4th of July Mountain Trip

North Carolina had record breaking heat all through June. High temps + a 3 month old don't mix well so we spent the 2nd half of the month mainly indoors. I joked that I was experiencing seasonal depression similar to MN winters. So I thought a mountain trip was the perfect opportunity to escape the heat! We went back and forth whether we wanted to make the long drive for a short weekend with Meredith but decided we needed to rip the band-aid off and go for it as long as we had realistic expectations. Meredith normally doesn't do too well in the car. Most of the time we need someone sitting in back with her for a drive over 30 minutes to give her the pacifier when it falls out so a 5 hour trip was a little scary.

We planned to leave Saturday morning (4th of July) because our friend had a party on Friday night for dinner, drinks and fireworks. I expected to be home early to get Meredith to bed and avoid the fireworks since she has been more jumpy to noises lately. She fell asleep in my arms and woke up right before the fireworks were starting. Tyler took her outside and she watched the entire show. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised since she loves lights and shadows. The noise didn't seem to phase her.



When we got home we put Meredith to bed, packed what we could without going in her room and planned to leave after she woke up. Surprise surprise, we got on the road a lot later than we wanted to but it actually worked out perfectly because Meredith was about ready for her morning nap and ended up sleeping the first half of the way there. When she woke up we stopped for gas, food, and a little play time to stretch Mer's legs. 

 Daddy couldn't resist 

<3

We arrived at our hotel in Boone right at check in so we unloaded and jumped back in the car to head to Grandfather mountain.  We love the blue ridge parkway and the 30 miles west of Boone is one of our favorite stretches. At Grandfather mountain we made our way up the steep switch backs until we got to the mile high swinging bridge.  The bridge's elevation is 1 mile above sea level. We walked across and Tyler went on to hike up a little farther but since it was so windy and no real trail besides rocks, I stayed by the bridge with Mer.

After, we went to Blowing Rock village and enjoyed a beer flight and dinner at Blowing Rock Brewery and Ale House. Everything was so good! We also loved the vibe of the place. Our waiter convinced Tyler to order the dark chocolate pretzel dessert and it was delicious as well! By this point Meredith was overly tired and screamed most of the drive back to the hotel. We put her to bed and both enjoyed our books.

 

Sunday morning we slept in a little (besides getting up with Meredith all night ;)) and left to go to the blowing rock (the actual rock) after breakfast. We had such a great morning just enjoying the views and Meredith. The weather was perfect! 

We decided to go back to Blowing Rock village for lunch outside. I was holding Meredith while eating and towards the end of the meal I looked down and noticed something on my shirt. Turns out Meredith had a dirty diaper that was not only all over her clothes/legs/back but also on my shirt and sweater. When I held her away from me to see how bad it was she decided to also spit up all over me!  This resulted in lots of laughs, a long clean up in the back of our SUV and a run to Walgreens for some oxi clean. It actually worked out good to go back to the hotel because Meredith was able to take her afternoon nap there. 

When Meredith work up we drove the blue ridge parkway some more to take in the views. We decided to try a brewery in Boone for dinner. We had wood fired pizza and raspberry belgium beer at Lost Province Brewing Company and watched the US women win the world cup.

Monday morning we planned to head out earlier to try and get a hike in. The last time we were on the blue ridge we hiked to a waterfall so Tyler wanted to find another one to try. He picked the strenuous Linville Falls hike that went to the lower falls. On the hike in, I wore Meredith in our ergo carrier on my back (we paper, rock, scissored for it ;)). This was the first time wearing her this way and she enjoyed looking around at all the trees. The hike started out easy and ended with a lot of steep rock climbing. The falls were gorgeous and so was the weather. We took Meredith out of the carrier and climbed over more rocks to get to a better view. By the time we were ready to hike out, Meredith was ready for her nap so she fortunately napped in the ergo on the way out. 

 

 

Meredith slept for the first part of the drive home but the last hour and a half was a little rough. Poor girl was so sick of her car seat! We had such a great weekend away with our family of three. We love travel and adventure so we are so glad that Meredith did so well on her first trip! Now we can start planning our next adventure!