Cherokee salad

We stopped at a restaurant in Cherokee one day for lunch called The Princess. It had a buffet and was incredibly good.  I don't know how authentic the food is, but there was one cold salad on the salad bar I had never had before, but really enjoyed.

Raw collards, chopped small
Thin sliced tomatoes
Round balls of cheese...not sure if it was mozzarella or what.

And these three ingredients were marinated in a dressing that was similar to Italian, though not quite that. It was really good, and turned out to be one of my favorite foods there that day.

We had to ask what the cheese was. I thought it might be an egg of some kind, but when I bit into it the taste and texture was more like bland chicken. The lady thought I was crazy when I asked, but said it was cheese. I wish I had followed up with what kind of cheese, but I didn't.

Elk

Last week we escaped to Cherokee and Bryson City for a few days.  We had one day set aside for shopping and driving through the Blue Ridge Parkway. As we exited the parkway, the traffic was backed up like Highway 50 in Garner in the evenings. As we turn to head away from the traffic to head back toward our cabin, I see a flashing road sign in the opposite direction. "Elk Viewing...please get in right lane. Lane closed ahead."  We were puzzled, but have also never seen elk, so we turned around and got back in line.

 We were about 35 miles from Gatlinburg.

Sure enough, the right lane was closed off with cones where vehicles could pull of and view the elk in the field.

We pulled over and got out to head toward the area of the "viewing lane" where the herd was located.

When we got about half the distance toward the end, a park ranger came up and advised us not to get any closer unless we got on the road side of the cars. The bull above was staying closer to the road (there was a younger bull near the edge of the woods in the opposite direction) and the ranger said they are easily agitated and have been known to charge. He said it would be best for Bobby to stay behind or on the far side of the parked cars so he could dodge behind them for cover if the bull began to move. We decided to stay put.

The viewpoint from where we were standing.

And with my zoom lens. The building in the background was actually a historical farm museum where you could walk around and see the types of buildings and such. The apple orchard was actually fenced in to keep the elk out.

And on the way back, we ran into a smaller herd of 4-5, but the bull in this group was amazing. He was awfully close to the cars, close enough I was hoping no one was stupid enough to blow their horn.

last week

For our anniversary last week, we headed towards the Shanandoah Valley in Virginia. It was awesome. In many ways it reminded me of Tennessee (the steep hills and pastures), and the huge houses in the valley areas reminded me of the houses in Washington DC and Richmond, VA. There were quite a few mansions and plantation style houses, but in the smaller outlying areas, there were also small farmhouses on vast pastures and farmland.

As far as small towns go, Staunton and Culpeper are two places I would gladly spend two days in checking out. As Bobby said, our half a day at each place barely scratched the surfaces. Well, we actually spent almost a whole day in Staunton, but still, we could have spent much more time there.

But my favorite pictures from the trip come from our one hour on Skyline Drive (the same road as the Blueridge Parkway, only you have to pay to get on it).

and this is the second deer

from the ride out...his antlers look so fuzzy!

Sadly, there's no picture of the bunny rabbit from that drive...

a first

This year seems to hold a lot of firsts for us (and some of them I hope are also lasts!). I was reminded this weekend that the only difference between an adventure and a disaster is the attitude of the person experiencing it. So Saturday became an adventure for us. :)
Mountain miles are not the same as city miles. Our place of residence was "thirty miles" from Linville Caverns, which is mostly wheelchair accessible. We didn't have to attend any of the wedding party events during the day, so we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to do a little vacationing while there. Somewhere in a book we read it would take us about an hour and a half to get there. So leaving at 10ish would give us plenty of time to eat brunch, get there, do the 30 minute tour, and get back with plenty of time to get ready for the wedding, especially if we use the fast route on the gps to get there (which would save us all of five minutes).
Did I mention that mountain miles are not the same as city miles?  Did I mention that we lost the cord to the gps device? We got halfway there when the battery died. I'm thankful to be married to a man who can fluently read maps. :) Otherwise we might still be in the mountains.

the bottomless mud pit, one of the 2 areas not accessible

I'd only been in a cave once before as a child, and I don't remember getting this wet. My hair was totally flattened by the time we left.

the bat (center left, about the size of a frog)

We enjoyed the caverns. The staff was helpful and friendly. Bobby actually laughed at the tour guide's jokes. We ignored all the evolution references, and didn't discuss any of the discrepancies in the stories until we got home last night.  Did I mention that mountain miles are not the same as city miles?
We ate lunch at one of the only three places we saw. A delicious meal (especially considering we're eating brunch at 2pm!), of country cooking, though way out of the price range we normally pay, and at 2:30pm we're racing back the thirty miles (that takes 2 hours to drive), enjoying the scenery along the way but also desperately looking for a gas station (did find one and used the necessary but they had no gas!) and arrived back just in the nick of time to change clothes and get back down the mountain for the 5pm wedding.

Robert & Kelly's reception area

And the wedding was another first for us. But that story deserves a post all of its own. :)