North Carolina (Finally a real Vacation)

We finally were able to take a real, full 9 day vacation. We started out in Baltimore for Nathan's graduation, (Lori already did a great post on that) and then we got in Nathan/Lori's car and drove six hours to Katies house in North Carolina to see Rylee get baptized. After the baptism we saw little Ben play baseball, we went to a museum called, I think, Marbles... it was amazing and then we took everyone to a special ice cream place and it was great. As you can see the car was packed with all the grandchildren, Katie, Grandma and Grandpa Miller. It was a great adventure and I have lots more pictures that I did not post. Sorry the post is so long but I hope you enjoy it. This was what it was like when we had all 5 grandchildren in Katies car going to get Ice Cream.

The Raleigh North Carolina Temple.

The visitors center on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Ashville, NC. We went north on this road on Wed. and then we went south on the same parkway on Thursday. The following pictures are of the northern parkway.


Everything along the parkway was kept groomed and green, green... we saw this Turkey and several others as we got started.

Water was seeping out of the rocks all along the parkway and there was water everywhere.

This is the highest point east of the Mississippi... After not seeing any hills or mountains when we got up to this high point we thought we were so high, only to find that we were only at about 6900 feet or so. The area was still breath taking.

These tunnels were througout the parkway, there had to have been at least 30 or more.

This river, the French Broad , was the first stop on our southern route.


As you can see there was green everywhere and as the day started we were in the sun with clear blue skies... but as you will see as the day progressed we wound up in a rain storm and fog and got soaked to the bone going up to another high spot. Sorry I can not remember the name:(

This rocker was on the porch of the visitor center of the Great Smokey Mountain National Park...It was huge and it overlooked a small river and and old homesteade.

Water running along the side of the road... this was through the whole parkway.



The temperature dropped about 30 degrees and we got a soaking.

We both can now say that we hiked the Appalachian trail... so it was only a few feet:)



This tower use to be outlook for fires and they have redone it into all cement...they said that you could see all of the smoky mountains from the top, but we were covered in cloulds and a rain storm so we will have to see next time we are in the Great smoky mountains.

As you can see we felt like we were on the top of the world... and this was the only place that we had cell phone reception. Yes Caitlin we were talking to you when this picture was taken.

Smoke in the Great Smoky Mountains...really just clouds.
We came to North Carolina to see and be apart of Rylee's Baptism. She was absolutely beautiful. We are so proud of her and the example she has set for her sister and brother's. We are so happy for the Mayberry family.

We Love you Rylee and are so very proud of you. Love Grandma and Grandpa Miller.