We made it! We started our journey Friday afternoon leaving Mt Juliet behind us. It was a teary goodbye to the house that had given us so much but we set out to enjoy a mini vacation in one of our favorite cities--Asheville, NC. Lucky for us it's almost exactly halfway between Nashville and our new home in Goldsboro, NC.
We've spent the 2 nights exploring downtown and hiking off the Blue Ridge Parkway. Chase and I have been to Asheville twice, the last time being last summer. Both times we have explored and hiked the Parkway and eaten at one of our favorite places, The White Duck Taco Shop. If you ever go to Asheville you should eat there. It's awesome and they now have one downtown. The original, and the only one we've ever been to, is in the River Arts District, also a cool area. Going with kids this time certainly put a new spin on the trip but we still had a great time, just not nearly as relaxing as the past 2 trips!
While these aren't the greatest pictures, I love how sweet they look. And when did Emory grow up?!?
Every Friday night, at least in the summer, Asheville has a drum circle in the park downtown. It's very eclectic and interesting to say the least. Asheville is a very "free" city and great for people watching, as you can see from the pictures. I thought Emory would ask more questions than she did but I think she was just trying to take it all in! Gavin LOVED the drums and was not happy about being strapped into his stroller.
As I mentioned before, we spent Saturday on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The drive in itself is gorgeous, but there are so many beautiful places to hike. We did 2 different trails. The first one we have done twice before. It's about a 15-20 minute hike along a path through the woods. It's located at mile marker 417. You can't miss it because it's right across from an overlook stop called Looking Glass Rock. The second was called The Devils Courthouse (the last picture). Folklore says it's where the devil held court, hence the name. It was a 20 minute hike from the overlook parking lot, up a very steep paved path to continue up on a gravel path. On a clear day you can see 4 states--we saw 30 feet in front of us, if that! Being up that high makes me dizzy (I don't do heights) but I love seeing the world from there so I simply stay away from the edges!
This is just part of the drive. I was trying to take it all in and take mental pictures. Honestly, these pictures don't do it justice. What I love about these pictures is that you can see the parkway winding through the mountain. We made a game out of the drive. There are 25 tunnels along the parkway in North Carolina. Chase told Emory it was a rule to hold your breath as you passed through them. Gavin liked that we rolled down the windows and honked the horn. He kept asking daddy for more!
Sunday afternoon we rolled into our new home, Goldsboro, NC, and the craziness began. We are currently living in furnished living so we only have about 1/20 of our stuff. I never realized how much crap we had until it had to be moved. When we arrived the movers where there and had already unloaded all of our temporary stuff to the landing by our apartment. I took the kids and went to get lunch (I think Chase had the better deal staying with the movers)! We haven't really stopped since we got here which is helping distract me from the fact that we don't live in Nashville anymore. I've spent the last 2 days unpacking and trying to organize and we've made a conscious effort to spend time together as a family. We went house hunting this afternoon and tonight we all went to the pool to let Emory practice swimming. Anyone who knows my oldest knows she is cautious to say the least. I want her to love the water but have a healthy fear--cautious but not petrified. We are finally getting to the healthy fear and she is learning to swim and trust her ability to do so!! So proud of her!
I feel like we have been here a week and it's only been one night!
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