Tour De South Vol. 3 (Aug25-Aug29)

Tuesday we drove from Nashville to Banner Elk, NC, the longest leg of our trip. We did take a break for lunch at the Bass Pro Shop on our way. :) Nani and Pa were eagerly awaiting our arrival and were bursting at the seams to lay their eyes on their youngest grandson and shower him with hugs and kisses! The weather was wonderful in the mountains of N.C., and after a yummy dinner Nani had waiting for us, we took a walk to a park behind their house. It was Daniel's first time to go down a slide (he went down in daddy's lap), not sure how he felt about that. Nani gave Daniel this cloth version of the book, Are You My Mother?, I love cloth books for him!

Wednesday, Pa made delicious blueberry (that they picked) pancakes for us and then we started out on our fun day of adventures. For lunch, we stopped at Hamptons Grist Mill, every time Mike and I go to visit his parents, we have to get a bar-b-que sandwich from this place, it's half general store and half restaurant. (See those cute camo crocs on Daniel? Later in the week, he had them on, we had the windows rolled down, and when we stopped, he only had one on, he must have kicked one off and it flew out the window! Ha Ha!)

Our next stop was to drive to the top of Grandfather Mountain, a privately owned mountain (it seems like a state park). The weather was perfect, we could see for miles!

On Grandfather mountain, there is a small zoo, they have bears, cougars, otters, an eagle, and deer. Daniel liked looking at the bears, I think he was even trying to say the word, it came out "ba".

Then we took a drive on the Blue Ridge parkway and took a hike down to the Cascade Waterfall. It was an easy hike and the end was well worth it!

There were two falls, this was at the lower part of the Cascade Water fall.

Leaving the waterfalls, we came across this beautiful grassy null with some old buildings on it and a BEAUTIFUL tree, its leaves were already starting to change. We let Daniel get down and crawl around, the grass was so soft, he loved the freedom after being in the backpack or car seat for so long. It was just an extremely picturesque spot!!

Wednesday night we did a little shopping at an outlet mall and then had a delicious meal at the Blowing Rock Cafe in Blowing Rock, NC. We celebrated mom and dad Dasher's 48th wedding anniversary, wow, 48 years, congratulations!! We packed a lot into one day, Daniel was a little trooper, and we were pooped by the time our heads hit the pillow that night!

Thursday, we were sad to leave Nani and Pa but drove south to a cabin in the mountains of Georgia, that my mom's cousin graciously let us stay in. The cabin is in the Chattahoochee National Forest, in the Lake Winfield Scott State Park. I grew up going on vacations with my family to this cabin and have many fond memories from our time there. I used to dream of bringing my future husband there and that dream came true on our trip. Thank you Susan and Rick for letting us use your cabin! On Friday, we packed a picnic lunch and ventured down to Lake Winfield Scott. We ate our lunch under a huge covered pavilion with a stone fireplace at one end, Mike got to go fishing and caught a small fish on his first cast! After lunch, we drove down the mountain (this is when Daniel's shoe flew out the window, ha!) visited an overlook on the Appalachian trail, and then continued on to a cute town, Dahlonaga.

Friday morning on the porch, a great place to enjoy a cup of coffee and read a book!

We ate dinner outside on the back porch of this restaurant in Dahlonaga, delicious food, great service, and not overpriced. We stayed in the cabin again Friday night and Mike got to fish again in the morning while Daniel napped and I got packed up. Saturday, we drove an hour and a half to our favorite outlet mall in Dawsonville, GA. We got to go to the Pottery Barn Outlet and some other stores before we drove to my cousin's house. We were so excited to get to stay with Jaime and Kevin. They have a 15month old daughter, Kaitlin (so I guess she and Daniel are 2nd cousins). I wish my picture had turned out, but when we first got to their house, Kaitlin gave Daniel a kiss, then he returned he affection with a headbut which sent her into tears. :( They were having a wedding shower for my cousin, Keith (Kevin's brother) and fiance, Kamron. So there were a ton of people there and lots of good food. We got to visit with my Aunt Karen and cousin Kyle as well. It was a great party and we were so happy we got to be there, and SO happy for Keith and Kamron! We are looking forward to their wedding in November on their family farm north of Atlanta. I even volunteered to help Jaime with the flowers for the wedding, it sounds like fun! We can't wait to go back, I love that Daniel has a little cousin his age to play with!

Daniel had a BLAST playing with Kaitlin!! Thank you Jaime and Kevin for letting us stay with you! We had a wonderful vacation and were sad to see it come to an end, I guess that is a sign of a good time!