Morgan and Jordan on their first walk together at Max Patch

Jordan on her first walk

Eric, Morgan and Jordan

The Erics--first sunset

Jordan and Morgan--first sunset

Iana and Kate and the kids--sunset

On Saturday we loaded up Mighty Whitey and headed into Asheville to attend Bele Chere--the largest street festival in the Southeast.  After the drive we parked at the mall and took the festival shuttle downtown–little did I know this would be the most exciting part of the day for Morgan:  HIS FIRST BUS RIDE!  He loved it, especially when it went through the tunnel.

The festival was marvelous, despite the heat.  The entire downtown area was blocked to cars–at least 8 blocks, probably more.  We walked around, listened to music, took the kids to Kid Zone (where I rode a whirly ride with the two of them that left me staggering), and had a great lunch at the Bier Garden.

After lunch we were able to drop the kids off at a daycare facility for the rest of the afternoon!  Eric O. tried his hand at climbing a rock wall on Wall Street (and did remarkably well!) and then we headed back to our favorite wine bar, Sante.

On Sunday we headed into Hot Springs to go tubing on the French Broad.

Their life jackets

After tubing we had lunch outside at the Rock Bottom Grill.

Lunch at the Rock Bottom Grill

For dinner that night we had kabobs that Iana brought.  Yum!

Our wonderful dinner cooking on the grill

That evening we had a rousing game of Monotony (Monopoly).  Somehow I ended up destroying the competition–Eric Osborne went out first, and then Eric Pugh went down in flames.  My Eric was so upset he didn’t talk to me for the rest of the night…I’m not kidding.

On Monday we had a great breakfast of blueberry pancakes and then headed up to hike the long Max Patch Loop.

Morgan and Jordan halfway to the summit to Max Patch

Iana at the top of Max Patch

View from Max Patch

Morgan in the woods on the Max Patch Loop

Resting on a log--halfway through the hike

Looking back up to Max Patch from the AT

Eric at Max Patch

finishing the hike through the blackberry bushes

Tuesday we all took the long morning walk together–the kids ran and ran and ran!

View on our morning walk

Morgan running on the morning walk

Rock climbing!

Look how high!

Jordan posing on the morning walk

After the morning walk we had oatmeal with fresh blueberries, and, of course, BACON!  Then the kids played in the house while we got ready for our hike of the day.

Playtime!

We drove down to the horse camp and did the little hike to the waterfall.  The kids had a ball throwing rocks into the pool at the base of the falls.

Morgan and Jordan at the waterfall

Playing at the waterfall

Throwing rocks in the pool

The Osbornes at the waterfall

Woods near the waterfall

Making a splash!

My mossy rock

Little Falls Branch Falls

After the hike we drove to the City of Joe to buy the kids ice cream.

The Osbornes visit Joe

Snake on the horse trail

There was no easy way to get past this obstacle, as the path was steep on either side and covered in thick bushes…So, we turned around and headed back to the car.  I decided to take Morgan blackberry picking on the lower section of the Max Patch Loop Trail–blackberries are his new favorite food!  So we headed down the trail and there were TONS of ripe blackberries.  The blackberry bushes stretched for at least a mile.

Lower Max Patch blackberry patches

Morgan picking blackberries at Max Patch

Morgan on the lower loop

After the mile or so of blackberry fields, we took a right on the AT, which descends through some beautiful woods and ends up on Max Patch road below the parking lot.

Morgan on the AT

On Tuesday we headed to the Smoky Mountain National Park to hike to three waterfalls. We drove through Bryson City, NC and parked at the Deep Creek Trailhead.  The trail was wide and flat, and in .2 of a mile we came to Tom’s Branch Falls.

Tom's Branch Waterfall

We took our first snack break on a bench here.

Morgan resting at Tom's Branch Falls

After another half a mile, we came to Indian Creek Falls off the side of another trail.

Indian Creek Falls

At this point we had a choice:  either return by the very easy path we had come by, or try out the 1.5 mile horse trail back to the parking lot. I decided to do the horse trail as it passed by yet a third falls (even if I had to carry Morgan some).  So, we set off on the horse trail, and very quickly it started to ascend somewhat steeply.  Morgan was a trooper and I never carried him all the way up to the summit. We stopped halfway up for another snack break.

Taking another rest

Finally, after quite a push up the hill, we were almost at the top.  I scooped up Morgan planning on carrying him the rest of the way and almost stepped on THIS GUY:

Big Slithery

We had to wait about 10 minutes until he decided to slither up the bank and then we inched past him. He was only about 3 feet away when we walked past him–I kept Morgan in my arms.  I thought I would have to carry him the rest of the way up the hill, but he wanted to walk!  After another half a mile or so, we arrived at our last falls, Juney Wank Falls.

Juney Wank Falls

We followed a really neat tunnel of trees back to the trailhead and then drove back up the mountain.

Tunnel on the Deep Creek Trail

Tuesday evening the three of us drove up a road called Poplar Gap and took a walk through a gorgeous field.  We stayed for about an hour.

An evening walk off Poplar Gap Road

View from our meadow

stumps

Cocktails in our meadow

my boys

The Arboretum Building

The gardens

Quilt Garden Sign

The Quilt Garden

Bonsai forest

My favorite Bonsai

After our stop at the arboretum, we dropped off our stuff at the hotel and drove to Wall Street in Asheville. Wall Street is this tiny, funky street with a few neat shops and restaurants–no chains allowed!  We spent a couple hours at a brand new coffee shop (Wall Street Coffee) and then I walked a block to Fired Up pottery studio and painted some plates for our new kitchen.  Eric stopped in after a while and helped me finish up.  Then we made our way a few blocks to our favorite wine bar, Sante.   The July Flight of wines is a series of pretty good Spanish wines, so we were in heaven.  We can’t wait to bring the Osbornes here in a week! While we were in Sante, we met a man that was on his way to SUUSI, a really amazing Unitarian Camp I used to go to when I was in middle / high school.  It turns out he is on the nature staff there and is friends with the woman that worked with my mother for 20 years at UVA!  El mundo es un panuelo…

That night we had a marvelous dinner at a French restaurant called Bouchon in downtown Asheville.  We met a really great couple while waiting to be seated and ended up eating dinner with them–Jaye and Ryan from Atlanta.  We will definitely stay in touch with them!

The next day we went to Izzy’s Coffee Den for a few hours and then headed to a real grocery store to stock up on some fresh produce / meat.  Then we headed back up the mountain to meet our dinner guests…Kate Girdler and her boyfriend Ben…

Morgan and David

For the past 6 days, Karen, David and Max have been staying with us at Max Patch.  They arrived Tuesday afternoon, and unfortunately brought some rain with them.  Their first night here was foggy and rainy, but David and Morgan got in the hot tub regardless.  That night we had a big pasta dinner and turned in early.

Wednesday morning Karen picked some blueberries with Morgan and the dogs.

Karen picking blueberries

That afternoon the weather cleared up so we took our evening cocktails up to the top of Max Patch.  The hike was beautiful and we lounged on top of the Patch for about an hour.  Here are some pictures:

Hiking up the Patch

Old Man of the Meadow

Eric, Morgan and Morgan's favorite birdhouse

Kate and Morgan at Max Patch

Morgan and David

Cocktails on Max Patch

That evening we had a nice steak dinner on the porch, drank some wine, and turned in.

Thursday we made our way to Asheville and the boys went to Izzy’s Coffee Den to do some work for the morning.  Karen, Morgan and I went to the Asheville Botanical gardens–they were very beautiful.

At the botanical gardens

Rest time at the botanical gardens

Relocated cabin in the botanical gardens

After the botanical gardens we drove into Pack Place in Asheville and took Morgan to the Health Adventure, which is a great children’s museum.  He played and played and really enjoyed himself.

Morgan at the children's museum

We met the boys for lunch at a great outdoor cafe, and then took Morgan back to the museum for about an hour.  We headed back to Max Patch late afternoon and had a great dinner of fajitas.

Friday we headed into Hot Springs and Morgan had his first canoe trip.  We put David, Eric and Morgan in about a mile below Hot Springs and they canoed for a little over an hour while Karen and I went to the Iron Horse Gallery in Hot Springs.

Getting in the canoe in the French Broad

And they're off!

After the canoe trip we ate lunch at the Rock Bottom Grill in Hot Springs and then let Morgan play on the old train engine in the center of town.  We headed home and rested before dinner.  That night there was a great sunset!

Friday, Day 1: Multiculural crew arrives, bringing with them a huge thunderstorm that knocks out internet for over a week!

Unloading the 4 tons of food they brought!

After they unloaded the cars and rested, Jason began his ritual of cooking. I did not cook or clean for 4 days! It was wonderful.

Relaxing before dinner

The first night we had an amazing pasta dinner, and of course soaked in the hot tub.  No stars, of course, as it was still very cloudy.

Saturday, Day 2: We got up early and it was still socked in and misty.  The boys and Mei took the morning walk anyway, and we started Mei Ling on her new job for the weekend: picking blueberries.  I’ve never seen anything like it! She picked enough for 50 people!  She also picked wildflowers and made a beautiful arrangement for our dining room table.

Mei Ling and her blueberries

Wildflowers

After the morning walk, Big J made us all blueberries pancakes and we relaxed and drank our coffee on the porch.

The blueberry pancake machine!

Due to the cloudy weather, our morning activity was a drive down to the Horse Camp and a walk to the waterfall that I wrote about last week.  It was a pretty walk and the waterfall had more water than before.

Here are some more pictures from the hike:

Mei Ling and Jason at the Falls

Joe at the Falls

Jason writing in his journal

Joe climbed to the top of the Falls

After the waterfall walk, we went back to the house and had a big lunch and rested for a while.  After nap time, the sun came out! We decided to hike the long Max Patch Loop, and it was gorgeous. Morgan got to ride with Big Jason, Joe and Eric.  The blackberries were just starting to come out, and the views were gorgeous.  Here are some pictures from the hike:

At the top of Max Patch

We made it to the top!

Mei Ling and Morgan at my favorite part of the hike.

That evening we had cocktails as usual, had a huge dinner cooked by Joe and Jason, and watched the sunset.

Sunday, Day 3: Today was our tubing day!  We had a good breakfast of bacon, eggs, and biscuits, and then headed down the mountain.  Mei-Ling’s car had NO GAS (they came up the Mountain with the gas light on!), so we had to go to the City of Joe to fill up the car.

City of Joe, population 16

The boys easily convinced the girls that the car ran out of gas right before the tiny service station…

Running out of gas...

We continued on to Hot Springs to pick up our tubes from the Huck Finn Rafting Company.

Huck Finn Rafting Company--tubing and white water rafting.

We picked up our tubes, which were really incredible!  No old truck tires this time–these tubes had bottoms (which made me feel a lot better about taking Morgan), cup holders, and did not get hot in the sun!

We put into the French Broad River right under the bridge at Hot Springs and had a wonderful 3 hour float.  At the beginning there were actually some decent sized rapids, which Morgan loved!  He fell asleep for a little while on Eric’s chest, and was quite grumpy when he woke up.  Regardless, he did his first tubing trip and it was a success!

After tubing we drove home and rested, went for a walk, had another huge dinner, watched a great sunset, and played a gruelling game of Apples to Apples.

Sunset

Monday, Day 4: We had a nice, easy breakfast of bagels and cream cheese and then the crew left to go white water rafting out of Hot Springs.  I stayed home with Morgan. We did our morning walk (it was gorgeous, cloudy and windy).

Morning walk

Morgan and the pups on our morning walk

Clouds over Tenn. mountains on our morning walk

Looking back at John and Lori's house on our morning walk

Fields and mountains--morning walk

Morgan and Lima--morning walk

After our great walk, we came back to the house and it started to pour–it poured all day!  We had a nice, quite day inside, and Morgan took a mega-nap.  I was wondering how our fearless white water rafters were doing, however…

At about 3:00 the car pulled up, and the crew spilled out of the car.  Jason looked a little bedraggled, to say the least. Turns out he got thrown from the raft (along with Joe) on the first big rapids, and was just a bit shook up!  Luckily Joe rode the rapids with him and the two of them were just fine.  Jason toughed it out and afterward got a T-shirt which sums up his rafting experience…

Jason is the one upside down...

Jason even learned how to tie knots on the trip…Joe had another teaching session that evening around the kitchen table…

Knots

After a great dinner, we all got in the hot tub and saw stars!  Joe used his I-Pad to find constellations.  The rest of the evening was spent playing Pictionary (Mei Ling is ridiculously good) and Apples to Apples (I won by one card having to do with Milk Duds…).

The next morning dawned with the best sunrise to date, and by 10am the Multicultural Crew had pulled out, leaving 1/2 a ton of food and some great memories.

John and Lori's map!

So, at about 10 this morning we piled into Mighty Whitey (as the cross country girls call our white 4-Runner) and started down the Cold Springs Creek Road towards Harmon Den.  After driving down for quite a few miles, we came to the Horse Camp on the left hand side of the road.  We drove through the camping area until we came to where the road was gated off.  Just past the gate there is a tiny path going off into the woods on the left hand side of the road. This path follows the creek for perhaps .25 of a mile until you reach the falls, which are totally secluded deep in the forest and gorgeous!

Little Fall Branch Falls

Little Fall Branch Falls

Morgan at Little Fall Branch Falls

After hiking back to the car, we drove farther down the mountain towards I-40 to check out the swimming hole. The map was perfect and we found it with no problem.  We parked the car and waded around the pool for a few minutes before heading back up the mountain for lunch and nap time.

Small swimming hole off of Cold Springs Creek Road, Harmon Den

Today Morgan and I drove to Hot Springs again to do another hike.  This one was a bit more

ambitious than the Laurel Creek walk of two days ago.  While only 1.6 miles long, the Lover’s Leap Loop ascends some pretty tough switchbacks for the first half of the hike.  Morgan was really strong and made it all the way up to the top without being carried once!

The views from the top were spectacular–looking down on the French Broad River and Hot Springs far below.  The climb down was also steep, but the trail finished with a long flat stretch along the river.

Here are some more pictures from the hike:

Big Rocks...Lover's Leap

Morgan at the French Broad River

Summit of Lover's Leap

Kate and Morgan at Lover's Leap