This is the college my daughter is going to in the fall. We just got back from a whirlwind mini tour of the whole area. The campus is lovely, tucked away in the Black Mountains of North Carolina. The college is very liberal arts based, the professors are awesome, the curriculum is great, worship is AMAZING, everything is perfect. Cept the whole her leaving me thing. That sort of become a tad too real....
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It's beautiful there, quiet and peaceful. The students look you in the eye and smile. Some even talk to you, without any hesitation. It's like another world. No wonder she wants to go....
After the Open House we went on a whirlwind tour of North Carolina searching for waterfalls.
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We found some. Alot. I would show you all of them but Blogger is really temperamental to me when I download pics and frankly, I just don't have the patience to deal with it... So here's a few.
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This is the bottom of Whitewater Falls, it reminded me of my favorite falls in Oregon, Proxy Falls. It's very large (411 feet) and we got to walk right down to it.
This is Bridal Veil Falls. You used to be able to drive your car under it but fortunately they closed the road so we got to get out and walk under it. It was really cool, as you can see we had a ton of fun playing in it.
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We spent hours trying to get to the top of Mount Mitchell on Saturday but the roads were closed so we got good and lost and found so many cool little streams and places to climb rocks...
The next day, Barry was DETERMINED to reach the top of Mount Mitchell since it's the highest point on the East Coast so on our way home he had mapped out a new route to get around the closures. Talk about the long and winding road! It's a little scary with all the twists and turns and ear popping but here we are, almost there....notice how balmy it is...and if you look out in the distant you may see the snow squalls on the peak....
We made it! The temperature dropped to 23 degrees and there was a swirling 50 mph snow storm but we made it! Brrrr... It was exhilarating!
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There was a mile or two hike to get to the actual peak but we were frozen so we decided this was close enough.
It was beautiful there. Silent. Still.
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Mmmm. Deep Breath.
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No sound but the wind through the frozen branches...
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We took the long way home (13 Hours!) Found another waterfall (Linville Falls) that we had to hike back in the woods another mile, fortunately it was a balmy 40 degrees at that elevation. It was awesome.
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Didn't get home til after 1am. Exhausted, elated and wondering how in the heck we covered all the mileage we did in just 4 days-- I'm sure Barry can tell you the actual but it was something like 10 hours getting there on Thursday, we left the open house early on Friday to do a bit of sightseeing so about 4 more hours there, All day Saturday-- about 12 hours then and of course another 13 on Sunday getting home. Our butts hurt from sitting in the car. And our calves from climbing mountains. It was so fun. Saw Lake Lure Hotel, the site of Dirty Dancing. (it was dirty.) Saw Looking Glass Falls, Chimney Rock, Thomas something Falls, played in the streams, wow.
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Came home to a broken water heater so no hot water. Had Meditation Night last night so had to get the house back in shape. Bathed outside my hot tub... but that's another story. It was a great night, met some new people who were wonderful. I'm a bit sketchy now though dog. Gonna go sit by my own little waterfall and feel the stillness of the mountains that I brought home with me. It was quieter there than any place I've ever been. I can still hear it.
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Listen.
1 comment:
Just lovely.
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