A Trip To Blowing Rock: Part One

The month of October, for us, has been the "month of mountains". And it's not over yet...we are going to South Mountain next Friday...and then we are going to be going to Atlanta and hiking Stone Mountain as well. That's a lot of moutains!! The mountain featured in today's post is The Blowing Rock, which is in Boone and part of the Blue Ridge Parkway. 

It was a long ride.

We ended up getting a little lost, even with a map, a printed sheet of directions, and a GPS. 

view from the visitor center window

Now Mama made promises of delightful weather. Either she was wrong, or the weather man was wrong, or everyone was wrong, because it was BITTER cold. Like in the 30's with high gusts of wind. And guess who forgot their coat? Hmmm...me. Thankfully one of the boys had brought their blanket on the ride, so I walked around with my little brothers bedding. Got some odd looks, but other than that it was ok. (Really odd looks, especailly on main street. It's not everyday you see a girl walking around in a blanket).

It was SPECTACULAR up there, WAAAAAY better than atop Crowders Mountain!

Care :)

The excellent observation deck. And oh, we ran into some people who used to go to church with the Rushings!!!! A small world eh?

I would have loved to have eaten lunch up there

They had made such a pretty little garden area at the top, it was so colorful :)

a little path

Mum :D

Grandma :D

I would have bought this adorable tree I found in the gift shop but it was $12...a little high for me :P

gift shop favorites

On the main street we stopped by a little tea and spice store, which I loved! It smelled so good in there :) Plus it was warm. The had very unique salts, and spices, and teas-they even had powdered vanilla, which was white. I've never even heard of powdered vanilla. It smelled super strong.

We bought a little bit of fudge, which was really good. It was neat-the shop had windows so you could watch them making it. 

I wish that this funny photobomber wasn't out of focus! 

un-interupted sidewalk on mainstreet

And this is already a huge blog post. I have several more photos, but I'll do another post later since I have stuffs I have to get done today. Love you much!