Color Season

I love how aptly the title "Color Season" reflects the actuality of October in the Blue Ridge Parkway and Pisgah National Forest. Last weekend, thanks to my parent's willingness to care for the kids, and my friend's parents willingness to host us in their amazing cabin, Tom and I were able to, along with countless other outdoor enthusiasts, drink in the colors of the mountain Fall. Friday afternoon we packed up the car (in one minute as opposed to the normal 1.5 days it takes when going out-of-town with the kids) and headed North. We were softly humming the much-loved Harrod and Funck:

Take me where them rolling hills
Can gather up and cure my ills.
Let me smell that long-leaf pine.
Here I come clear off a space,
Just don't for get my name or face
Before I get back down to Caroline.
Oh Carolina
Oh the greener hills
Beside still waters
Carolina I love you still

The drive was beautiful, and the coming darkness heightened my enthusiasm for what we'd see when we awoke the next morning. We pulled into Brevard around 7:30 and went straight to the Hobnob - a restaurant where my friend Caroline had found a coupon for $22 off our meal! Hubry had lamb and I had their signature Tomato soup and Cesar salad (which was the first time I had ever eaten a warm salad where the lettuce had been charred on the grill for a few seconds on each side). Surprisingly, it was an absolutely delicious flavor explosion!

We arrived to Gina and Jim's house late - close to 10:00, but they were waiting up for us with tea and ginger snaps. They quickly showed us to our room - where they had a perfectly made bed and carefully lit candles waiting for us - so sweet!. We slept like logs - in spite of an early morning yard-sale going on outside, and didn't wake until after 8:30. Sleeping in is one of those long-lost arts - you forget how healing and rejuvenating it can be.

Helen and Luke had told us of a local bakery of world-wide acclaim, Bracken Mountain Bakery, and we enjoyed a delicious chocolate croissant, cream-cheese danish, and pecan roll. This was just what we needed to fuel our 6.5 mile hike. Looking Glass was a really relaxing afternoon hike (not that it didn't require work, but just that we had no other appointments to be concerned with). When we got to the top, Hubry took an apple out of his backpack and accidentally dropped it. We watched it gain great momentum in seconds and felt simultaneously thankful that we didn't have the kids with us on this one!





It was an amazing, colorful view. We sat on top of Looking Glass for somewhere close to two hours enjoying our marriage journal (it was actually started as letters between us when we were just dating). It was a lot of fun to remember our early love days and all that engagement angst. I am so thankful to have been married to Tom for almost 8 years now, and to remember God's grace to us through the years!

That night we were pretty beat, so we spent a quiet evening sipping tea and enjoying fellowship with Gina and Jim in front of their cozy fire. We loved seeing their life and getting to know our friends Helen and Luke better via spending time with their parents (who absolutely adore them!)

The next morning Gina prepared a breakfast of pancakes, sausage, and apple / blueberry compote (it was totally the best B & B experience we've ever had). After thanking our hosts profusely, we headed out to the Blue Ridge Parkway to hike around Black Balsam and enjoy the windy view from atop the Balds. I absolutely loved this hike - rolling hills and mountain tops as far as the eye could see, blowing blades of mountain grasses, stark trees with only red berries left clinging on the branches. It was breathlessly beautiful.









We drove home in the afternoon sun, stopping once at a roadside stand for apples (which we've been eating for breakfast, snack and dessert). My parents said the kids were delightful, and they even slept in until 8:30 the first morning (which they have literally never done before). They had such a good time they agreed to do it again in the future. :)