Fourth of July in the Mountains

 July is a great time to get away the heat and venture up into the mountains. We found a cute little AirBnB and escaped for a few days. Our cabin was outside of Newland, NC, in an area called Gingercake Mountain. But on our way out, we wanted to go tubing down the New River, so we took a long route to get there.

We stopped in a cute little town called Elkin and

did some shopping in their downtown stores.

Passed a tractor cemetery.

Also saw some wild turkeys in the forest 

while we were driving.

Can you see them up there?

We booked our tubing adventure through

Dusty Trails Outfitters.

We used them before.

Their prices are fair, but the amenities at their

place are minimal. Outhouse and a janky changing room.

The tubing was FANTASTIC!

We do the two-hour float and it is perfect.

The water is cool, but not uncomfortably cold.

Care Bear hopped out of her tube a few times.

You know, sometimes you just need to do the splits!?

Andrew and I were tied together.

And the girls were tied together.

But sometimes we'd end up pretty far away from each other.

So happy these two get along so well.

Some cool rocks in the river.

After we got changed, we headed down toward Newland.

We drove through Boone, so we stopped at 

The Come Back Shack, a restaurant recommended by Toni.

It was awesome!

A new family favorite that we hope to revisit soon!

I thought this was the funniest name:

"Old Toe River Rd"

Our cabin is cute! I forgot to take a picture. The outside is nothing great. But the inside is really cute. And it was comfy and perfect for our long weekend. 

We went to church in Morganton.

It was the nearest church and was forty minutes away.

Sheesh. That's what you know you're in the boonies!

The girls had this couple as their Sunday School teachers.

Their son, Lance, and his wife, Brooke, are in our ward back home!

Such a small church world!

Stopped for a quick pic at an overlook on our drive home.

Those forty minutes of driving are GORGEOUS.

Sunday was a great day to do a puzzle with Whit,

We did my new bird puzzle that Andrew got me.

High quality!

This was the view off of our porch.

Very rural!

Our neighbor across the street had lots of 

birdfeeders, so that was fun to see some mountain birds.

When it was time for the sunset, I drove back to that overlook.

It was a SPECTACULAR sunset and so worth the drive!

I even made a friend while I was watching.

She told me all about the Brown Mountain Lights,

a paranormal mystery that she has witnessed not

once but TWICE in her life. Spooky!

On Monday morning, we got up and found a

nearby geocache.

Then we drove on a sketchy gravel road

to Wiseman's View. It rained a lot on Sunday

and there were some areas that made me nervous.

When we got to the parking lot, all the other

cars were jeeps or big trucks.

So proud of my little Mazda for hanging in there!

When you get to the parking lot, 

it's a short walk down a paved trail to see this...

What the heck?

SO GORGEOUS.

Oh, I love the rolling Blue Ridge Mountains!

Always looking for birds!

And saw a few more rhododendrons up there, too.

After taking in Wiseman's View,

we drove back up the sketchy road and

got to do another short hike to Linville Falls.

Cute little waterfalls.

Whit always likes to dip her toes in the water. :)

After relaxing at the falls for bit,

we drove over the Linville Caverns,

where we'd never been. They have timed

entries and we had to wait about half an hour.

Dubs and I explored the little nearby creek.

When it was our turn to go in the cave,

we loved it!

Lots of cool formations

Our tour guide was funny and entertaining.

Isn't that cool looking?

Kinda reminds me of Slime, the ghost from Ghostbusters.

Bacon

They were SUPER strict on mask-wearing.

We loved our tour and would totally do it again.

They also have a great, reasonably priced gift shop.

I think my parents had an egg like this

when I was growing up.

Two thumbs up!

We also found a couple more caches in the area.

My parents gave us a cool geocaching stamp,

so now we look really professional when we 

put our names into logs. :)

The mountains are so lovely!

After that active morning, Andrew wanted to go back

to the cabin and take a nap. I'm all about fitting as much

fun into vacations as possible. So, we dropped him off and

the girls and I headed to another nearby town called Crossnore.

They had a really cute 4th of July celebration.

We had fun looking at the little maker booths.

But the most hilarious part was the 

FROG JUMPING CONTEST.

Y'all. It was an experience.

We missed the beginning, so we're not sure of all the 

details of how it works. But they keep a whole lotta

frogs in a big old tub. Kids wait in line. When it's your turn,

a firefighter fishes a frog out with red solo cup.

He puts it on an X in the middle of a big chalk circle.

Then he says "GO", lifts up the cup, and the kid

uses a feather to try to "tickle" the frog out of of the circle.

They time it and the the kid with the lowest time wins.

The prize is a four-foot-tall trophy!

It's nuts.

Some frogs don't really want to leave that circle.

And some of the frogs were BIG.

The part that was super confusing is that we later

saw people walking around with frogs in those red

solo cups. They keep those frogs? What do you do with it?

After scratching our heads over that,

we went back to the cabin and got Drew.

When you stay WAY out in the boonies, your

choices of restaurants are extremely limited.

We ended up getting dinner at a little "grill"

inside of a convenience store. Ha!

It was actually pretty good and decent prices.

Whitney found a fun soda: Dr. Enuf???

After dinner, we were off to Sugar Mountain Ski Resort.

We had never been there, but you can ride the lift to the

top and watch the fireworks from up there. Doesn't that

sound awesome? I didn't take into account Andrew's 

fear of heights. It was SCARY riding up there.

The girls and I loved it.

They had never been on a ski lift.

When we got to the top, we found a spot to sit and 

started playing Heads Up on my phone. We came

unprepared. Everyone else up there had blankets,

chairs, and snacks. We just had ourselves. :)

And as we kept watching the clouds, we were

totally afraid we were going to get rained on.

So we bailed!

We were the only ones who got on the down ski lift.

But look how ominous the sky was!

And then the most magical thing happened.

The fireworks started WHILE WE WERE

ON THE SKI LIFT!

We were right there in the sky by them.

Oh, my gosh. It was unforgettable.

And then we watched the rest of the show from

the bottom of the mountain with other families

who didn't take the ski lift.

It was still a great show down there, too.

And I love driving home on the night of the 4th of July and

seeing all the random fireworks along the way. Awesome.

The next morning, we checked out of our cute Gingercake house and drove up to Banner Elk. We wanted to do the Alpine coaster there again.

So fun!

We bought the three pack of rides.

On the third try I FINALLY went down without

using the brakes the whole time. It was SCARY.

But fun.

Destinee and some of her kids met us there

from Asheville. We hadn't seen them in SO long.

Kinda too long for the teenagers.

They used to be so cute together and they

were kinda awkward this time. :/

We stopped for lunch in the English Pub there.

Hmmm...I've eaten at lots of pubs lately...

I got the soup, salad, and cheese.

Look at that giant cheese wedge!

Not what I was expecting.

But I still ate it all...

Had fun walking around the cute

shops in downtown Blowing Rock.

This bird store had a fun photo spot 

with all these light-up windchimes.

It was good to see our cousins, even if it was a super short visit.

One little stop along the Blue Ridge Parkway

on our way home, even though the sun

was too bright for a good selfie. Ha!

Until next time, you beautiful mountains!