What's Sam Serving?

What a wonderful weekend I had! We (Brad, Chuckie, Robert, Whit, Greg and I) left Greensboro around 7:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, headed for Beech Mountain, N.C. One of Brad's clients gave us use of a cabin for the weekend. This is the view from the cabin's deck. Nice, huh? After we got settled in and a some soup and sandwiches for lunch, we headed out to Grandfather Mountain. We stopped at Fred's General Mercantile for some supplies and I got some hiking shoes, too. Then we hurried off to Grandfather Mountain, where the entrance fee was *cough* $14 per person. (It's entirely worth it!)

We started at the museum and saw many exhibits of flora and fauna and tons of rock specimens. (I loved the rock and mineral displays. I've been into rocks for about 30 years.) We then headed over to the animal habitats. They're very nicely done, with better views than some of the exhibits at the NC Zoo. One of the Bald Eagles was being a bit vocal. The otters were snoozing in a pile. The cougars were a bit active; one of them was fairly close while drinking from the pond. The deer (right next to the cougars - go figure!) were hunkered down. As a matter of fact, the coolest thing in the deer habitat was the little chipmunks running around, putting on a show. They're adorable! The star attractions were in high form, though. The bears were active 'cause the staff were putting peanut butter on toys and on acorns and throwing them to the bears. Neat bears.

We headed on up the mountain to the "Mile High Swinging Bridge" and that was the high point (pun intended) of the trip. Most of us crossed over the bridge and the views there are breathtaking. Brad and I went even further to the other side of Linville Peak and it was awesome. I now want to climb a more remote mountain to have time alone in that kind of space. It gives me chills just remembering it. We stayed awhile and then moved down the mountain to a cliff that had more great views and there we had a few group pictures. A little further down, we went to a bluff that had very few people around. We climbed the rocks there and took more photos. I really enjoyed my time on Grandfather Mountain and look forward to going again. (I'm also glad I got my "billy goat" shoes so I was more sure-footed climbing around on those rocks!)

On the way back to the cabin, we stopped at Fred's again and picked up a scary movie (White Noise - kinda scary, certainly interesting) for later that night and a pumpkin to carve into a jack-o-lantern. At the cabin, we started cooking dinner and gnoshed on snackin's. Greg designed and carved our jack-o-lantern. We watched movies and talked and ate and talked and talked and talked. I went to bed around midnight. (and turned on my white noise machine!)

Awaking in the early morning to pink and lavender skies silhouetting the trees was memorable. We slept with the blinds open and opening my eyes and seeing that view (though fuzzy; I am about blind...) was inspiring of a special kind of serenity that only happens for me in the early morning. I'm glad I awoke to experience it.

After we had a bit of breakfast, we packed up and cleaned the cabin. We headed out about 10:30 a.m., dropped off the movie and went to a neat little diner for a real breakfast. Our poor waitress was the only one there. No one else had shown up for work! (Apparently, they'd all been partying quite hard that night...) She took great care of us and we feasted well. We headed out to Blowing Rock for a quick bit of shopping (I didn't buy anything! Can you believe it?) and then we headed back home to Greensboro.

Ya know, writing it out, this trip seems so short. Still, it was exactly what I needed and I'm so glad we got to do it.

Pictures from the trip are here.