Chimney Rock

Jackson had to come to Charlotte, North Carolina for work on Thursday morning. He got to attend a meeting at Charlotte Motor Speedway and do a Richard Petty Driving School ride. The photo below is something he paid $18 for and never wanted to see again. I mean I cannot tell that the helmet makes his head look fat. Oh wait. :) Love it. Anyway, he had a really nice time entertaining for work and I flew down on Friday to join him.
My flights were uneventful (just how I like them) and Jackson was waiting for me when I landed. Hooray. I love weekend trips. We intended to go sailing that evening with Jackson's work friend Pete and his wife, Jessica. We got out to their boat and the engine would not start. After a lot of effort (I do mean a lot of effort) Pete and Jackson gave up the hope and we just drove to dinner. We had S'MORES at our table at the restaurant. It was awesome. It was a real dessert on their menu and I LOVED it. I think it had been years since I'd had a s'more. Incredible treat. We really enjoyed our time with Pete and Jessica before heading to our hotel for the evening.

We left the Charlotte area on Saturday morning and headed for Asheville with a stop at Chimney Rock State Park first. It was incredibly gorgeous. I could not believe the view.

This was the approach to Chimney Rock...gorgeous!

This was our half-way point on the stairs up the side of the mountain. Our legs are still sore.
We're so disappointed in how quickly our Colorado climbing skills got rusty. ;)

This was the view from where I stopped hiking. It was all stairs on the side of the mountain and the wind was too much for this little weenie to handle. I sat on top of Chimney Rock and sang "I'd like to live on a mountain top" by Amy Grant to myself. I also acted as a photographer for right at 670 people, none of whom tipped me. ;)

The lake is Lake Lure and it was so, so pretty!

Jackson smiling for me on top of Chimney Rock. Isn't he just the cutest?! :)

I was seriously bracing myself against the wind. I had visions of it picking me up and helping me down the mountain. ;)

Jackson took this photo from the view top of the mountain called "Exclamation Point." You can even see me sitting on my mountain top there in my white, puffy vest.

Comforting.

The views from Jackson's continued hike were awesome, as you can see.

I think this is the coolest photo. Again, you can still see me taking it all in on my mountain top. :)

The stairs were nice and new, but still not always fun!

From there we climbed down and hiked for about 30 minutes to a waterfall. It was really pretty and so fun to be hiking again. I think we miss Colorado the most for the hiking.

Jackson getting wet in the waterfall. I told the lady next to me that he thinks he is "3 to 4 not 34" and she nearly died laughing. Meanwhile her husband was loving snapping photos of Jackson's antics. It was really odd.

This was the view from the waterfall. The leaves are just starting to change colors here and it was such a gorgeous, sunny and crisp day. We loved it.

We left Chimney Rock and came to Asheville for the rest of the weekend. We were so tired from hiking that we just grabbed a quick dinner. I guess dinner energized us because then we headed for a movie. We saw, "What's your number?" and the main reason I loved it was because it was set in Boston and it brought back memories. It is worth renting on Red Box. ;) Finally we came to our hotel and settled in for the night...it was a great day!