Enjoy our vacation! Thursday

Thursday:

This was our second day that we had with Hubby.  It was a different start, one that was much more laid back and went a bit slower than I'd have liked, but I wasn't too surprised.  That seems to happen when we don't have a specific place to go at a specific time.

Hubby hadn't been to breakfast with us except that one morning and, for some reason, didn't seem to be expecting the awful world of children and buffets.  They are a God send that have the curse of the parent getting up and down.  As long as both parents are getting up and down, it's not too bad, it's when one parent is the sole plate filler, drink filler, fork getter, napkin refilled.  You get the idea.  Hubby is pretty good about it though, it's one of those things that I think many moms end up doing without asking the dads to do.  I'm not one of them and have no problem asking for help.

So Thursday we decided we would go on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Not going on the Blue Ridge Parkway when you are 15 minutes from it is just plain wrong.  It's a beautiful drive with occasional spots to get out and hike or have lunch.

Visitor's Center, meaning you could find out where you wanted to go and buy stuff.  Monkey got a stuffed animal skunk he lovingly named Stinky.  Sunshine got a pair of binoculars that she's been asking for for about 2 years.

Sunshine and the new 'noculars.

Our standy-by lunch of PB&J

Trail head.  Unfortunately we were about 2 weeks too late to see all of the flowers, but it was still very pretty.

Bug loves being carried around but then again, who wouldn't want to be carried around with a view 66% higher than what you normally are able to see.

Nice hiking trail.

I was quite impressed with my children.  There were bees everywhere at one point you could hear the bees better than you could hear the person ahead of you and the kids were quite calm.

Sunshine and Monkey.  Sunshine didn't want Monkey touching her and getting this picture wasn't easy.  Please enjoy it.

Absolutely gorgeous field of black eyed susans.  We found out later that we weren't supposed to be back there.  Oops, it was beautiful though.

We got back to the Craggy Gardens visitor center as it started drizzling.  Within minutes there was an absolute downpour.

Bug was sleeping in the car.  We jumped out and had our picture taken.  We also took another couple's picture.  Monkey decided that he also wanted to have his picture taken with them and went over and took hold of the lady's hand.  She thought it was so cute and wanted to have the picture taken with him in it.  When we asked him why he wanted his picture taken with those people, he simply responded, "Because I like having my picture taken."  Fair enough.

That evening we took the advice of some of the fellow conference goers and ate at a pulled pork place called 12 Bones.  I love pulled pork but for some reason I wasn't in the mood for it.  He talked me into it and we drove to some obscure location and saw this rinky dink little restaurant with a parking lot 3 times the size of the building.  The parking lot was packed and the line went around the corner of the building.  Apparently many people are told about this place because there were license plates from all over the US, including TX, NY, OH, IL, FL.  There was some other car that had a license plate I didn't recognize.  It was one of those longer plates that I picture being in Europe although I think they are also in Canada.  All I can say is, "The food rocked."  The menu says that their food is good so that we come back and the prices are low so we come back often.  It was cheap and excellent.  There were sides that must be pretty popular in southern states and we were both at a loss as to what exactly what they were.  We decided that mac and cheese would be a good choice and it was the best mac and cheese I have ever had in my entire life.

Vicky