I'm goin' to Carolina in My Mind

 

 

 

Cindy and I went to see Dene' and Tyler at Belmont Abbey in North Carolina and had a wonderful trip. They were our tour guides for a week of travel around the state.  We saw vineyards, orchards, mountains, turnip greens and boiled peanuts. We didn't get to the coast but that leaves us something to see for our next trip. We did drive through the town of Pinehurst where the US Open Men's and Women's golf tournaments will be played in 2014, in case you where wondering. Here is a photo log of our trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for flying Southwest.

 

We decided that North Carolina has the most trees we have ever seen, and the most clouds.

Welcome to Belmont Abbey College.

Beautiful church on campus.

 

 

 

 

An amazing adoration chapel at which we were able to spend time at for prayer, with glass walls and a gorgeous view .

 

 

 

 

We were able to visit Cindy's brother John (center) and had an impromptu visit with a local North Carolinian (far right) to pick pears, grapes and black walnuts along the way. 

Visit with Uncle Bill (Cindy's mom's brother), Daniel, Chris and Jessica.

 

Visit with Cousin Larry and Nancy.

 

Visit with Uta over lunch at Carlie's Southern Food buffet.

We hiked Crowders Mountain. The city of Charlotte is in the distance. Oh look...another cloudy day. 

The hike was a little over 5 miles round trip.  The stairs at the summit reminded me of Frodo and Sam's climb up the stairs!

Frannie got to come on the hike.

The gang.
 

We visited a vineyard and tasted the local brew of  muscadine  wine



Our tour guides.



This is the US Olympic Kayak Training Center just outside Charlotte. A man-made river that water is continuously pumped through to create rapids. The US National team was training the day we visited...pretty cool place.

Another day we drove the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway in the north western part of the state...part of the
Appalachian Mountains.

Yes, it was cloudy, but the views were gorgeous.



The colors were almost peak at this elevation.



A very cool Mount Mitchell.



Tyler and I hiked up to the observation deck while the ladies stayed down below and drank hot chocolate.

The cloud cover broke just enough to capture this picture from on top of the Mountain.

Dene' wanted to go to an orchard so we picked one that made hot apple cider and apple donuts...good choice.

We did buy some local apples...a lot of local apples!



 Southern delicacies.

And what do you do with 40lbs of apples?

  

Cut-slice-chop-cook

  

 

Apple sauce.

And a delicious pie!

 

We thoroughly enjoyed our time with Tyler and Dene' and look forward to our next visit. And wherever the Lord leads them next, we hope they are up for toting us around.

 

Good night.