An annual getaway to the mountains is a beloved tradition for our family, dating back to our first fall in North Carolina. These trips have looked different over the years, from low-budget affairs in our first few years to extended-family (on both sides!) meet-ups and now, adventures with kids in tow. Our trips often center around Asheville, though we’ve visited other mountain towns like Boone and Blowing Rock, too. This year, we booked our trip in February, a few weeks before the coronavirus appeared on the scene. I am so grateful that we were still able to take this trip even with all the intervening uncertainty, and wanted to share a few photos and details with y’all today! 2020 is John’s 10-year anniversary with his company (wow!) and one of the rewards is a few extra days of vacation in their tenth year. Because of this, we opted to take off both Thursday and Friday instead of just Friday. And with an extra day, we opted to go an extra hour southwest of Asheville, to the lovely town of Highlands. John and I had been to Highlands once before, in the winter of 2012. We very kindly got to stay one night at the glorious Old Edwards Inn on a press trip for my work, and cobbled together the rest of the trip on a meager budget. Our big dinner out consisted of $2 cheese slices at the pizza shop around the corner and a free Dove bar apiece back at the Inn :) What I LOVE about the mountains, though, is that you can have a magical trip on a big or small budget. From that visit to this one, the things we loved stayed very much the same – gorgeous waterfall hikes, breathtaking views, lovely fall leaves, and