October 2018

 For our 25th Anniversary, Paul reserved a cabin for a couple of nights for us in Chimney Rock, NC.  We drove up Friday after work and Saturday morning we got ready to hike up Chimney Rock, the mountain in the photo below, which we could see from our cabin.

 Now, we wouldn't climb the whole mountian. There's a drive that goes part of the way and then an elevator that goes to the "chimney".  But we were going to hike to to top of Hickery Nut falls and then to the base.

 On the Chimney

 Top of Hickery Nut Falls, which was seen in the movie, The Last of the Mohicans.

 NOT one of us!

 Our cabin.  We had the bottom rooms.

This was right behind our cabin.

 We'll have to stay at that camp ground sometime.

 The property managers built a bonfire each night when it got dark.

After our hike we decided to check out Bat Cave, NC.  Not much there but apple stands.  The bat caves are closed to the public.

The power had been out because of the storms and they didn't have any fresh cider!

 It's a good thing we had taken our hike on Saturday because this was Chimney Rock on Sunday morning.  If it weren't for the clouds you'd be able to see the chimney and the big flag.

 So we decided to walk around Lake Lure.

 And the Flower Bridge.

On the way home we stopped by the Carl Sandburg house.

 After Carl died in 1967, his wife and daughters packed up and left the house exactly as it was to the National Park Service.

 The park service was finishing up some restoration work and those are boxes of books waiting to be put back on the shelves exactly in the same spots that Carl had had them.

 He had a toaster next to the arm chair!  Guess he didn't want to walk to the kitchen to get his toast. :-)

This was Paula's bedroom. The only room in the house that they left as the original (the house was built before the Civil War by the treasurer for the Confederacy.).  Everywhere else they lowered the ceilings to conserve heat.

 Descendents of Paula's goats.