Fun in the Mountain Stream

We stopped to play in a mountain stream after our hike at Joyce Kilmer. Ben LOVED it! I thought he might be shy of the cold water, but he leaped in and immediately started tossing rocks. We tried to keep him dry, but that didn't really work out. He was all over the place, including submerged in the water. Even though he was shivering and chattering, Ben was very upset to leave.

Joyce Kilmer

On Monday we went over to the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. It is a very pretty primitive forest with some very old, very big trees.

Ben just enjoyed the scenery from the backpack

This picture is from 1983, at the same memorial...

Some scenery from the hike

Mr. Potato Head

One night we had steak and baked potatoes for dinner. A while after we ate, I went to get something out of the fridge with Ben on my heels. I wasn't paying much attention to him, but when I turned around, he had snatched a left-over potato out of the fridge and had taken a huge bite out of it! He ended up eating half of it right before bed. Silly little boy...

The Lake

One of the 'shacks' on the lake

The loud squaking goose on the lake
Walking up the path from the dock toward the house

The little cove behind our dock

The water is incredibly calm

The mountains surrounding the lake

The One Restaurant

There was only one restaurant within 40 minutes of the lake. It is at the end of the lake and is called Lake's End (creative name :) They had this burger beast thing sitting outside that Ben got a kick out of. The food was pretty decent, but it was really just a diner so pretty much everything on the menu was fried or grilled. But the burgers were pretty tasty...

There Is Secluded Wilderness and Then

There is Lake Nantahala! It is a very secluded and quiet lake. Most days we only saw a handful of other boats on the lake. There are probably only a couple hundred of houses on the lake, and it's a pretty big lake.

The little star was where our house was. It was on a little cove in the lake.

Here is a little video of the drive back to our house. It was a one lane (but not one-way!) gravel road. It took about 4 minutes to get back the house. We passed a handful of houses on the way back to ours.

Going Off the Grid

Well, we are going off the grid next week. We are headed to western North Carolina, near the Smoky Mountains, for vacation and it is pretty remote. No cell service and no internet. Ben is going to be devastated with no phone and no internet!

I'll Take You for a Walk

Ben is trying to learn to walk Monster:

Monster, this way

No, this way

Man down! And Monster just walks all over him...

Sand In, Sand Out

Put the sand into the bucket, and then dump the sand out of the bucket. Again and again and again...

Corn on the Cob

Fisher Price Day at the Zoo

Today we met with Kristi and Andrew at the zoo for Fisher-Price day at the zoo. They had Dora and all the Fisher-Price toys for the kids to play with. Ben and Andrew had a lot of fun playing with the toys and seeing the animals, too. The pictures all have a redish tint because the 'tent' was red.