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.

 

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!