North Carolina Trip

Since the twins have been born Matt has gone on boys trips to Moab and to San Francisco to see the 49ners, so now it was my turn! Thanks Matt! My cousin Morgan was getting married in North Carolina, so my parents and Marin and I decided to go. Morgan and Neil are my twin cousins who were basically the closest thing I had to brothers growing up. We spent a lot of time together and they came on a few of our family trips.
We flew into Knoxville, Tennessee and the next day we drove through the Great Smokey Mountains and then stayed in Asheville, North Carolina. It was beautiful.  I didn't realize how tropical and green the area would be, it almost looked like New Zealand. We hiked to a waterfall and stopped in Gatlinburg for some great BBQ at the Hungry Bear.

The next day we went river rafting with Morgan and a bunch of people that came for the wedding on the French Broad River. It was more intense than I thought, a lot of Class III rapids and one Class IV rapid. I got completely soaked, it was so fun! I need to go river rafting again. I have been on a few three day trips and I definitely want to do Cataract as soon as possible. That night we went to a BBQ at Morgan's farm and spent time meeting and visiting with family and friends of Morgan and Sarah.

The next day we visited the Biltmore Estate, built by the Vanderbilt family starting in 1895. It was pretty amazing, complete with an indoor swimming pool and bowling ally.  That night we went to the wedding, which was really lovely. Sarah had it in an old schoolhouse that was on an island in the river. She got all the plates from thrift stores and they were all different, it was pretty cool. They had an awesome bluegrass band that was fun to dance to.

The next morning we drove down to Chimney Rock in South Carolina and hiked to the waterfall in the Last of the Mohicans.  It was huge and really cool. Then we went on a search for some BBQ before we left, but all the places were closed on Sunday.  Good for them! Not so good for us. Oh well. Then we flew out of Greenville, South Carolina.

More on being without the twins and Matt in the next post.