Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Vacation Day 2 June 26
















I woke up pretty early and got McKenzie and Carlie up, too. We had decided the night before that we wanted to get up early and take a walk around the neighborhood. Sitting in a car for 15 hours can make you want to run a marathon. There are maybe 4 or 5 houses on the dirt road between here and the main, paved road. They look like they were all built in the 60s or 70s maybe. Next door there are two enormous Great Danes and they are behind a wooden rail fence that is perhaps four or five feet high with only one rail in the middle to keep them in. Ummm. . . do they know that they could easily jump that fence?? They don’t much like having us for neighbors. There are trees everywhere, couldn’t tell you what kind, just that they aren’t pine trees, and a little creek that runs through the neighborhood. It only took us about 10 minutes to walk down to the main road and then walk back. Boy, my body isn’t used to walking on hills! I haven’t seen a hill in a year since we were in the Olympics!!

Everyone else was up by 8 and we got cleaned up and dressed and headed into town to visit the Walmart. We needed groceries for the week and I of course had to replace all of my toiletries. The Walmart that we found is only an exit away, so maybe four miles. It is very new and has the nicest produce dept that I have ever seen at a walmart. I stopped by the Pharmacy and they said they would call Dr. Singer to rewrite my Rx so I should be able to get it by next Tuesday (in time to take my next pill). So $190 later ($95 groceries, $95 in toiletries) we headed back to the cabin.

Claudia bought a new vacuum for the cabin while we were out and we spent two hours cleaning every bit of carpet that we could find. We also dusted and cobwebbed every inch of the cabin. There isn’t a regular cleaning service so things like that tend to get put off. Claudia emptied the dust hopper on the vacuum at least six times. Under one particular table that hasn’t been moved since 1995 (I’m just guessing since that is when the “new” carpet was put in) there were enough dust bunnies to fill the entire hopper. It was really gross but we were really glad we did it, because we just feel better having a cleaner cabin.

While we cleaned the girls explored the neighborhood further, found some trails to wander on and played on the tire swing in the back yard. All in all they did what kids should be doing in the summer. We headed into Waynesville about 1:00 to see the town and grab some lunch. Waynesville is very picturesque being set in the valley of the Smoky Mountains. The stores on Main street were built in the 1880s to 1910s, mostly brick. There are lots of flowers planted and even some artwork, some of which I got pictures of. I neglected to shoot any photos of the buildings. Oops. We ate at a place called Ceviches where I had a strawberry and goat cheese salad with the most amazing balsamic glaze. It was fabulous. Really.

After that we headed back to the cabin. The girls played some more. Claudia watched TV and I took a long nap. I woke up around 7, Claudia warmed up some take-and-bake pizzas from Walmart, and we all watched the movie “Bride Wars.” Pretty cute. Kenzie was feeling a little off and it turned out that she was running a fever. 100.4 which went up to 101.4 until coming back down to 100 again. We didn’t head for bed until midnight or so and the girls were whispering on and off until nearly one.

1 comments:

Mike said...

The area looks very nice. Who knew the NC mountains were the place to go for a strawberry and goat cheese salad with the most amazing balsamic glaze.