Mountain Vacation

Strider is at camp this week, and since we were going to make the drive up to the mountains to drop him off, we decided to just make a mini-vacation out of it for the rest of us.  So we rented a cabin in Black Mountain, a town we had been wanting to visit.  When we arrived, we were told there was something wrong with the cabin we had reserved, so the realty company essentially upgraded us to a beautiful home at the top of a mountain!  Once I got over my anxiety driving up a very steep gravel road for a mile, we found the views to be quite lovely.

We spent today hiking all through Montreat, including a rigorous hike up to Lookout Rock.  It wasn't a very long route (only about 1.2 miles), but the incline was rather steep and there was a lot of climbing on big rocks.  The kids all did great, though, and it was a lot of fun!  It was the first time we didn't have to carry anyone for any of the way, and no one even really complained.

This made me chuckle....  Last year at this time, Miles had just climbed a mountain in the Alps, with a lot of help riding on Daddy's and Uncle Al's shoulders, and when he got to the top, he did this:


Today, he climbed the whole way himself.... In fact, every time I tried to help him, he would say, "MOM!  I got this!"

And when he got to the top, he did this:

Deja vu.

Afterwards, we had a picnic by a waterfall, and then went wading in the stream...

...And we rounded out the day with some shopping and ice-creaming in the town of Black Mountain.

My only complaint was that no matter how many times I go to Kilwin's, nothing is ever "on sale!"

Other than that, it was an almost perfect day -- we were just missing Strider!