John & I flew to Charlotte on a redeye from LAX on Friday night. Lyse, thank you so much for taking us to the Flyaway!! So helpful and perfect!
Our plane arrived late, just as our connector was closing it’s gates. Luckily, Delta recognized this before we did, and booked us on the next flight. Our seats were together in a row all to ourselves, an hour later. That gave me a chance to hit up Dunkin Donuts for breakfast!
Once we arrived in Charlotte, we drove to the Gallers’ home for Leah’s birthday party! I took lots of pix, and played with the kids for a few hours! It was a lot of fun! Leah & Erin are totally adorable! I love how much Erin smiles and laughs! Leah’s so precious and I love watching her dance to the kid’s radio station! It’s so awesome how intelligent she is! They are such great kids!
Around 5pm, we got on the road to drive to Lake Lure (2 hours west). We arrived just before sunset, and I was so tired! I barely was able to shower and change for dinner. We decided to have dinner nearby at the local pub. They had greek salad and fried mozzarella, yum! John & I then went to Ingles to buy groceries for the week. Before bed, we watched an episode of 30 Days.
This morning, we got up early and went to the Welcome Center to check in officially and learn about what there is to do around here. Val, Jason & Aggie met up with us at the visitor’s center. We came back to our condo to figure out a plan, then drove to Chimney Rock for lunch and wandering. We ate at the River Rock Cafe, then wandered around the creek for a bit. I had these great socks on that repel water! It was great! My feet stayed warm and dry as I waded the shallow water!
After that, we walked through shops while it rained, ending our afternoon at the coffee shop. This coffee shop had an Old Timey Photo booth, and there were three men in drag taking old timey photos there! Hilarious! We had some great coffee and hot chocolate before saying good-bye to Val, Jason & Aggie for the afternoon. Aggie is such a happy baby! It was so wonderful to spend the day with them!
The rain let up during our drive back to Lake Lure, so we decided around Fairfield Mtns to see if we could find my childhood home where I spent almost every summer of my life as a kid! We ended up finding it almost accidentally, since I had no clue where I was going and became more excited about seeing more deer than actually looking for the house. When we got to the top of the mountain, I saw a road I recognized, and immediately recognized my old house on the corner! We decided to knock to see if the family would let us walk around the outside. They were so nice, they invited us in! The gave us a tour and I shared childhood stories with them about the house. They seemed to really like us, so much so we exchanged email addresses and they invited us back! Then, after we left, Joe (the owner and his grandson) drove us out to Ken’s rock (we followed in our car) and hiked down to the rock with us. That was soooooooooooooooo nice of them!!! We hung out with them for a few minutes, then they took off. John & I stuck around for another 20 min or so. It’s so sad that the property is up for sale and someone may buy it, taking it away from the public to visit. Joe said he and his wife, Bea, go up there all the time to read. I really hope the new owners of the property don’t take away that special area from the public who love it so much!
Now, John & I are in a bar with wi-fi at our resort. The drinks are only $6 and we have free wi-fi. This is great! We’ll be heading back up to our condo soon, as it’s 11pm and they probably want to close up in a few minutes.
Tomorrow… paddle-boating, sifting for gems at Broad River, heading to see if we can find mom’s property in Rutherfordton, then going to Hendersonville for dinner!