Lets see, whered I leave off?
Did I ever recover?
YES! Thank goodness! I was ready & raring to go the next morning! I should have been, I slept from 5 or 6 on & off until I finally went to bed at 10. Kyle made a dinner that night that consisted of blackened grilled tuna (rare, thankyouverymuch!), mango salsa, & Charleston red rice. Y.U.M. Too bad I was too groggy to really hold my head up, let alone enjoy the dinner.
What do you mean the spa ate the camera?
When a girl who has a low alcohol tolerance drinks, she tends to do stupid things. Like set the camera on the ledge of the hot tub instead of the table that is *right beside* the hot tub. Then when said girl gets in the hot tub, she is less than graceful, & splashes water all over the camera. I donno what the heck I was thinking. Was I planning on taking pictures of wildlife from the spa? *doh* Bonus is, I get a new camera! My old camera was, well, OLD. 5 years old. 3 mega pixels. My phone could take a better picture.
Did the weather ever get nice?
Thankfully, yes! Im not a fan of rainy days, but they did force me to calm down & relax, which isnt something I do on vacation. I always want to do & see as much as possible, just in case I dont ever go back.
So the sun came out, and I was ready & raring to go, camera in hand.
Sun coming through the trees:
The pond, at about 8am:
We decided that we would head up to Chimney Rock this day, since it was close by. We had to drive around part of Lake Lure to get there as well, so we saw part of that too.
You can get to the top of Chimney Rocky by 1 of 2 ways: climb the stairs, or take the elevator.
We took the elevator.
Its at the end of a tunnel thats about 200ft long. I could have sworn I heard the faint sounds of pick axes & Hi-ho, hi-ho, its off to work we go
You come off the elevator into the gift shop (hello? Disney?). We got a CD for Conner of a man playing the hammered dulcimer, as he loves the sound. The CD is of Confederate songs from the Civil War. *Sigh* Only in the South.
You can see the dulcimer behind me.
This is Chimney Rock:
And heres what you can see from there:
(That body of water is Lake Lure)
From there, we took the stairs up to the Opera Box, then on to Devils Head.
Next it was on to Hickory Nut Falls. This waterfall was in the movie Last of the Mohicans. The hike round trip took about an hour. It was fun hearing the roar of the falls getting louder as we got closer.
Some photos from along the way:
And finally, the falls:
We were pretty much beat at that point. And hungry. We headed into Chimney Rock Village (or whatever its called, I cant remember) and had fried trout at a place called Gennys. It was pretty dang good! Stop in & have a chat with the owners, theyre really nice people! Locally owned, family run, and they let the staff keep their kids there if they need to, which I think is great. They raised their kids there, and now their grand kids. I love those kinds of places!
We did a bit more shopping & headed back to the cabin. Dinner that night was grilled shrimp & veggies. Yum & yum!
I would not have been able to sleep a wink there. With that said, it looks gorgeous! and I am glad you had a great romantical time with hubbers!
DH's security guard told him to not go near any axe murderers while we were there!
I love the picture of the little lake with the gazebo. 
Our house is in Columbus, NC. It's a shirt ride from Chimney Rock. I love that place. Haven't been to it since I had kids though. OMG can you imagine the baby there!? 
NEVER! 
I somehow managed to set it all on a ledge on the wall (after getting in 
Can't wait to see the pictures your new camera takes.
) So I would read, and think "Boy, when it comes time to plan my own Disney trip, I'm gonna be set", but here I sit! 
My mom has already written my MIL & said she wants to go dutch. Meaning, don't pay for all of the kids' stuff so we don't feel obligated to do so. 
Gah.
