"July"ing around the House

Beauty and the Beast (Shakespeare Festival)



 So I don't have any stories, but I can tell that two little princesses had a lot of fun on this trip.  I hope these girls will always be such good friends.  Love both of their little smiles so much. 

Road Trip - Day 9 (Chimney Rock)



Our last day on this road trip started us back up and over the Eastern Continental Divide, and this picture of the GPS we were following shows a good image of what was making most of us in the car very sick.  Prior to leaving, we stopped at Hardees once again, and Ruby ran right to her seat in the window.  The Junkins are now fans of Hardees. 

 

Once we made it to the base of Chimney Rock state park, we had in front of us 399 stairs to the top of Chimney Rock.  It has an elevator to the top, which was part of the attraction, but unfortunately, it was not working.  So up up up we went.  We started with 4 bottles of water in the pack and that was NOT near enough.  We made it to the Rock at 2280' high.  Amazing view from this rock, and really a must if we are ever back in this area.  Magan and the girls went into the air conditioned store they have at the Chimney Rock level, while Sam, Davis and I trekked another 300 stairs to Exclamation Point.  The view was not as spectacular from being out on Chimney Rock, but had some neat areas showing how high above chimney rock we were. 

 

Going back down the rock we found a different route which was much more shaded, and even had a cool tunnel.  Belle and Ruby loved going thru the tunnel.  Back at the bottom there was another trail to some waterfalls, which will be good if we ever get back here...but it was 1:00 PM, and we still had 6 hours to drive back home.  I took a picture of the van...it made it too...we are very proud of the many miles it has taken us around the country. 

 

Back on the road, we had one last adventure finding that we lost Ruby's new snoopy dog and one of her blankies...frantically searching the van, we realized they had both been left behind.  Magan began digging the trail calling the hotel in Asheville to see if they had found it, then after I helped her with the name of our hotel...she called the right hotel that we stayed at, but they had not found it.  We pictured it on that window seat in Hardees, but they had not found it.  Then called the Chimney Rock store, and it was there, both of them.  So they were kind enough to send them back, and little Ru is sleeping with both tonight. 

 



Road Trip - Day 8 (Biltmore)



After a late night driving, we all slept in this morning...except for Sam...that kid was probably up at 6.  Finally waking up and getting out of our hotel, we made it to Hardees while breakfast was still going.  This was a treat and I believe a first time experience for the kids.  Magan and I reliving tales of Hardees being the only restaurant in Good Hope.   And the kids were super excited about the new menu of options...and the current Blueberry biscuits.  Ruby sat up in the window claiming that as her seat. 

 

At the Biltmore, we found a giant mansion of a house that NO ONE thought to put air conditioning in during the late 1800s.  It was neat, lots of fans to keep cool, and if you see in the pictures the kids keeping a device to their ears, that was our audio guide.  And apparently this was a busy time, as in some areas you just waited in a large line to get from room to room.  Ugh.  But the house was pretty neat, and lots of technology of the times was built in.  They had a indoor swimming pool, with hot water pumped in from the boiler, a two lane bowling alley, clocks in the servant's quarters all wired to one central clock to ensure that they were never late, I think there were ONLY 15 bedrooms on the second floor. 

 

In front of the house before we left we climbed the stairs and walked the long uphill route to some gardens and a statue of the Goddess Diana.  You can tell from our expressions that we were a little beat by this time.  Back down to the car, we drove through the gardens, then around the property, and enjoyed some ice cream at the Antler Lodge and Winery.  Beautiful place!

 

Back home at the hotel Ruby and Mom went to sleep, while I took the others swimming.  It was fun because it was an indoor pool, but had a sliding roof that was open, and it came a large rainstorm while we were swimming.  I think we all enjoyed playing in the rain.  No one complained about the rain getting them too wet.  Almost ready to go back to the room, and Sam comes running up to me after climbing the ladder to get out.  He sliced his thumb pretty good and it was bleeding bad...so the others continued to play while we went to the restroom and found some tissue to stop the bleeding.  Healed up pretty fast, but still left another mark on injury prone Sam.