Falling Water

Today was the day to take in some waterfalls. We started off with a beautiful drive down the Blue Ridge Parkway and started with these two waterfalls. Setrock was a little disappointing, but Roaring Fork was quite lovely. It's not the most water you will ever see going over a cliff and it's not the highest, but the varied drops as the water comes down is really nice. I would have to rate it as one of my favorite NC waterfalls, if not my favorite overall (yes, that includes Niagara). After that we went to Crabtree Falls. Finding the trailhead was a little tricky, but once we found it we had a nice hike. The only trouble is that Amanda's hiking sandals gave her some nasty blisters. We had our picnic on a couple of rocks near the base of the falls then began the long climb back.

We were going to take in Linville Falls as well, but given the condition of Amanda's feet we decided to skip it and head back home. Plus, Amanda had seen them before. We figure that we will be back here at some point and the falls are not going anywhere. Perhaps we can even see them with the kids.

We got cleaned up and then headed out for dinner at Crippen's Country Inn. If you're ever in Blowing Rock and are in the mood for a very nice meal I cannot recommend this highly enough. My caesar salad was very good and Amanda got the salad with the chocolate. She loved it. I got the salmon and Amanda got the tenderloin. The best way to describe her entree was a beef sundae. We broke tradition and actually got two different desserts. Amanda got the bread pudding and I got the figs and pigs (homemade fig ice cream with candied bacon bits). Both were outstanding. We also broke tradition by getting beverages, though both were non-alcoholic. Amanda got some kind of ginger fizz that was really good and I got habanero sweet tea. It wasn't as spicy as I had hoped, but it was still good.

We're ready to get home tomorrow. It will be good to see the kids and it will be nice to rescue Aunt Tiff.