Asheville

Despite sickness (see previous post) we headed to Asheville for Fall Break. Of course, it's only break for Tracy now with Austin having a real job. Having to take vacation days for fall break sure is a drag (although the pay check is nice).

We drove Wednesday afternoon to Franklin NC, about an hour SW of Asheville. The leaves were generally just past peak, but in the lower elevations and certain sides of the mountains they were still at peak. Regardless, there was certainly more color than we get back home with all the pine trees.

Thursday we drove on Route 64 past a lot of waterfalls on the way back towards Asheville. A few involved short hikes (i.e., walks). This year Ainsleigh is too big for the backpack so she has to walk, which means we were limited in terms of distance and terrain. Here are some pictures of the waterfalls we found.

Below is Dry Falls. You can go behind the falls (although it's not entirely dry). Ainsleigh wasn't too sure about this (largely because of how loud it was) but she thought it was pretty cool once we ran behind. (you can click to enlarge some of the collages--like the one below--but not others--like the one above...?)

A nice picture of A & R. It's so hard to get them both still, looking, and smiling these days so this is the first good duo shot we've gotten in a while!

Whitewater Falls. This is right at the NC-SC border and is the largest waterfall east of the Rockies. Ainsleigh wants you to know there are 154 steps down to the second overlook.

We ended up going back to the fish hatchery we liked so much last year, since it was on the way. It was a minor miracle Ripken didn't end up in one of the tanks. He kept running full speed right for them (he loves fish).
On the way into Asheville we saw a few more waterfalls. Then we drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway for the final stretch and enjoyed some great views of the surrounding hills all ablaze in fall colors.

We had some drama at check-in, since it turns out hotels.com cancelled our reservation. I'm glad the kids and I were in the car for whatever happened when Austin found this out. Fortunately the manager was very nice and gave us the one un-bookable room he always keeps open for emergencies. Everything was full across town since this is a popular time to visit, so he really helped us out or we may have been driving back home.

Friday was rainy, so we went to the Health Adventure science museum we liked so much last year. Turns out last year was way better than this year. 95% of the exhibits were different (and worse). Oh well. We also went to the Colburn Earth Science Museum and Ainsleigh did a little picture scavenger hunt and then got to pick out a mineral at the end. Ripken was doing worse health-wise, so we went back to the hotel and--remarkably--everyone took a nap. I guess the kids are getting used to sleeping in close quarters!

It rained pretty hard overnight, but fortunately the rain gave way to sun and a very nice fall morning on Saturday. We went to the Western North Carolina Nature Center, which was our favorite outing last year, and it was just as nice as we remembered. If you are headed to or passing through Asheville with kids, we definitely recommend a visit! Ripken, predictably, liked the wolves the best.

They had a Halloween festival later in the day so they had lots of decorations. Ainsleigh liked this witch the best (we would have voted for the numerous pumpkins carved with all sorts of animals and critters). Bottom right is her winding her way through a hay maze.

We have a picture of Ainsleigh by this sign last year. This year she is the size of a northern water snake, and Ripken made his debut as a rough green tree snake or a southern hognose snake.

The petting area:

Riding the old tractor. Ripken thought this was fantastic and was not too keen on letting his sister have a turn.

After this we headed home. Having sick kids (especially Rippy) and being slightly sick ourselves made it a little tougher than we would have hoped, but we still had a nice time and hope to return again soon! And we can't wait for the kids to be big enough to go on some legitimate hikes! It made me very glad we went on that big hiking trip to MT, Grand Tetons, and Yellowstone when Ainsleigh was about 18 months and still backpack-able, since now it will be several years before we can do something like that again!