History Alive Night

The final piece of the TAG school projects this year was History Alive night.  The fourth and fifth graders had to participate in the wax museum, where they dressed up as their famous person and make a brief speech for each 'tour group.'  The third graders were the tour guides, responsible for shining the spotlight on each wax figure.

Rudy had a major, epic, meltdown as we were preparing to leave that evening.  Biggest one we'd had in many, many months.  His teacher had told tour guides to wear white shirts and dark pants, which might have been fine if she'd told them anytime before the DAY OF the event.  Or, if I hadn't just the week before packed up almost all of the long pants to store in the garage for when the house was listed.  I'd only left out a few pairs of jeans and a few pairs of khakis for each of the boys, and Rudy got it in his head that dark blue jeans were simply not acceptable.  It was bad.  After a lot of cajoling, yelling, and threatening...we finally got out the door.  Sheesh.  

Brady was Frank Lloyd Wright, assisted in his research by our trip last fall to Fallingwater.  Once we made it to the school, the rest of the evening went off smoothly.  It was great to see all of the students with their costumes, and the wide variety of celebrities chosen.  

Asheville - headed home

We couldn't leave Asheville with the last thing in our bellies being from the hotel breakfast, so our first stop on our way out was Biscuithead.  Much busier on a Saturday morning, but worth the short wait that was required.

If these bathroom signs at the restaurant don't make you giggle, I'm not sure what will...

We decided we wanted to start off headed north on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  We knew it would take way too long to do the drive all the way home, but figured it would be a pleasant way to ease back into the real world.  We stopped at a few overlooks along the way.

Next stop was Mount Mitchell.  Before this, if you had asked James or me what the highest mountain in the Appalachians was, we might have struggled, but would have probably named something in New England.  And, we would have both been absolutely incorrect.  The highest point east of the Mississippi is Mount Mitchell in North Carolina.  After finding that out, we definitely needed to "summit" that mountain.  Of course, summiting Mount Mitchell means an easy jaunt off of the Parkway and a drive to within a 5 minute walk to the peak! 

We were looking for a little more of a hike so, after taking the requisite pictures at the top, we took a pleasant three hour walk through the woods.  The weather was beautiful and the evergreens smelled like a Christmas tree in your family room, making it an enjoyable way to spend the morning and to delay the inevitable slog home.  It wasn't any official loop, just a hike down to a waterfall that seemed like a good place to stop and play before returning to the car. 

After that, it was off the Parkway and back to a real highway to head home.  Asheville ended up being just what we needed - a week away, together, without breaking the bank and still allowing flexibility and connectivity to deal with things going on at home.  

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Asheville, Day 4 - Ziplining and Pinball

I had booked a ziplining adventure for the afternoon, figuring it would be nice for the day to warm up a bit if the weather was cool.  One of the nice things about this vacation was that there was plenty to do, but we never felt rushed.

The boys and I went to the pool in the morning so James could work on some homework.

We stopped in at the Folk Art Center and Blue Ridge Visitor Center.  There were two artists from the craft guild working on site and lots of locally made products on display and for sale. 

We made a quick stop for a fast food lunch before heading to Navitat for ziplining. The weather was looking iffy, so we wore our shells just in case.  (By wearing them, we probably increased the odds that it wouldn't rain...)

Anxiously awaiting our tour...

Getting geared up:


We took a very bumpy ride to the top of the mountain.  The 15-passenger van was bumping and hopping as much as any roller coaster.  Then it was a short walk to the first line. 

The view from the top:

Our tour was the "Blue Ridge Experience," which consisted of three separate ziplines:  1100, 3600, and 2300 feet long with speeds up to 65 mph!  It was really hard to get pictures at those speeds while ziplining, so we mostly have pictures from the platforms.

James and Brady coming in:

We tried a few movies...it's not the same, but gives you some idea of the ride.  This was an expensive adventure, but certainly not one we're likely to forget!  


The next big adventure was the Asheville Pinball Museum.  I'd read about this when we first started talking about Asheville as a destination and the kids were anxious to go all week.  We couldn't go earlier, because they changed locations and Friday was the first day they were open.  I'm not sure who had more fun here, the kids or the adults!  There were dozens of pinball machines, spanning many decades of pop culture.   

 

The big one in the back that Rudy is playing on is "Hercules," the biggest pinball machine ever and "18 square feet of excitement for 1 to 4 players."  It uses an 8 ball rather than a standard pinball.

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I love Pinball, but the real draw for Rudy and me was the classic 1980's arcade games.   Even better was finding BurgerTime!!  Growing up, my family had an Intellivision and I remember spending hours playing BurgerTime with my brother.  I even have very specific memories of my mom playing, determined to beat the next level before she'd quit.

Friday night dinner was around the corner at Chai Pani.  We ordered a few things to share.  I'm no expert on Indian food, but this butter chicken was excellent.  And, crazy enough, my favorite part of the meal was the okra fries.  Okra, cut into shoe string slivers, seasoned with Indian spices, and flash fried.  YUM!  Of course, poor Rudy had jasmine rice for dinner because he was starting to feel poorly again.  :(  We let the kids pick out some fudge for a small bite of dessert and to save for the road trip home tomorrow.