cabin. Nice, huh?

 

Here's the cabin....

and its incredibly awesome open-air bathroom.

We took one day to drive up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and stopped at Slickrock Falls in Pisgah National Forest.

And then the Davidson River.....

And then we hiked to Skinnydip Falls.....

Here's a pack of the most awesome hippies we've ever seen. They just came right out of the forest like this. The guy on the right has no shoes.

Here's another view from the deck of our house. We just loved it!

After we left, we stopped at Grandma Taylor's for lunch. She was so sweet to make us a fabulous meal. We just wished we could have stayed longer.

Here's us with Aunt Judy, my cousin Karsten and my grandma.

Then we headed to Myrtle Beach to see Amanda and Robert Stinnett and their kids, Evan and Mattie Jane. Amanda took us to Wonder Works to finally see where Robert works. It was a really fun time. Again, we wished we could have stayed longer.

Mocking baby

A few weeks ago some mockingbirds built a nest in the confederate jasmine on our front porch. When we woke this morning we noticed the baby wasn't in the nest and the parents were freaking out. Finally we saw the little one hopping around in on the vines and flapping its tiny wings.

Here's one of the parents feeding it.

Keeping watch....

Learning to fly....

And a little nap before leaving the nest. When we returned home from our tennis game this evening, it had flown away. It was quite an entertaining day.