NC Carlsons: 4th of July

The beaches in the Carolinas are great, but we've been dying to get back in the mountains. I've heard great things about Boone so we decided to drive 2.5 hours west to see what it's all about. It was even better than expected! It's a small college town, home of the Appalachian State Mountaineers (In case anyone forgot - App. St 34, Michigan 32). You can't go to Boone without a reminder of the biggest upset in college football history. Norman Rockwell must have visited Boone at least once in his life as the entire downtown area looks like most of his paintings. The people are friendly and the bike shops are great.

Here are the girls sitting on the deck of our hotel. It was a little La Quinta Inn that has been built to look like a cabin.

Here is Ms. Adelle having a ball at the 4th of July parade. After years of fighting the masses in downtown Portland, it was nice to sit in the front row as the floats went by. We wandered around downtown Boone before and after the parade. No traffic, no hassles, no worries!

More of both girls enjoying the parade...

Next, we went to the Mast General Store - in business since 1883! (http://www.mastgeneralstore.com/)
They had everything from belts (yes, I got one) to barrels of candy (yes, the kids got a bunch)....

We took an afternoon and drove down to Grandfather Mountain, the highest peak in the Blue Ridge. It's not quite as tall as some of the mountains on the west coast, but was great fun for exploring. The swinging bridge lead over to the edge where you could see for miles. Molly decided to play it safe and sat out the climbing portion of the day. Emily and I scrambled to the top and were amazed as we watched a storm blow over us in a matter of minutes. It went from sunny to almost black, to sunny again.

This is the best picture of the bridge and the crazy weather...

There was a small interpretive center that included a few animals - bears, eagles, otters, etc. We showed up just in time to feed the bears. As you can see, they know the routine.