Mountain hikes and pubs

This weekwend we took Adelaide to one of our favorite places for the first time: Blowing Rock, NC. It is a little mountain town about 3 hours west, and we have been twice Before Ade. We left Friday, hoping Ade would nap in the car. She promised she would. However. Though she got no sleep, she did try to close her eyes and rest, and was a good car traveler anyhow. We checked into our one bedroom mountain cottage, which did not have one bedroom and wasn't a cottage. The place was really gorgeous inside, but it was really more like one big room with a bed and sitting area in it. This poses a problem when you need a door for your child who goes to bed at 7:30pm, if you do not want to also go to bed at 7:30pm. Luckily, there was a spacious closet. So, yes, we turned that closet into Ade's elven mountain bedroom. She loved it, so all was well.

We headed into Blowing Rock for a little shopping, and early dinner since we knew Ade was on her way to a no-nap meltdown. We ended up eating at Six Pence Pub - Ade's first bar meal :-) It turned out to be delicious, and really hit the spot. Ade even kept it together while we ate, and as a reward we hit Kilwin's next for some ice cream. I *love* Kilwin's. We tucked in for an early night. However, back to the "not a cottage" part - after Ade fell asleep early, Ryan and I planned to enjoy some relaxing TV-watching and book-reading. We had assumed a cottage would be a freestanding structure, but it turned out to be connected to the other cottages like a row of suites. The dwellers next to us were old, and apparently hard of hearing, and additionally were able to stay awake much later than we were. We could hear them talking loudly, TV on, and music playing.

Saturday morning, the first words Adelaide spoke to me were "We're not dogs, are we?" This amused me greatly, because I love getting glimpses into what she thinks about on her own time. We lounged around for a while, and Ade and I enjoyed the giant jetted tub. We played lots of games in the "little swimming pool." Then we headed to Boone. We went to Higher Ground for coffee and a snack, then onto the best-ever playground that our friends, the Burckart's, had recommended (they had visited just the weekend before). We shopped in Boone at Mast General Store, then headed back to Blowing Rock for lunch at Kojay's. We went back to the cottage for some downtime after lunch.

I headed to the outlets right next to us for some awesome alone-time shopping, which felt like a serious treat, and then traded with Ryan. It was perfect because it was right next door, which meant we both got to equally enjoy a little rest time in the cottage while Ade napped, and a little solo shopping. Then we went back into Blowing Rock for another playground visit, some shopping, and dinner. After dinner, we again made it an early night, but instead listened to our neighbor's Christmas music until midnight.

Sunday we checked out and drove up to Grandfather Mountain. On our way up, two deer stood in the road and just looked at us for the longest time, which Ade adored. Worried apparently that her father was a mean-spirited deer killer, she said, "Daddy, don't push him off the road!" We assured her that Ryan would never intentionally drive into a lovely deer in a nature park. :-)

We went to see the bears, panthers, eagles, and deer they have at the animal reserve, and checked out the museum. Then, we headed up higher to go to the suspension bridge. Ryan read what he thought was a sign saying you needed to park and hike up a .4 mile walk to get to the bridge. So, okay, .4 mile is no big deal. We start up, and I am thinking, this is really tough climbing to be the only way up -I couldn't imagine all of the retired visitors hiking up this very rocky cliff. Ryan had to carry Ade nearly the whole way because it was so precarious. We got to the top after a laborious and long climb, wondering how we were ever going to get back down, and there before is... wait for it... a parking lot. So. After we enjoyed the bridge and some very high views, Ryan hiked back down for the car while Ade and I perused the gift shop. After that, we had earned some homemade mountain fudge.


All in all, we had a great weekend. It was short, but we managed to squeeze in a lot of highlights, and also still relax. Family fun!