07/03/08

Today was great... another beautiful day. The kids and I went walking this morning and it was feeling so nice. I think the humidity is supposed to be here tomorrow. They played outside a majority of the day. This afternoon we went over to one of our friend's houses who has tons of Farmall Tractors. He allowed me to come over and photograph them for Wesley's room. Wesley loved it. It was great being able to figure out different ways to photograph a tractor. After we left there we went to my cousin's house and saw some horses for Mikayla. She loved it. Truly, it was just a nice afternoon to be together. Steve had taken off of work today so we were all together. :)

Here are the last vacation pictures! There are a ton on this last post... We are in Boone, NC. That Friday morning (which was my birthday.. he hee), we went to the Gem Mining. It was tons of fun and a new experience for us all. We all split the huge tub so we could find lots of things. Mikayla found a TON of big stuff. Steve and I took too much time on the small stuff, we found out later. Oh well... live and learn.

This is where we GOT IN TROUBLE!!!!!!!! This nice girl was going through our "rocks" and telling us which ones were actual gems and which ones were gravel. We saw all of these wonderful things that could be turned into something sparkly and it seems we lost all thoughts of reality. lol I ordered a set of earrings, necklace and ring of Topaz... but it is a gray/pink/green color and it is beautiful. She said it turns that color instead of the blue or pink when they use metal to cut it. I ordered Mikayla earrings and a necklace of Aquamarine. I wasn't prepared for the price they gave me but for all we got, we didn't pay that much. lol For someone who has to think through on any money decisions, this girl made a rash choice! I am looking forward to seeing them soon, though. It takes 2-3 weeks to get them after they cut them and mount them. Mom was in the same boat, though. She chose emeralds and she got the free cut from the tub... a ruby. Can't wait to see hers either.

After we left the gem mining, and were in shock over what we just spent, we went to Valle Crucis, NC to the original Mast General Store which has been around since the 1840's. The store we went to was the original. It had EVERYTHING you could think of in there. The floors squeaked, there was people on the back porch picking blue grass and you just felt at home and in the country. It was wonderful to walk around and see all of the fun stuff. The next group of pictures are from the Mast General Store on the inside. I had a blast photographing old things.

Old Coca-Cola machine. I remember these from when I was a kid and you used to pop the cap off on the side of the machine. Those were good memory days.

Wesley and Mikayla sat down and played checkers with bottle caps. It was the cutest thing to watch them. They had a blast while we walked around the store. I kept checking on them making sure they were alright. :)

This is a working Post Office up there. I thought it was neat to still have it like they "used to."

I loved this old cash register.

There were SO many things in this store! It was awesome.

Going upstairs.

Loved the rows of candles.

Steve and I having a rest upstairs in the homemade rocking chairs. They sat REALLY well.

Canned vegetables

Jars and jars of jams, jellies and preserves!

Scales

Front of the store of Mast General Store.

Store front side. :)

Red barn outside of the Mast General Store.

Mountainside view outside of the Mast General Store.

After we left Valle Crucis, went to downtown Blowing Rock, NC to Kilwins to have some icecream. Our way there was the scenic route... which was the curviest road I think I have ever been on in my life. There were some "hairy" spots where you had curve and on the right a huge cliff. Made you hold on to your seat. lol Poor Steve got sick feeling on those roads and couldn't even get any icecream. He felt better once he sat and was still for a bit. I got my old faithful GREEN mint chocolate chip. It was great. The kids thoroughly enjoyed their icecream, too. I didn't post all of those pics because I have enough already!

After we had icecream we went to Blowing Rock.... WOW...
Blowing Rock was so named because legend has it that a Native American was so distraught after losing the one he loved that he jumped off of one of these rocks to kill himself and the wind blew him back up!! This is the only place it is known to snow upside down. The blowing rocks are quite an interesting formation. They say the wind truly does blow up. We didn't try it out or anything. lol The views were wonderful.

Wesley posed on his own on one of the Blowing Rocks. He cracks me up sometimes with how he poses for me. He has had enough practice in his lifetime, though.

Mikayla Girl poses by the stone wall.

Another spectacular view!

See that column Mom is holding on to? Let's just say that was her best friend while on the observation deck at Blowing Rock. haaaha!! She cannot do heights at all. Anytime during this whole trip that she felt she was too near the edge she would either close her eyes or change sides with Daddy. We laughed at her quite a bit. This picture cracks me up because of how "cool" she was standing. She was actually being quite silly at this point. Do you see her "death grip " on the column??? I must admit, when I was walking up the walkway to the observation deck my fear of heights came with a vengeance. I could feel it rising with each step I took until I finally had to start taking deeper breaths telling myself I WAS alright. (I didn't use to let heights bother me but something happened a few years ago and I didn't expect it!!) I finally got to the top and enjoyed the view, but still found myself having wobbly moments up there. The view was worth it, though.

Group shot in front of the view from the observation deck.

View of Grandfather Mountain.... see his eyes, nose, mouth and chin?

Another beautiful view....

Mom cracked us up in that area. She did her hands like this coming off of the observation deck so she wouldn't see going down. lol

The Blowing Rock formations.

I had some issues getting on this rock. Between my shoes being slippery and my fear of heights, I was a piece of work. I actually look a bit like a geek. lol Steve looks great, as always. He had no fear....

There was a small garden near the rock formations. I took a moment to take a few pics. lol If my memory serves me correctly, this is a "fire poker" flower.

Iris in the gardens at Blowing Rock.

I know Steve and the kids look dark, but it was getting later and the clouds were not wanting to cooperate. It is a nice silhouette, anyway. lol

I love this shot of the daylilies in front of the waterfall.

This was a shot I had wanted to learn to do for a long time. I always wondered what it took for me to get the water to look like that. A guy was there with major camera equipment and a tripod. He kindly offered me the use of his tripod to get this shot when he saw I was trying to get it handheld. I took a few and this was the best of the shots. I still have work to do on this kind of photography, but for my first time I was tickled!

We went to see "Horn in the West" in Boone that Friday night. We had a picnic supper before the performance began. They had the Daniel Boone Inn cater the occasion. It was nice and we enjoyed sitting and eating casually instead of rushing to eat and get there. The play was good, but we didn't enjoy it as much as "Unto These Hills"... simply because they had no microphones and it was difficult to hear... even if it was in an amphitheater. It dealt with the Revolutionary War and how things happened in our state during that time. Daniel Boone was a part of the play as well.

These guys dressed up in costume and roamed around the area as walking historians. They were not a part of the play. This guy looks scary but he was very nice. He was definitely not Native American! LOL

Waiting for the play to begin.

One scene from the play.

These last pictures are of the Ashe County Cheese Factory in Ashe County, NC (Hard to guess where they are located by their name, huh???) We went here on Saturday right as we were coming home. It was sad to see that our vacation was about to end, though. We enjoyed watching them make cheese (YES, Gretchen, we actually SAW them working on making the cheeses.. hee hee). The whole process of cheese making takes a while so we didn't get to see the entire thing but we saw a bit of it. We also bought some goodies from there. Steve and I didn't get any cheese, but Mom and Daddy did. They shared a bit with us and we had some today, in fact. WOW... awesome cheese.

YUMMMY..... cheese

There was a glass window to see through and it was not in the cleanest condition so these pictures aren't the best, but I didn't have a choice. lol

It is kind of sad to know that now my vacation pictures have come to an end. I hope you have enjoyed living through my vacation. Thanks for bearing with ALLLLL of the pictures on some of these posts. Believe it or not, I did not post ALL of them. lol

I'll be back to regular posting tomorrow, I guess. Have a great one!