We settled into our hotel pretty quickly and then fell asleep. Of course, Jason and I both commented, that we felt the rocking sensation of the train even while in our still bed.
The next morning, when we woke up, we looked out our window to see what Greenville looked like. And this is what we saw out the hotel window.
We stayed in Greenville long enough to get some wheels and fill our bellies. Then off to the mountains we went! This part of our plan was not mapped out. We had some options. Either go to some waterfalls (that I knew of as a kid) right off the road in the Brevard/Highlands areas...or take a hike to a waterfall that Jason read about. Or, just enjoy the Blue Ridge Parkway west of Asheville. Regardless, the plan was to eventually make our way to Asheville for the night.
It was a quick drive to the mountainous part of North Carolina from Greenville. We had decided that we'd do Gorges State Park and hike to the Rainbow Falls. The Leapsters I bought for the boys had a camera accessory that I also purchased, thinking it would be fun for the boys to take pictures/videos on our trip! However, I had planned not to pull out the surprise Leapsters until we desperately needed them (like on the 14 hour train ride). The boys were doing great...so I hesitated even pulling them out. But we decided to go ahead and let them have them to take pictures while on our hike. It, however, may have been a mistake. I gave them to them just prior to reaching the mountains. Once we got into the seriously hilly/hairpin roads of the mountains, James said he didn't feel good. About 3 minutes later, Jack said, "my tummy hurts too." We pulled over on the side of the road (literally about 1 mile from the trailhead) to get the boys out of the car incase they were going to throw up (I thought maybe it was something they had eaten). We soon realized though, that BOTH boys were suffering from car sickness!!! They had been intensely looking down at their Leapsters and the non-stop twisting and turning on the roads just did them in! After a minute we got them back in the car, drove the 1 mile to the trailhead, explaining to them what car sickness is, and had two recovered boys a few minutes later.
The trail we were taking was a 1.5 mile hike to the waterfall. A 3 mile hike total. A bit ambitious with two little boys, but the day was beautiful, the trees were splashes of color everywhere, and the air was clean and crisp. We thought we'd attempt it at least. It wasn't until after the hike that Jason told me the trail was labeled as "strenuous." I'm glad I didn't know that ahead of time though, because I would have been hesitant to go with the boys, but turns out it really wasn't THAT strenuous. Just the last few hundred feet or so had a steep incline.
The hike was GREAT! The boys LOVED every minute of it. They stopped every few feet with a new find...acorns, bright leaves, rocks, sticks, squirrels, etc. We had creeks with logs to cross, trails leading to riversides, rock ledges to look out on, and ultimately the big beautiful waterfall at the end.
The hike took longer than we thought it would...we were well passed lunch time and were all ready for some grub! We lucked out and stopped at a place overlooking Toxaway Falls. The food and service was superb!
After lunch, we were Asheville bound. Jason had read about an art exhibit called Dinokinetics right on the outside circle of Asheville. We were going to be traveling towards downtown Asheville to our hotel, but thought if we were passing by the museum, we mine as well stop. The artist had created skeletal replicas of dinosaurs out of recycled metal. However, they were uniquely bound to allow flexibility. Cables were attached at joints and were programmed to move in various ways using a controller. So, the dinosaurs could be manipulated by the person viewing the art. We thought the boys would get a big kick out of seeing these dinosaurs. It closed at 5pm...but we were able to make it there by 4:30pm (which was the perfect amount of time to see the exhibit).
After viewing the Dinokinetic art, we got a bite to eat and then settled into our Asheville hotel downtown. We had not schedule our one full day in Asheville the following day. But were a little discouraged about the 70 % chance of rain we were supposed to get. We were sure we'd find something fun to do the next day though. And we did! More to come in the next blog!
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