Camping at Price Lake

We finally made it up to the mountains with the camper! We used our 4th of July trip to Boone as a scouting trip and decided to camp at Price Lake. It's about 20 minutes south of Boone, roughly 2 1/2 hours from home. Our camp site was small but clean and reminded us a lot of camping in Oregon (we even got a bit of rain). As usual, we had our camera handy for the mundane events like lunch and boating, but it was nowhere to be found when dad caught the massive fish (and by massive I mean at least 5 inches) or when the 4-foot snake wandered on to the hiking trail. We weren't sure if it was a water moccasin or not, but didn't stick around long enough to ask.


Here is Adelle, checking her guidebook for birds.

And this is our small but cozy (Adelle's description) camp site. There were a couple of larger RV's, but it was mostly smaller units, pop-ups, or tents. With no hookups, the big boys tend to stay away. After all, what is a nice weekend camping without cable tv? (If you didn't catch the sarcasm, you don't know me very well).

Here are the girls enjoying their first breakfast in the mountains of North Carolina - egg sandwiches and orange juice. Is there anything better? I think not.

Another shot of the camper and our little set up. It's not fancy, but gets the job done. It's great that the kids have a clean place to sleep at night and it also acts as a playhouse during the day. The expense of shipping it out here wasn't fun, but it couldn't have worked out better.

Just chillin'.

Mommy and Adelle having lunch. Hot dogs, what else?

We rented a canoe and spend a few hours on Price Lake. It's not huge, but I got a decent workout paddling us around.

"Boy, don't nobody know nuthin' about Oree-gone!"

The kids had a fun time "paddling". They took turns with the extra oar and I sat back to watch. Adelle took her turn very seriously.

The Eno Orcas

Emily just finished her first season on the Eno Orcas swim team. For a kid with only a few lessons and not much experience in the water, she did really well. They held each meet at one of the local clubs, and the final at the UNC pool. Emily was very excited about sharing the water with a handful of future Olympians (the team trained out here last month). Now that swimming is over, it's on to tennis and fall soccer.

Here is Emily during one of her backstroke heats.


Preparing for battle...



She was very proud of her swim team suit - she earned it!

4th of July - Boone, NC

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.


MORE BEARS!!!!

It rained for about 15 minutes.
Then stopped.
One last trip to the top of Grandfather mountain with my girls.....

And it was time to go home.

Best 4th of July ever!

Adelle's 4th birthday party

We threw a birthday bash for Adelle at the house this year. The kids went crazy with a small swimming pool and slip n' slide, while the parents sat on the deck talking about the weather. Adelle hasn't had any problems making new friends in North Carolina, but we limited the party to just a couple of families. We just grilled burgers and hot dogs - nothing fancy, but a very good time.


This was the birthday girl's favorite present - a "swimming" baby from her big sister. She's been talking about it for months and was very excited that her sister came through with the hit of the party.



I'm not sure exactly what they're showing off here, but I'm assuming it was something very interesting.

Lightning!

In case you haven't hear the lightning story, it's a good one. Unfortunately, my picture taking skills aren't advanced enough to show the actual damage.

We came home a few weeks ago and noticed rocks all over the deck. Hmmm, that's odd. After a bit of investigation, we noticed the 30 foot pine in our back yard was scorched black from top to bottom and missing a bunch of bark. We put two and two together and came up with the obvious - the tree was hit by lightning.

The bolt of lightning went through the tree, dug a small ditch in the ground (through the rock path) and ended up hitting an old metal pole in the ground (the previous home owner used it as a satellite mount). It sent bark flying across the street, all over the yard, and on top of the house. It must have sounded like a bomb going off, as both levels of the deck were covered with rock from the path.

The phone was fried, the internet was baked, and both DVR boxes were toast. My photography skills are typically pretty good, but we were all shaken up a little bit that evening/night. We didn't even notice the bark across the street until later in the evening after the excitement had died down. In typical NC fashion, the storm was over in an hour and the sun was shining as I started cleaning up the mess.

This is just the trunk of the tree. There are large gashes torn out of the bark from top to bottom. I don't know if I'll ever get all of that bark out of my grass!


It tore a hole through the rock path, sending quarter-inch minus all over the place. It went through the rock, ripped a hole in the weed fabric then dug a small trench in the mud. Scary....
This is just the top level of the deck - the bottom level was covered in rocks as well. There were also chunks of bark all over the deck, yard and house.
This little end table used to have a glass top. Yeah, it shattered all over the rocks. You can see the metal post that has now been removed.

Washington DC - Part 2, Air and Space Museum

We spent a decent amount of time in the Museum of Natural History, but most of our time was spent at the National Air and Space Museum (the older one on the Mall). This was truly a dream come true for me as I've been dreaming about this for most of my life. The kids actually had a great time as well. There was plenty to see, and they let you touch and climb on a lot of the exhibits. Anyone with kids knows how important that is when going anywhere that doesn't include Hannah Montana or Cars.


I always new a 747 engine was huge, but this puts the size in perfect perspective.

This was a great mural in the room containing Vietnam-era jets and engines. My dad worked on Phantoms so I always loved this plane. To this day, I think it's one of the coolest planes to ever fly.

Of course, there can only be one "coolest" plane ever, and anyone who knows me is fully aware of that plane. Yes, it's the one and only F-14 Tomcat. Any reference to this plane will be documented and celebrated for as long as I live......


The original X1...If you don't know, read Chuck Yeager's book. He was Maverick before Lt. Pete Mitchell was buzzing towers and Rear Admiral's daughters.


We had an unexpected treat on the way out of town - Marine 1 flew right over our heads bringing President Bush back to the White House after a weekend in Texas. We pulled over as all 3 helicopters swooped over the car. Two landed on the South Lawn and another started flying in circles around the White House. Security is obviously very tight, so we couldn't get over to the White House to watch them land. We did catch of glimpse of Marine 1 on the grass, but didn't get to see President Bush. It was a great end to a spectacular weekend in Washington DC.

Washington DC - Part 1

We made out maiden voyage to Washington DC last weekend and had a great time. It's a nice 4 hour drive through the Virginia countryside.

The girls were very excited to see where the President lives - Adelle loved the "waterfall" out front.





Here we are at the base of the Washington monument looking over the reflection pool to the Lincoln monument.

The clouds started rolling in while we were at the WWII Memorial. This was a very powerful reminder of the men who died protecting the freedoms we sometimes take for granted.



This Lincoln monument was by far Emily's favorite part of the weekend. She just finished reading a book about President Lincoln and has been very interested in learning more about the man and his story.

Another very moving experience. Words can't describe your thoughts and feelings as you walk by the wall.