The Last Hurrah of Summer 2019

fishing in the stream on our property

Every year, we try to do something new so this summer we planned our inaugural trip to North Carolina (for me and the kids).  We have heard so many wonderful things about the Highlands area, and decided an extended weekend there would be the perfect trip away from the humidity of Alabama in August.  After doing some research, we realized that the area is very dog friendly, so we rented a house and brought Beckham with us.

We left Thursday morning, and arrived that afternoon in time for all of the kids to fish for awhile at our rental house while I got us unpacked and settled.  Of course, Steve had to be there to help Walker with bait and casting, but they had a blast, and even had some luck!  Beck enjoyed running all around the property, and playing with the neighbor's newfoundland, Samson.  That night, we drove into Highlands and had a great dinner at Wild Thyme (all of the kids tried calamari for the first time, and liked it!).

Friday morning, we woke up and had a lazy morning sipping coffee and relaxing on the screened in porch.  After breakfast, we hiked Glen Falls at the foothills of Highlands.  It was beautiful, and a little challenging considering the second mile was uphill!  After our workout, we drove towards Franklin, NC to hit a gem mine that got great reviews from our friends.  The kids each got a bucket of sandy soil, and were taught how to mine and tell what stones were worth keeping.  At the end, they each chose one of their best stones and had something made.  Bennett had a cross pendant made from a rose quartz, and the boys both got arrowheads made from tourmaline.  After that adventure we drove into Cashiers and had a very late pizza lunch.  We then returned to Highlands to hit a couple stores.  When the kids were settled and happy with their ice cream snacks, Steve and I escaped to Old Edwards Inn for a cocktail on their porch.  All parties were pleased with our first full day in NC, and it wasn't even over.  We headed back to our house, where Steve took the boys fishing again, while Bennett and I relaxed on the porch.

showing off their loot!

Walker found a caterpillar

On Saturday, we got up with a plan to get wet!  We first went to Silver Run Falls.  It was a short hike off the road to another great waterfall with a small pool of water that the kids could get in, if brave enough. There was no doubt the water was freezing, but Pres was the first one brave enough to jump in, with Walker to follow and even Bennett waded into it!  The stones all around the waterfall had silver flecks in it, making it quite pretty.

Since the kids were already cold and wet, we loaded up and drove down the road to Sliding Rock.  There was quite the crowd already there, but the kids quickly got in line for their turn. They even convinced Steve to go down!  It was pretty cold from what I understand (I was a baby and didn't venture into it).  After drying off, we went home to get the kids changed and drop off Beckham since it was raining and we couldn't leave him in the car with the windows up.  We then drove back into Highlands and ate a late lunch/early dinner at Ugly Dog Pub.  It was a low key night for our family that night.

Sunday, we got up and headed to the Aerial Park for some new adventures!  The big kids and Steve did
some ziplining, and Walker did the Brave Indian course with moving bridges, platforms and two smaller ziplines.  I watched from below, but seeing how much fun everyone was having made me regret not being apart of it all.  Walker started off a little timid, but got braver and braver, and ended up doing the course faster than when he started and did the ziplines without hands.  After they all finished, we headed back to the house to eat lunch and pick up our furry friend.

We then ventured towards a couple of waterfalls that we hadn't stopped at yet, Bridal Veil Falls and Dry Falls.  Both were pretty, and ones that we could go underneath, but Dry Falls was pretty spectacular.  Since it was raining some, we hit the stores in Highlands again to escape it until it stopped.  Before heading home, we went back to Glen Falls to hike a different trail.  It was more like a jungle, and NO ONE else was hiking it, so we let Beck off his leash.  We went about a mile out before we turned around, and boy were we all muddy.  We all needed to shower, including Beck, and after we did, we cuddled on the sofa and watched a movie together.

Look at his smile!

Bridal Veil Falls

Side view of Bridal Veil Falls

Dry Falls from afar

Dry Falls (from the side)

Selfie in the jungle

On our final full day, we wanted to do something different.  So after a little research, Bennett and I decided to go horseback riding on top of the mountain in Glenville.  About a mile away, was a great lake where the boys could go fishing (it was in fact the highest lake east of the Mississippi).  Though B and I had some rain, we had a blast!  The boys caught fish. and Walker even learned to cast by himself!  The boys and girls each had time to bond so a win-win was had by all.

After we all finished, we decided to try hiking a new area that we had heard about - Whiteside Mountain!  Since we arrived later in the day, and the parking lot was fairly empty, we tackled it with Beck off a leash.  We heard it was a 2 miles, and everyone successfully did it without complaining!  The views from the top were gorgeous, and it was a wonderful trail that we would definitely repeat.  With all of the fun that we had, we worked up an appetite.  Since we had Beckham with us, we needed another dog-friendly place, but we found yet another restaurant that loved on our puppy while we had a great meal, Bistro on Main.  Since it was raining, they allowed us to even sit in the bar with Beck, and he was a perfect angel who slept under our table. 

That night, we watched a movie and just relaxed before heading back home.  We all discussed what we loved, and decided that we will definitely need to return!  Thank you Highlands/Cashiers for another memorable family vacation!

Put the bait on by himself, casted it and caught a fish!

Wonderful view from the top of Whiteside

Beck had the time of his life!

Visiting Poppy Again

Knowing that my father's health is only declining, and somewhat quickly lately, I made plans to go visit him before school started back and our crazy schedule began again.  With Bennett away on a mission trip, I only took Preston with me.  I had to prepare him that Poppy doesn't "talk" anymore.  He can string words together, but they don't usually make sense, and he speaks so quietly, it is really hard to even hear him most of the time.

As soon as we landed, we went straight to visit him.  He was wandering around like he usually does.  He smiled and recognized me,

but quickly faded back into his world.  He is so slumped over, and shuffles around.  We tried to communicate with him, but he was a little agitated.  Once we got some lunch in him, he was a little better.

After we left, we went to get some lunch and then went to play golf at CCP.  I was playing incredibly well (which is usually the case when I only play once a year).  Sadly, a rain storm blew in on hole 3 and the torrential rain was not letting up.  So we headed back home to change out of our VERY wet clothes.  That night we grabbed dinner out, and hit the hay early since Pres and I had been up since 4:30am.

Monday morning, we got up and went to play mini golf before we visited Poppy!  Nene beat us both, but it was a beautiful morning (no humidity and a slight breeze).  Afterward, we headed over to visit with Poppy, and we took him out to enjoy the day.  Like most days, his buddies tend to hang with us (Dad is definitely the resident with the most visitors).

Pres loved playing the therapy games with the other tenants

Dad still knows mom and calls her by name every day!

Dad was trying to watch Pres

That afternoon, we went back out to the club to play golf.  However this time, I played like crap and Mom beat the stew out of me.  It was a beautiful day though, so I enjoyed it, and Pres had fun watching us play.  That night, Mom and Pres went out for Mexican and I met an old classmate for a bite to eat.  Roni and I have known each other since elementary school, so it was fun to get together and catch up.

On our last day, we went back to spend some time with Dad.  It is always sad to say good-bye, especially when I don't know when I will be back.  But the hardest part is knowing that he may not recognize me the next time I come back.  This disease is the worst.  It is so demeaning to the ones it affects, and so hard on the loved ones.  I love you Dad.

Camp Cosby Adventures!

Last Christmas, Nene and Poppy gave all of the grandchildren some special presents.  Our big kids chose a week at Camp Cosby.  They have always loved camp, particularly Camp Cosby due to the air-conditioned cabins and fun location on a lake.  Even though neither had a close friend to go with them, they both had a blast while there.

Bennett chose to spend extra time doing horseback riding like she has done in the past.  Though some of her time was spent doing less glamorous things...like cleaning stalls, brushing the horses, etc, she also got extra time riding the horses.  She didn't mind any of it though, she was just happy to be around the horses and learning more about them.  Bennett had a blast at camp, and met lots of new friends.  Though she hasn't gone every single year, she has attended camp now 5 or 6 times, and she has never been homesick.  Yay for camp!

Preston also chose to do a specialty camp....mini bikes.  He absolutely loved it, and came home

asking for a mini bike of his own.  We had to remind him that he can't ride those in Homewood.  He learned how to change the oil, start one and of course race them....which was the highlight of his week.  However, he also enjoyed wakeboarding and surfing, playing basketball and gaga ball and playing in the lake with new folks.

We knew that both of the kids would have fun and do great (barring any emergencies), so with Walker at "Camp Mimi," Steve and I decided to sneak away for a vacay of our own.  We flew in late Friday night, picked up Walker, and then headed to Cosby to get the big kids the following morning.  It was a fantastic week for everyone...we all got to do things we enjoy, and had enough separation that our hearts only grew fonder.  Thanks Nene and Poppy for the memories, and Mimi and Papa for keeping Walker!

The gang back together again!

Grand Cayman Getaway

It has taken us awhile to figure out how to maximize our time while the big kids are away at camp, but we FINALLY figured it out!  This year, while the big kids went to Camp Cosby for 6 nights, we sent Walker to "Camp Mimi," and we hopped on a plane to Grand Cayman Island!  Steve got bumped to first class (which he gave to me), and then got me bumped to comfort class (which he sat in), both of which have movies and cocktails flowing during the whole flight.  Needless to say, we were both feeling good when we landed.

1st Day

We started off heading straight to our place, where we immediately changed into our bathing suits and hit the beach with pina coladas.  We relaxed for awhile, and then hit the swim up pool bar where Steve made new friends and we continued to drink.  We went to bed early our first night, since we were going scuba diving the following morning.

Day two started with the dive company picking us up at 7:30AM. We were definitely tired since we awoke several times due to the roosters crowing way before sunrise. However, we powered through and headed to the yacht club where we loaded up with six other divers and two dive masters.  We had a short boat ride out...the water was SO blue.  We quickly arrived at our first dive spot....a deep wall dive.  We were given our instructions (no deeper than 100 feet), and down we went.  We swam through a small keyhole and then it opened up like in the movie Nemo....a deep drop down and wide open water!  In my head, I only planned to go 60ish feet, so I was surprised how quickly I went down to 92 feet!!  The wall was incredible!  The ocean continued to go deeper, much deeper, but we explored the area and all of the fish along the deep reef wall.  We even had a nurse shark come visit us.  Our next dive was a more shallow reef....where we weren't supposed to deeper than 60 feet.  It was an awesome morning.

Lunch with more chickens

After our dives, we walked to a restaurant and grabbed lunch.  On our way back, we felt a storm brewing in the air so we quickly made it back to our place.  The bottom fell out as soon as we got back, which was perfect because we were exhausted, so we took a nap.  That night we grabbed a delicious dinner, and walked home on the beach.

Day three, we slept in and decided to rent a car so we could explore the rest of the island.  Since the island is so small and there really aren't that many roads, it was very simple to get around.  We hit all of the hot snorkeling spots along the way, and had a great lunch at Kaibo.  We saw tons of starfish, a huge lobster and tons of fish at the three different stops we made (Starfish Point, Spotts Beach and Cemetery Beach).  In addition, we stopped at the infamous blow holes, and had to get a pic.  It was a great day exploring together.

Blow Holes

A phone camera in a bag didn't depict the clarity of the water, 

or the color of the fish and reefs

That night we drove up to the northwest corner of the island (that we had not visited yet and it only took 10 minutes), and grabbed dinner at a place that our divemaster told us about.  We sat outside and watched the storm out over the ocean.  While on the drive back, we noticed the Cayman Turtle Center that we wanted to learn more about.

One of the cool pictures that Steve captured of the lightening over the ocean

Day four, we got up and headed to the turtle center.  We didn't know what to expect, but we both love sea turtles and this place gave us the opportunity to swim with them.  We immediately went to the pond where we could and were so amazed.  We swam with them for a long time, and just couldn't get enough of the experience.  They were all mid sized and perfect.  In addition to the turtles, they have a cayman crocodile, barracuda, a couple of nurse sharks, and other various fish.  Lastly, there is a water slide, pool and a restaurant for those who really want to make a day of it.

Holding baby turtles....another highlight of the day!

"Smiley" the Crocodile

The whole place was awesome and a one of kind experience.  They have a huge breeding pond for the mature green sea turtles alongside of a protected beach where they can lay their eggs.  The trained workers then capture those eggs, label them and watch them closely until they hatch.  They protect the baby turtles, and then eventually they make their way into the various ponds.  When the turtles get to a safe size, they release them back into the wild.  Here are a few more pics of the facilities.

breeding pond and beach

hatchery

the cutest baby turtle (maybe 3 inches long)

postcard perfect caught by Steve outside our place

For our final afternoon and night, we chilled on the beach again (where all of the fun began), caught a beautiful sunset and grabbed a fabulous dinner!  Though our trip was only four nights, it was JUST what we needed.  We reconnected, relaxed and explored....three things that every marriage needs!  Grand Cayman exceeded our expectations.  It was so safe.  The people were kind, and the snorkeling and diving was exceptional!  We will definitely be back, and hopefully in a couple of years with all of the kids.