This is what we did today! We drove all over "God's green acre" and it sure was beautiful!!
First, we drove up and over a nearby mountain to go visit the town that my grandfather (who is now deceased) grew up in. Actually, on a recent quest, my mother went in search of the actual house he grew up in, and believe it or not, she found it. She really found it about 3 months ago, when she took my grandmother with her to try to find it. My mom had done lots of research and then went to the town and spoke with a couple of real estate agents and was able to find it. Anyway, today she took us over to the town to see the house, my grandfather's high school (which is now an elementary school), and the hospital where my great-grandmother worked as a nurse. It was really neat to see those places and the town is so cute. It was a long drive, though, lasting about an hour and a half, one way.
After we saw all that, we left that town, drove back up the mountain and got on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We took that for about 40 miles. That was a lot of fun. We stopped at a bunch of overlooks for the kids to see the view. They were thoroughly impressed, as was I. Not that I hadn't seen it all before, but I get up there so rarely that it's always like new to me. Anyway, as we were driving up the parkway toward the top of the mountains, we saw lots of very low clouds. The kids were amazed that the clouds were so close to us and when we finally got up into the clouds, I rolled down my window so they could stick their hands out the window so they could say they'd touched a cloud. It was funny and they all laughed. Finally we got up to a lookout that was sooo cloudy that we couldn't see anything at all looking down. There was a visitor center and a ranger, who we spoke to about the weather and the clouds....oh, and a gift shop. So fun. The kids ran around the empty parking lot saying they were running in the clouds. They were so excited and we took lots of pictures....and it was like 65 degrees! That's such a treat at the end of July! It seemed like we were in the middle of winter! The kids also were really impressed with the tunnels cut out of the rock. Really neat.
Finally we started heading down the mountain, and I kept thinking they were all gonna get sick because I kept trying not to use the brakes too much, but thankfully no one got sick. Whew! Once we got down the mountain and back into town, we got more gas....needed that after so long on the road today.... we went to a local family owned restaurant for dinner. It was a really neat 50's style diner and the food was good, too.
I think we left my mom's house at about 10 or 10:30 this morning and after going to the grocery store after dinner, we got home at about 8 pm. Wow! That was a long day and even though everyone had fun and got to touch some family roots, we were all glad to get back home and out of the car. I've taken lots of pictures during this trip, as always, so once I get back home, I'll try to get some on here so you can see everything. From what I hear, Nicky's been working hard on the tile in our living room. I'm very excited about that! He's been working on that tile for 4 years....yes, it's true. But, it's very hard for him to work on tile when we're all there all the time. And, once you lay some tile, you can't walk on it for 24 hours, and our house is never empty for 24 hours! SO, he's had a very difficult time finding time to actually work on it. And, I'm very happy he's been working on it while we've been gone. I can't wait to see what he's finished!!
Well, I guess that's it for now. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! :-)
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