Family Vacation Part 1

Joel and I have been talking about going on a little getaway before baby #2 arrives in just a very short time (!!!!!!!) and realized that we haven't been on a non-working vacation since our honeymoon. We were excited to go somewhere with Ruthie before we become a family of four. Joel has really been wanting to go to the mountains for a while and he gave me a list of the things he wanted: a view, a fireplace, high elevation, and cooler weather ;-). As most of you know I used to work in vacation rentals, so this is where I take over. I started out looking at vrbo.com, homeaway.com, and then started on craigslist.

I started well before I got sick and Joel had taken off for last week back then also (so our vacation wouldn't get lost in all the stuff going on like it seems to always do). Then...I got sick and honestly didn't do anything, at all. The week before last, I contacted an owner I found off of CL, for a home that was 100% more than we expected and met all of Joel's criteria. If you're interested in the home, here is the website. We took a chance and made the owner an offer. He took pity on us and worked out a great last minute deal for us. One tip I have from working in vacation rentals, is always make an offer if you find a home you love and are ready to book it, if they tell you no, no big deal, but they may just tell you yes and you end up with a fantastic rental you want to come back to with your family over and over. We did have a monkey wrench thrown in with Hurricane Irene and the owner of the home was absolutely fantastic working with us as we changed dates, changed back, weren't sure if we could go at all, then left last minute. That is one of the really nice things about dealing with an owner directly over dealing with a large management firm.

The home was just outside of Boone and we loved the location. It was close to everything we were wanting to do and lots of parks. We learned someone LOVES the slides. Here is part one of the trip

The first day we were in the mountains we were fortunate enough to to have my parents and some of their friends nearby, so we met them at the Mast General store in Valle Crucis and then had lunch at the Ham Shoppe. The ham shoppe turned out to be one of our favorite spots to eat, we love love love sandwiches (just call us Joey). I of course, didn't take any pictures.

The next day we headed up to Grandfather mountain. We were really hoping to see lots of the animals they have there, but the otters were the only ones out. Ruthie LOVED them. They were a hit.

We went up to the swing bridge

walked up some of the rocks. took some pictures, and enjoyed the cool air!

That afternoon while Ruthie and I napped, Joel went back and did a 5 mile hike up the mountain which he loved.

That is the first part of our trip!