We were home from our Airstream road trip for only two days before leaving for our next adventure: a week in the mountains of Western North Carolina. We rented a small house for the week, so the Airstream stayed home and the truck got a break from towing. Months ago, we picked Boone as a destination spot after lots of online searches. We wanted mountains and outdoor things to do but still the feeling of a smaller town. The "High Country" (Boone and its surrounding area) kept popping up as a recommendation. We fell in love with the area and had an awesome week together, despite the weather being pretty dismal. But we honestly couldn't complain about the 70 degree temperatures at the end of July--it was glorious! Most houses (including the one we stayed in) don't have central AC because it cools off enough at night, so we enjoyed using the hot tub in the evenings and sleeping with the windows open. Ahhhh.
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| still doing flips! |
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| We loved the covered back deck! We ate almost every meal at this table, even as it rained around us. |
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| The kids had fun skateboarding and scootering on the huge driveway. |
The first weekend we were there, and one of the only sunny days, we took the kids to a small go-kart track. It was nothing fancy at all and a little over-priced, but the kids enjoyed their chance to drive several laps around the track by themselves! There were supposed to be bumper cars too, but that area was shut down for whatever reason. Andrew and I stood on a platform viewing area and had fun watching the "race".
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| Ryder is all business! He took his driving very seriously and did NOT want his little sister to pass him. |
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| Harper was determined to keep up with her big brother! |
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| Uh-oh, she's gaining on him! |
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| Ryder kept turning around to see how close Harper was to catching up with him. |
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| Neck in neck! |
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| She did it! :) |
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| But Ryder didn't let her stay in the lead for long... |
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...and he finished first!
We discovered a great community park not far from our cabin that we ended up visiting a couple of times. Not only does it have a huge playground area, but there is a ton of open space where Andrew and I could throw the frisbee around. There is also music in the park every Friday night during the summer. We were looking forward to checking it out, but Mother Nature had other plans.
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The park sits along the Wautauga River, and the water is shallow enough that people walk around in it, fly fish, or bring floats and treat it like a lazy river ride. Ryder and Harper had a blast getting their feet knees entire bodies soaked!
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| The rocks were really slippery, and Harper almost fell numerous times! |
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| She found this walking stick to help her get around easier. |
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| There were butterflies everywhere! There must have been a certain plant or flower nearby that was attracting them. |
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just sitting in the river
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There were a couple of touristy things we wanted to do, but once we realized how much everything would cost, we decided to scale back. We decided to find a historical site that wasn't over-commercialized, and therefore free! Before this trip I had never even heard of Moses Cone, but here's a quick history lesson for you. :) He is known as the denim king because of his work in the textile industry, and much of the denim from his mills supplied companies such as Levi Strauss. He and his wife built this "modest" summer home in the late 1800s/early 1900s, so we decided to check it out.
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| Brrr! As we slowly drove up the mountain, we watched the temperature drop. I know 67 isn't "cold", but when it's rainy AND you're used to Florida summers, it felt pretty chilly! Of course I forgot to bring a jacket that day. |
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| Harper had fun trying to read the maps and tell us where to go. |
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| The views were gorgeous, but it was so foggy and misty that it was hard to see a lot of the details. |
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| Not too shabby, huh? |
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| The first floor of the house is basically made up of gift shops where local artists sell their work--paintings, pottery, etc. As we walked around I told the kids not to touch anything because it was fragile and expensive. I think this is Harper intently listening to my warning. |
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| still leading the way! |
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| the back of the house |
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| There were small markers along the trail that either told about the trees or something about Moses Cone and his wife. |
We set aside one day and made the 1 hr. and 45 minute drive to Asheville. The kids and I have never been, and I really wanted to get a feel for the city but didn't even know where to start! This is the one day we really played tourists--we bought trolley tickets for the narrated hop on/hop off tour. Our driver was great and the ride was very informational. Ryder was sitting behind me, and I would occasionally hear him say, "That's cool!" or "Wow" after the driver told us an interesting fact about the city. It is definitely a city filled with history! We got off at one of the stops so we could find a cool restaurant for lunch. We ended up at Mountain Madre, which was a delicious Mexican restaurant. We stuffed ourselves, and I definitely want to go back sometime! After lunch we walked over to the Asheville Museum of Science so the kids could play for a little while. It's undergoing some renovations, so there weren't a ton of exhibits. But it was enough to entertain the kids for over an hour before we walked to the next trolley pick-up spot.
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| Clang, clang, clang went the trolley! 🎵 |
Once we got back to our truck, we looked up directions to the O.P. Taylor toy store. Andrew had come across it either online or in one of our pamphlets and knew the kids would enjoy it. When we were kids we had KayBee Toys or Toys R Us, but my poor children think all toys come from Walmart, Target, or Amazon. They've never been to a store that only sells toys!
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| My kids are not small, but this toy soldier made them look tiny! |
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| waiting for lunch one day at Mellow Mushroom |
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| 2 Mama Bears! |
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| This is the steep driveway to the cabin where we stayed. Andrew parked the truck perpendicular to it most of the time so the kids wouldn't accidentally roll down it. |
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| Andrew and the kids hiking back up the driveway. It's a workout! |
The next pictures are taken at the same park we went to at the beginning of the week, but this time there were puddles everywhere and the river was extremely high!
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| This is the same section of river the kids played in, but instead of looking like a creek it was a rushing river. |
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| They absolutely LOVE puddles! |
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| enjoying the fire pit on our last night there |
