Grandfather Mountain, NC

Wednesday morning, we said our goodbyes to Opa and set off for North Carolina. For those who may not know, I was born and raised in NC and lived there until my evil husband got a job transfer and we moved to Texas. We love Texas and know it is the best place for us right now, however, I still call NC home. It is in my heart and I love it there so very much. It is so fun to go back and visit our favorite people and see our favorite sites. We hit most of our faves. We had NC chopped bbq with bbq slaw. Yummo! We also had Cheerwine and Krispy Kreme doughnuts. The only thing I missed was Sweet Shoppe Bakery. Darn!!!

Thursday, we set out to go to Grandfather Mountain which way up off the Blue Ridge Parkway in Western, NC. We decided to go here for two reasons, one....we had never done it before and two....my best friend from my youth lives there with her family and we wanted to see them.

Grandfather Mountain is most famous for two things, the black bears and the Mile High Swinging Bridge. Luckily, the black bears are in fences and the swinging bridge was secured in the 90's and the rickety wooden bridge was replaced with steel. It was a beautiful day in the NC mountains and we had a great visit with friends.

Jackson with Mildred the bear. Thank goodness this one is stuffed.

Jackson and Juliana by the bear exhibit.

I think this bear is having a bad fur day.

Aren't they cute??? Can I please have one????

Jackson needs a mountain as his back yard. My Aunt Mary lived on a mountain and we always found plenty to do at her house.

They gave the bear blueberry syrup in the bottom of the trash can. It was fun to see them roll around with the cans. Then, it went rolling down the mountain. Not such a fun game for the bear anymore.

Juliana enjoyed spending time with Gracie.

Will

We made it to the top of the moutain. It was quite a bit cooler at the top. Gracie was a bit concerned about the height. They were all still excited to get to the bridge.

Adriane and me.

Love the view!

The bridge...

This is how high up the bridge is. It was actually pretty scary to cross. Juliana was the bravest in our family. She was a little disappointed that I wouldn't let her continue our to the mountain ledge that had not railing or barrier around it.

Jackson and Gerrit, We did it!!!!!

Gerrit is proving he did this. We were all very proud of him. He has a severe fear of heights so this was going way out of his comfort zone.

On the bridge. It was pretty far down. I tried not to look.

Adriane and her husband James.

Juliana posing for the bridge. If you look towards the top right, you can see the peak you can walk to and look out. People were going across the narrow, rocky ledge in flip flops. I told my kids they could do it someday when I wasn't there to watch.