Meg, Joey, and Noodle vs. Asheville - Part II - The Cabin, the waterfall, the trails...

North Carolina was so breathtakingly beautiful that I can't even begin to imagine what it's glorious beauty must resemble when the trees are thick with healthy, green leaves and colorful blooms and not seemingly strategically planted skeletal sculptures of trees standing amongst a carpet of fallen leaves with only a few sprouts of green hinting at life to come.  We arrived at our little cabin on Saturday and eased our way into our Spring Break vacation, drinking it in with careful and deliberate sips... this, was a much needed Spring Break...

After a surprisingly short and beautiful drive from Knoxville to Bat Cave, NC (25 minutes or so outside of Asheville), we arrived at our little cabin.  It was just what we needed... cozy, comfortable, and hardly any service to connect us with the realities of work and priorities...

Noodle and I chillin' by the waterfall...

This, of course, with a bottle of wine, was how we ended our first night... Perfection.

Just a short walk out the door and through some trees was a trail that led up and around the mountain that we were staying on.  So, the next morning, we headed out to explore and enjoy ourselves and our surroundings.  It was pretty great, and, naturally, we spent the rest of the week exploring our neighboring trails...

 

 

A little "table" with a cairn on top...

 

 

 

Here's a video of part of the trail... and, yes, this is how Joey typically behaves when a camera is involved...

Sorry that it took me a bit to post this... NBA playoffs are happening and school's been busy, so I've been off track.  Hopefully my next few posts won't take as long to get out.  In the meantime, 

"GO GRIZZLIES!!!"

Haha.... yessss....

Just keep your eyes on Blake Griffin's face... priceless.

p.s. - In the last post, I forgot to add these photos of Jeremy's impressive athletic abilities with a bat and a ball...

Check out that arm!

And that swing!

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!

Asheville trip Part I 

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Meg, Joey, and Noodle vs. Asheville - Part I - Knoxville

I mentioned a bit ago that we recently left on a quest to hole ourselves up in the mountains of North Carolina, well, would you like to take a peak into our adventure?

 

We hit the road early on a Friday morning and headed East.  We decided we really wanted to be able to take a trip with our lovelies, Darla and Noodle, however, neither had been on a long trip before, and we weren't sure how it would go, so we choose to take just Noodle (sorry Darla!) since she's a lot more chill inside a car.  It turned out to be an amazing experience having her with us!

 The Noodle-Doodle chillin' in her backseat "lounge".  Just coming up front to quietly say "hello".

 Lunch at "House of Gyros" on the road.  Joey with the gyro and I with the Falafel... tasty!!!  Also, we way underestimated the portions they would give us.  Excellent for a sit-down meal... tricky for the road.

Our first stop was Knoxville where Joey's sister, Jeannie, and her family live.  We couldn't WAIT to start off our trip hanging out with them!  We *LOVE* being an Aunt and Uncle, so being able to hang out with our nephew and niece is always exciting and always entertaining ;).

We had dinner with the family Friday night and were able to just hang out and enjoy one another.  Brian, Jeannie's husband, and I made secret plans to have a D&D night and are crossing our fingers that Joey and Jeannie won't make fun of us the whole time when we do.  The next day, we hung out with Jeannie, Jeremy (our nephew), and Violet (our niece and god-daughter).  We took a walk around their neighborhood (lovely!) and then chilled out for some backyard fun before we headed onward...

 Violet rocking her "Don't Look Now" coat ...

That kid is so stinkin' cute!

 Apparently I've mysteriously lost pictures of our walk around the neighborhood which had some awesome family shots... I'm going to have to investigate that more.  Anyway, I did find a picture with Jeannie showing the kids how to properly wield a bat.

 A boy and his crooked-faced dog... love!

Jeremy -- a train and NASCAR enthusiast and all around super cool kid...

"A boy and his nerf gun"

 Noodle made a friend, and Violet made sure to mediate the introductions :)

Jeremy was even cool enough to take a couple of pictures of Joey, Noodle, and I.  Photographer in the making...

 Although not the picture he was looking for, I do like this shot...

Jeannie shot ;)

 After lunch in Knoxville, it was onward to Asheville!

Next post = Our little Cabin and Asheville :)

Now, to search for those missing pictures... hmmmmm...

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