Yesterday we got to see a different side to Asheville. We were pleased to find out that it is not all hippies, dred locks and full body tattooed people. There is also a very nice, suburban part of this beautiful city too. We got together with one of my college roommates, Gina and her boys. Her husband, Bill, met us all for lunch and then we got a small tour of the town and went to her house to hang out for a little while. The kids were so excited to have some other kids to play with. Halie and Caleb (6 yrs old) became instant buddies and played great together. It was fun to catch up with her a little bit. Tomorrow she is taking us on a tour of the Biltmore Estate, we have heard that it is incredible to see.

After we left her house we took a trip to the Arboretum. It was pretty, but we ended up doing more trail hiking than anything. Austin started out on Paul's back, but when the bugs started to attack we had to head back to the car for some bug spray and decided to give Halie a ride too, so they got to go in the stroller. Oh, by the way, did I mention that they are having a heat wave with the hottest days of the year so far??? We left Texas to get away from it, but it keeps following us!!!!

Today we decided to go hiking. We had heard about these great trails that lead to waterfalls with swimming holes at the bottom, so we decided to give it a try. It was well worth the 45 minute drive through the back country to get there. We had a gourmet picnic lunch of peanut butter (almond butter for austin) and jelly sandwiches, goldfish, carrots and grapes. Then we went to see the waterfall!

The scenery the entire day was breathtaking. I cannot imagine what this place looks like in the fall. Gina described it as "God taking His turn to show off."

All went well at the waterfall despite a tumble that was a little scary. Paul was carrying Austin and slipped on a rock and they both fell. Paul did a great job of getting Austin as gently to the rocks as possible before sliding a few feet away from him. Austin did a great job of wedging his legs up under a rock to keep himself from sliding any further. I slipped trying to rescue Austin (Paul was on his own) and whacked my shin against a rock. Austin walked away from it with a scrape on his forehead and was a little upset with Daddy. He sat in my arms crying and kept pointing at Paul saying "daddy, daddy", but wouldn't go to him. I think he was telling on him!

One of the other things we heard we needed to do was to drive the Blue Ridge Pkwy through the Smoky Mountains. So we set off to go check it out. Again, we have been very dependent on our GPS the entire trip and don't really have a clue where we really are most of the time. We knew there was a restaurant somewhere at the end of the Pkwy, but not much more than that. We had been driving for a while through winding roads, just trying to get to the road, we finally get on it and are about 15 miles into the drive and the gas light goes off, ok, we have 50 miles to empty. But then we just keep driving, thinking any minute we are going to see something that leads to the restaurant (we are all very hungry, and a hungry Mason is not a happy Mason). Oh, I didn't mention that it is raining, that is why Paul is the only one out of the car for the picture, and we have made it up to the cloud line, so the visibility is very poor, oh, and we are at the top of a mountain...somewhere...we don't really know where. I think you have the idea. Eventually, we decide to turn around, when we finally find a place to do that and pray that we have enough gas to get back down the mountain and find a gas station. I think I heard banjos playing at one point. Since I am writing this blog right now, we obviously found gas, and almost more importantly, and IHOP.

Now, Austin is finally asleep, after an hour of standing up in his pack-n-play jabbering and screaming (happy screams most of the time). Halie turned off her Itouch and is out and I am getting ready to join them. We have an early morning, we have to get moved out of the hotel and to the Biltmore by 9 am, which until tomorrow has been our wake up time (we are trying to stay on Dallas time for the trip). Goodnight.