Camping

We are back home after a great trip to the mountains of NC. The weather could have been better, but we managed. It was raining when we arrived in the area, so we decided that it made more sense to see some waterfalls than to set up our camp. The good news is that it was a very light drizzle or mist rather than a driving rain. We got a little wet, but we enjoyed the views of Hooker Falls and Triple Falls. The rain let up and we set up camp. We enjoyed a nice dinner made on the campfire and waited for the arrival of the rest of our party.

As you may recall, Noah is very tight with two other little boys from preschool. One of them is named Scott and his family joined us at the adjacent campsite. They arrived pretty late on Friday and we helped them get set up. Everyone got to bed around 10:30 or so, which of course was pretty late. It rained all night Friday, but we managed to stay dry in Tentasaurus. Fortunately, the McClouds brought a 10' canopy that we all huddled under for breakfast. We took them to see the same waterfalls in the light rain and even hiked a bit further to High Falls. It was great that Lily and Scott's older brother Grant got along so well because it kept her distracted from complaining about the length of the hike. Noah and Scott got carried quite a bit because the trail was pretty steep.

We were supposed to go tubing, but it didn't seem like a very good idea in 68 degrees and drizzle. We tried really hard to find one more waterfall, but couldn't find the trail. We enjoyed a nice picnic lunch and then eventually headed back to camp. The weather was very nice in the afternoon and evening, so we enjoyed that. Our inflatable kayak got a lot of use as well since we were right on the lake. The highlight was that we could take the kayak all the way to Hooker Falls. It was pretty neat to see the falls from the river. We joked with Lily that we were going to go over it.

We thought about tubing on Sunday, but the morning was not a good one for it. We decided to go to Chimney Rock instead. Lily was disappointed by the flow over Hickory Nut Falls, but did enjoy hanging out at the bottom. We convinced Lily to make the climb up to the spot with the flag (roughly 472 steps) with the promise of buying her ice cream if she didn't complain. She got an ice cream sandwich made from two chocolate chip cookies for her effort.

After several hours at the park it was time to head home. We didn't get in until almost 9:00. Everyone was told not to get up until 8:00 this morning. We will see how that goes.