30 October 2024
I have a discouraging number of half-finished posts in the queue, including at least one other travelogue (our summer trip to Michigan!)… but also no hesitations about bumping this one to the top. In my last post, I wrote that we’d canceled our trip to Lake Lure in the wake of Hurricane Helene and wouldn’t be traveling to the North Carolina mountains this fall. The whole family was torn up about this, but John especially so. Once the storm passed, he stewed over what to do for days: travel to the Lake Lure Airbnb and use it as a base to volunteer with a local organization, leaving the kids with family or friends? Cancel the Airbnb and head to the Virginia mountains? Stay home entirely? While we felt called to volunteer, our original rental was without power and water. And though we love the Virginia mountains, it felt wrong to bail on our beloved NC in her time of need. As the days passed after the storm, the messaging out of Western North Carolina became more nuanced: yes, some areas were devastated and not ready to receive visitors, though they coveted our aid (and would for a long time). Other areas, however, were open and ready for business – and, in many cases, desperate for it. Fall tourism dollars are incredibly important to these towns, and the blanket messaging of “don’t travel to WNC” had really hurt them. So, following NC’s travel advisory, we rerouted our trip to Bryson City. We had wanted to visit for years, but had stopped short of Bryson City, in the far western reaches of the state, in favor of the more accessible mountain towns of Boone, Blowing Rock, or Asheville. With those off the table, we happily drove a tad farther – a little
30 October 2023
Of all of our family traditions, our annual fall trip to the mountains just might be my favorite. Eep! I don’t know if I can say that… but there’s just something about these long weekends, where we get to spend uninterrupted time together, surrounded by beauty, exploring somewhere new, eating good food and enjoying good conversation, challenging our bodies and then experiencing true relaxation, that speaks to my soul. I think every other family member would agree. We had a beautiful, memorable trip to Boone and Blowing Rock this October, and I’d love to share a few photos and details, if you’d like to see! We often travel Thursday – Sunday for these trips, but since June had a Monday off in October, we skipped school on Friday and headed to the mountains first thing. Boone is about 3 hours from our home in the Triangle, so we arrived in time for lunch on a perfect blue-sky day. About a week in advance, John and I put our heads together for an hour or two and plotted out our weekend, making meal and activity reservations as needed. We had planned to eat lunch at Lost Province Brewing in downtown Boone, but unfortunately they don’t take reservations and reported an hour+ wait. Disappointed but not deterred, we trotted down the hill to Melanie’s Food Fantasy (where we had planned to go later in the weekend) and were seated at an outdoor picnic table after about 20 minutes. Delicious! It must be noted here, the parking in downtown Boone is atrocious. There are very few public parking spots or lots and no garages. Prepare for a lot of circling and pray for a little luck on a busy weekend. After lunch, we headed to our adventure for the day: the Wilderness Run
7 March 2022
An annual getaway to the mountains is a beloved tradition for our family, dating back to our first fall in North Carolina. As Asheville has become more and more popular over the last decade (and more crowded, and more expensive…), we have enjoyed branching out a bit to nearby mountain towns: Highlands in 2021, and last year, Black Mountain! We’ll always remember this trip as our first big adventure as a family of five (John and I to each other all weekend: we’re actually doing this!!), and for that reason and more, it was truly magical. I’d love to tell you about it and share a few photos today! And friendly PSA: if you’re considering an NC mountains trip this fall, right about now is when we like to book our stay! Things book up quite quickly for peak leaf weekends. Onward! Black Mountain is a small mountain town just a hair closer to the Triangle than Asheville (about a 3.5-hour drive for us). We loved that it has its own distinct culture, but is only 15 minutes from downtown Asheville (meaning we could still hit some of our ride or dies). We headed west right after school on Thursday, arriving in time to make a drop at our Airbnb and feed Annie before driving the three minutes into town for a late dinner on the patio at My Father’s Pizza. It wasn’t too fancy – your standard pizza and pasta joint – but it got the job done when we needed a quick crowdpleaser. As always, John did a fantastic job scouting our Airbnb. It had three bedrooms on the main level and even more room in the basement if we had needed it (though I’m glad we didn’t – it was sliiiiightly creepy, ha!). Perhaps our favorite part