The Smoky Mountains are aptly named for the foggish smoke that rises from the valleys; it can come and go within minutes.
When we arrived home to Bear Creek today we heard that our RV neighbor and friend Chris is a new Grandpa. He is so happy and Mom and baby are doing well. Congrats to all!
A new bundle of joy!
We were away for a couple of days. Driving through the Dupont Forest yesterday we walked a fabulous forest trail; Zuma loved it. I just wish so much we could let her off leash as she needs to gallop but we can't let her go (too many rules, too much wildlife and there are bear warnings everywhere) and she doesn't listen well about coming back to us. Still, we had two lovely strolls in waterfall land and covered a couple of hilly miles; there are 250 waterfalls in the area we learned. We saw Hooker Falls:
Triple Falls:
and Looking Glass Falls:
All are absolutely beautiful and serene. The photos are nice but they cannot capture the natural beauty, the soft sound of the cascading water. We went early in the morning and there were no crowds. Doug and Zuma explored a small waterfall on one of our hikes. Zuma doesn't like to get her feet wet but she enjoyed this quiet few moments with Doug. Z won't even trudge through a puddle (Come on Zu, there's water and snow in Denmark) but she humored us by checking this out:
We stopped in Hendersonville, a somewhat sleepy town with lovely shops and we enjoyed an excellent lunch at LIME LEAF (Thank you Trip Advisor, my go-to tour bible), an Indian restaurant with super reviews on Trip Advisor. The service was the best and so was the food! Zuma was treated to a fresh bowl of water, the waitress made us feel like royalty and we ate outside with many people stopping by to receive Zuma licks. 5 STARS for LIME LEAF, we can hardly wait to go back for lunch.
BEST. INDIAN. EVER.
We found a nice shop, ALL NATIONS; I found some super pieces of native artwork, including a Cherokee-made Dream Catcher for my cousin Sue, a beaded dream catcher for Emma and this:
pic of hummingbird
Then we drove on to Brevard and Flat Rock. Flat Rock is a landmark in the area, it is reputedly where the Cherokee and white men traded goods over a century ago. To be honest, it was a bit of a serious disappointment and not revered as it should be. I don't get it. This place has special spiritual energy and somehow somebody totally didn't get the significance of it. We checked the GPS, yep, this was the place. But they built a parking lot around the outcrop. Sigh.
Brevard is a really nice town and so is the town of Flat Rock. We feel truly privileged to have experienced three Springs this year; first in Savannah, then in Asheville, then up in the mountains. We couldn't have timed our travels better.
How cute is this for a town hall?
There is a huge complex in Brevard that is going to make national headlines like WEDGE someday. Staged in an old lumberyard, a brewery recently purchased the property and is starting an Arts Central much like Wedge has done in The River Arts District in Asheville. Still in the newborn phase, it's obvious this is going to flourish in Brevard.
I love how artists here are allowed to paint on buildings. I'm going to write a whole blog on this. This is absolutely outstanding artwork. I taught art and utilizing mostly unused muscles to paint in an upright position is definitely challenging.
We exercised Zuma (and ourselves) in the Pisgah Forest. If you've read the book COLD MOUNTAIN by Charles Frazier, you'll appreciate this area, parts of the movie was filmed here and the story actually took place here. It is breathtakingly beautiful. Isn't this an incredible wall painting?
There is also an original, old fashioned soda shop in the town:
Next time we visit I'm going for a malted milkshake!
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