Always able to find new things to do

We were able to spend almost a full week recently at Our Mountain Place (aka, "Honey Bear House"). It was such a wonderful time to get away. Sure, we did some of our usual things: Otter Falls in Seven Devils ... Grandfather Vineyard (TWICE!) ... Blowing Rock shopping ... Blue Deer Cookies ... Come Back Shack ... Bistro Roca for dinner. And so on and so on. But we also managed to actually try some new things, believe it or not!

On the way up we stopped in West Jefferson for the afternoon. It was nice strolling around that beautiful town ... and checking out the Ashe County Cheese factory! We got the Buffalo cheese, which was INCREDIBLE!

Next day we hit up the Alpine Coaster at Sugar Mountain. If you haven't done this yet, I HIGHLY recommend it. So much fun. Check it out! It's essentially a 1-person coaster (or 2, if you have a little one with you, like I did) that goes through the trees and hills. You get to control the speed ... but going faster is THE BEST!

 

 

And, finally, one thing we counted as a "first" (but had done a LONG time ago when the kids were really small) was a visit to Elk River Falls. It's truly a beautiful (and dangerous) waterfall that offers some great swimming and dipping opportunities.

 

Is it autumn yet?

We will be making the trek up to the High Country this weekend. (Friday can't get here soon enough!) I. Cannot. Wait.

It's always a blast to get up to Honey Bear House. But I'm just ready for some actual, honest-to-God fall-like weather. It was in the mid-to-upper 90s in Raleigh yesterday. Today is supposed to be even worse. Ugh.

Taking a quick glance at the old weather app for the forecast, the High Country looks GREAT over the next couple of days. High of 78 on Friday, but then highs of 61 and 66 on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Oh, and the lows over the next few nights? In the upper 40s or low 50s -- PERFECT for this:

But I'm also looking forward to potentially seeing a smidge of fall color. It's probably a tad early for the good stuff, but still. Maybe there's hope? Let's go to the Fall Color Update for an, uh, update:

There has definitely been some color development this week! We’ve had very warm days for this time of year, but thankfully the mornings have still been cool. ... A drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway yesterday revealed a few spots where fall color is starting to pop. As expected, the higher elevations are showing the largest color shifts at this early stage in the season. ...

Color or no color, it's always a nice time to escape to the High Country!

It's about time to go looking for fall color, y'all!

As much as I love pumpkin-flavored stuff, one of my favorite reasons why fall is my favorite season is because of the leaf colors. And few places have more vibrant autumn colors than the High Country.  We are almost at that time of year, people!!

The good folks at the Mast General Store are here to keep you up to date on fall foliage.

In this section you will find tips on taking better fall photographs, fun puzzles for kids, activities for young and old, a guide to fall colors, and an up-to-date leaf watch with periodic photos from the mountains of Western North Carolina and the Upstate of South Carolina.

Go check out the updates each week. Better yet, get your butt up to the mountains. And drop by and spend some money at the Mast General Stores while you're up there. You know your kids want candy, if nothing else!

The white stuff brought a lot of green over the holidays

The "arctic" weather that hit North Carolina over the 2017/18 holidays was a boon for High Country hotels, restaurants and ski areas.

“This one week will mean millions of dollars in economic impact,” Tracy Brown, director of the Blowing Rock Tourism Development Authority, told the Watauga Democrat. “It’s always good to see snow on slopes and the streets black. The stars aligned for us this year.”

Recent years have seen warmer weather this time of year impact tourism, particularly for skiing. (Here's to hoping it stays cold enough for our trip in March!)

“The last few winters have been tough, because we haven’t had the product to put out there, in our case, that’s winter sports, skiing, snowboarding, tubing, snowy hikes,” Brown said of the last warm December winters in recent years. “It’s critical that we have good weather and people can get here.”

Yet another enjoyable weekend in the High Country

We honestly do not make it up to Honey Bear House nearly as much as we should. Every time we do we think, "why aren't we up here every weekend?"

This past weekend was one of those times. While we would have loved to have seen just a tad more fall color, it was still magnificent to watch the colors change quite literally before our eyes.

We also managed to hit one of our favorite spots along the Blue Ridge Parkway: Linville Falls. The view from the top never gets old. And the girls managed to squirm their way onto a tree that hangs over the path at a low angle.

The whole gang always enjoys Linville -- even Winston the dog.

So ready to get back!

Ski season wrapping up

We have owned Honey Bear House for several years now, but this was the first year that we actually took advantage of being close to ski slopes. This past weekend we made our second trek of the season over to Appalachian Ski Mountain where the kiddos (even the little dude) hit the slopes again. It was also the first time I've skied in probably two decades. And I didn't even die!

But just because ski season is over, it doesn't mean there's not a lot to do up in the High Country. Please take a look at our calendar to see what dates may interest you. It really is a place for every season of the year!

You really 'Otter' go to the mountains

Our family headed up to Honey Bear House a recent weekend to escape the heat of Raleigh. And guess what? It worked! When we left the City of Oaks around 1 p.m., the temperature was already at 98 degrees. When we arrived in Seven Devils around 5, it was around 75. And that was about the warmest it would get all weekend (with almost no humidity).  It was a NICE reprieve.

I wanted to share some of the highlights of the weekend; we packed a lot in, yet still managed to relax and recharge.


Here is a shot of my lovely bride and me from the deck of Our Mountain Place.

The kids ALWAYS love "swimming" in the hot tub. This was one of Roman's first times, and he could not be happier.

Saturday morning we just had to go gem mining. We checked out Foggy Mountain for the first time, and it was a blast. (Spoiler alert: We just so "happened" to find lots of gems.)

After some good kid fun, we had to have some adult enjoyment as well. We headed over to one of the hidden gems of the High Country: Grandfather Winery.  We enjoyed some good wine and music (by the Romantic Egotists) while the kids played in the Watauga River. It was one of the most relaxing (and cheap) 3 hours we've ever spent.

Saturday ended; life was good. And I'm always amazed at how different this view looks, not only season to season, but throughout the day.

Sunday was mostly spent at the "new" Otter Falls in Seven Devils. I say new, but obviously the waterfalls and the creek have been there; however, the town recently acquired the land and it is now a wonderful public park (still in progress; a new trail is being worked on as we speak). It's about a mile from our house, and it is maybe our new favorite spot. We played in the water, climbed on some rocks, and Roman even did some "fishing."

Later that day, it was, sadly, time to go back to life and back to humidity. But it was about as perfect a weekend as you could have.

See ya soon, High Country!