North Carolina on my mind---------------

Well it is incumbent on me to post my vacation pictures on the blog.  Attrition keeps grabbing at me to neglect my blog.  It's been awhile.  I have been busy and lazy.  Here is the blog entry from our mountain getaway.

I hope the pics load OK I've used too much memory on this blog entry.
Click on the pics to zoom and hit escape to get back to the story.

  We stayed again ( as usual) at the Pisgah Inn.  It is a little expensive  but is our guilty pleasure to sleep well and spend time over 5,000 feet altitude.  Low 50's and in the clouds in early June

We did some hiking around the Inn.  The mountain laurels are blooming.

There is not much to do in the evening so we catch the sunset and go back to the restaurant at the inn for dessert.

 I get up before the dawn to stalk the sunrise.  Jean likes to sleep in.  This is called the Shining Rock wilderness for all of the quartz outcrops

Then after I get back about 9-9:30 from my dawn patrol, we walk over to get our free breakfast at the inn.  During the day we go into Asheville or exploring.

looking glass rock on a clear day

Sometimes we just pull off the side of the road and explore.

this is a stream at the foot of Sam Knob where we spent several hours

Jean is drying off below after her swim.

We followed this creek along the road ( NC 215) for miles and pulled off when we wanted to explore and play.

We have a great time in the mountains together.

We enjoy it all  but I really enjoy waiting for the dawn more than Jean does.

  So here I am again back at one of my favorite overlooks on the parkway hoping the sun will peek through

As she sleeps I grab a few morning hours to satisfy my wanderlust.

On this morning I followed the rising sun along the ridge. As the sun rose I hiked  to stay just inside the shadow of Black Balsam ridge to remain in an extended sunrise. beautiful.

After following the sunrise along the ridge I sat on a cliff edge to enjoy my starbucks double-shot and some granola with my old friend Sam Knob.  Sam is a 6,000 foot bald peak also.

this is Black Balsam from the other side of Sam. If you look closely you can see a favorite spot of mine with a little gravel beach,  just above Yellowstone falls.

Lower Yellowstone falls.  Jean swims here, Casey too.
Get there early before it gets crowded.

After our hike we go back and sit on the porch before dinner (at the inn).  Jean feeds the birds and the chipmunks. and we peer out across a big valley.

Here is the view from the Inn you can just see the edge of our balcony on the right.

After a few days we left the Pisgah Inn and stayed near Hendersonville,  NC explore it and see some family.   I made Jean walk down this alley So I could capture the urban landscape.  We like Hendersonville.  good restaurants.

Hendersonville has done a great job with their downtown.

We capped off the trip with a paddle trip down the Green river Gorge.

thank you Jean, for another wonderful trip to the Mountains.

See you next year.