Linville Falls

Friday Ella Kate had a 2 hour early dismissal. They have these frequently throughout the year. So Michael picked her up, while Addison and I went to meet the teacher at preschool. We came home and packed up the van and hit the road to Linville Falls. The weather was iffy all weekend, but it ended up being amazing. Highs in the 70s, lows in the 50s.

We got to camp and set up and made red beans and rice and ran around the camp ground like lunatics. It sure does bring out the crazies in our kids. I think cause at the apartment we are constantly telling them to be quiet. So we just let them go nuts. Addison wants to immediately crack open glow sticks at 2:00 in the afternoon. Nope.

Saturday morning Michael got up and made eggs and bacon. I started on the snacks and sandwiches for the day. We headed out for the visitors center and got our hike on. We hiked a little more than 4 miles. Oddly enough the girls sometimes complain on flat easy trails more than they do on the rocky technical trails. Addison kept saying I am doing awesome on the way down to the gorge, which she was!

This is Upper Falls overlook. These falls pool into a very large pool and then narrows down into the gorge.

Gorge.

Out of order, but this is Linville Falls Trial, which takes you to the bottom to see the falls. We ate lunch here and hung out a while as the chitlins feet were starting to tire.

Erwins View Trail, highest point to see the Lower Falls.

Chimney View Overlook.

Overlook down into the Gorge.

Lower Falls, the girls wanted to go swimming, but there are no swimming signs posted as the currents are fierce.

Lower Falls looking up at the gorge walls.

Gorge.

Panoramic View.

Erwins Trail.

Linville River, what the falls turn into.

Addison and I went and ran errands to get provisions and stuff for the weekend. I picked up Jenga, thought it would be a good game to play while camping. Turns out it was a huge hit! Ella Kate was talking so much trash!! She did pretty well at it too. Addison kinda did. We let her pull out easy blocks. She mainly wanted to build a town with them!

We go to town at least one night with dinner. This time we made grilled chicken legs with white BBQ sauce. Grilled potatoes, corn, onions, and peppers. Super duper yum. We did however have to drive 11 miles into a town to a Lowes to get charcoal, firewood, and ice. Apparently it is a ski town too. A-Frame houses, huge ski slopes and one GIANT condo/hotel on top of a mountain. Super crazy.

Sunday morning we woke up and did some research on what we wanted to do that day. We narrowed it down to Linville Caverns and Grandfather Mountain. Unfortch it would cost us $59 to go to Grandfather Mountain...what the what? So we opted to do the Caverns. It was a small cave, pretty cool, no bats...and Ella Kate got to see actual stalactites and stalagmites.

Then we headed back to AVL...and the girls passed right on out!

We got home and unpacked and aired out, showered etc. Put the midgets down for naps, then we woke up and headed downtown for the LAAF festival where Patrick and his band East Coast Dirt were playing for 45 minutes. We were standing in the back, maybe a football field and a half away from the stage and he introduced himself and I started waving and jumping up and down and he goes, Oh hey! It's Claire Poole! How you doin?! Good stuff.

We got the girls their first ever ice cream cone...and they didn't know they could eat the cone!! They've led a sheltered whole food life for the most part!

After the show, we went over to the Keller's house and hung out for a little bit...and Ella Kate and Addison played the drums!!

Michael had to go in for a couple of hours Labor Day and when he got home we grilled burgers and played in "the yard." That about sums up our weekend!