Mountain Vacation

Last week DH and I went to the North Carolina mountains for a vacation. We rented a cabin in Bryson City near the Deep Creek entrance to the Smoky Mountain National Park. We were sure to get a place that allowed dogs so we could bring the Girls.

The first night there we went to dinner at Relia's Garden at the NOC. The next day I went running the the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and then we did the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad thing. Some of the views from the train were really great but there sure is a lot of kudzu out there! Yikes!

After the train ride, we took the Girls on a short hike to see some of the local waterfalls and explore the Deep Creek area. Hannah and Emma enjoyed that very much. Hannah got into the water and had a blast.

The next day I was able to bike up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and ride on it some. I found a route from Motion Makers bike shop in Sylva that went from Sylva to Waterrock Knob. I thought I could do that in the time allowed (the training plan was for 2 to 2.5 hours). Well, I got to within about 3 miles of my goal and decided that I may have been looking at a 3 hour ride rather than a 2.5 hour ride since I had already been on the road for 90 minutes. I decided to turn around. Almost immediately, I realized that I could probably have gone on without going too far over. It took about 55 minutes for the return trip and that was with a wrong turn that involved a heart rate of 195 (when my max was supposedly 194!) Oh, the other five minutes was just looping around the one way streets in Sylva so it was close to 2.5 hours. I calculated over 4100 climbing feet.

While I was riding, DH met up with some friends to go kayaking on the Pigeon. I hurried back to the cabin to get the Girls and then we had Girls Adventure Day. I took them to Mountain Dog Bakery in Dillsboro. The original plan was for us to go wading in the Tuckasegee River but it started to pour out so we scrapped that plan. Instead we went to Greater Bryson City and relaxed and then explored the Road to Nowhere before meeting up with DH for dinner.

During our final full day in the mountains, we went to Biltmore. DH and I toured the house while the Girls were at a kennel and then we picked them up and took them through the gardens. We wrapped up the day with dinner at Ironstone in Sylva.

We rounded out our vacation with an O.A.R. concert near home.

It was a great week!