North Carolina Mountains: Day 4 - Blue Ridge Parkway, Pt 2

Continued from Blue Ridge Parkway Part 1.

As we were looking at a map of the local area to prepare for the trip, we realized we were not far from the North Carolina/Virginia border. Like most people, every member of my family tracks the number of states we have visited. Given that he is only 5, Luke isn't doing too badly with 5 states under his belt (Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Arkansas), but I thought it would be fun to add #6 since we were literally only a few miles away. And the best way to get to the state line? Back on the parkway! We headed north this time, and while I think the southern route we had taken that morning had more views, the northern route had some pretty nifty ones as well:



Again, it was only about 10-15 miles before we reached our goal:



And yes, I made Luke straddle the line, though you could barely see it on the road.



Once again, we headed back down the parkway to the cabin, this time for something I have been looking forward to for months. We knew the owner had a grill at the cabin (two, in fact, one propane and one charcoal). I honestly can't remember the last time my dad grilled, and I'm pretty sure it was Luke's first time grilling out (not that he ate any of what was grilled). My mouth watered at the prospect, and Papa didn't disappoint. YUM!



There were numerous supervisors on the posts of the shed that we tried hard not to disturb:



And DH helped keep Luke occupied:



Until the food was ready. Dig in!



We still needed to kill some time before the evening's planned entertainment, so we went inside and taught Luke how to play Uno. He caught on very quickly, and we all had a great time.



Then back outside to have a little nighttime fun:



I thought these were just longer sparklers, but they are actually something called Morning Glory, which was a bit like a sparkler with a little tiny bit of "pow" action (not sure what else to call it) in the middle. They were a complete pain to get lit, but once they did, Luke loved them. (Video in tomorrow's post.)



A most excellent ending to a truly great day in the mountains!

Currently feeling: shiny