Asheville

We went to Asheville, NC for our Fall Break. The leaves were perfect, and the weather and mountains were fantastic. We had a little drama on the trip west, as we broke the portable DVD player 5 miles from home, bought a new one before we got to Greensboro, and were relieved to get to Asheville. Thursday we went to the WNC Nature Center. This was our (Tracy & Austin's) favorite activity of the trip. It used to be a zoo and is a really nice setting in the woods, and the trees were gorgeous.
If Ainsleigh were a snake, she'd be a Northern Copperhead (the jokes write themselves on that one).

The otter slide.
Fortunately, Austin didn't get us kicked out for taking some corn out of a corn stalk being used for decorative purposes to feed the "do not feed the animals" animals. And fortunately, they didn't stampede Ainsleigh, because they were pretty hungry and there was some definite head-butting going on.

Riding on an old tractor.

Ainsleigh kept her hands well out of reach from the turkey, because back in February when she saw a turkey she put her finger into the cage and...

(click to enlarge)

Although the wolves, black bears, cougar, bobcat, foxes, and coyotes were impressive, our favorite part was playing in the leaves.

We will definitely head back here the next time we're in Asheville!

On Friday it was a little rainy, so we went to a children's museum called the Health Adventure. They had a Curious George exhibit.

They also had a lot of health-related things. This was Ainsleigh testing her vertical jump (i.e., reach).

After the children's museum we went to the Colburn Earth Science Museum, which was in the basement of the same building. They had lots of interesting rocks, a mine that Ainsleigh "exploded," and here she is making her meteorological debut (she's looking across at the TV that shows her "doing" the weather--which she really did. "Today it is going to be rainy here in Asheville").

Saturday started off quite chilly. It was 44 degrees when we left our hotel. We bundled up the kids, strapped them in, and went on a few (short) hikes. The last time we did any extensive hiking with Ainsleigh she was 1.5 years old and about 15 pounds lighter. We logged one hike at almost 15 miles in Grand Teton. Additionally, now with Ripken we can't trade off who is carrying the backpack. Let's just say we didn't make it anywhere near 15 miles.

DuPont State Forest. First view of Triple Falls.

Ainsleigh liked throwing leaves into the water and watching them go over the edge.

Family picture at Triple Falls.
Then we hiked up to High Falls.

Not sure what the name of this falls was.

Cute picture of Austin & Ainsleigh
After hiking, we went over to Pisgah National Forest. They have a fish hatchery for stocking the rivers with trout. Ainsleigh said this was her favorite part of the trip.


She got so excited when the big trout would jump up for the food that the park ranger gave her a fish hatchery pin.

We had a great trip, and certainly hope to return next fall (if we're still living in the area). A few final fall images.