Oh, the mountains...

I love the beach.  I love the smell of pluff mud (even love putting my feet in it!).  I love the marsh, the sand, the sound of the ocean, the wind, the salty air.  I love sitting on a porch and napping to it all.

Despite this, I really, really, really love the mountains.  I love the cool air, the trees, the sense of adventure, the wildlife and the hush of the wind through the hills.  We napped with the windows open while a thunder storm rolled through, hiked, ate like crazy - and even did some of the usual stuff we do at the beach, like shopped the outlets, played in the arcades, and played putt-putt.  There is a sense of connectedness that I feel in the mountains that I don't feel anywhere else, even the beach.

When all is said and done, at the beach, although peaceful, I'm still sticky, grimy, stinky and in need of a bath.  There is always and after that comes with the before.  Not so with the mountains.  There is always another trail - a different town - and new adventure.  For that reason, I am always longing to stay when I leave.  Which always makes coming back - whether to somewhere small and intimate, like Black Mountain or Lake Eden or to somewhere bigger and more garish, like Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge - such a sweet feeling.

I have a handful of pictures, just like this one.  The only thing that differentiates this one from the others is the pictures that follow.  However, it's a tradition now, so here it is! 

 JP gets sick of me taking pictures of him, so he rebels by not smiling and otherwise looking uncomfortable. :) This is us at the lookout at the parking lot for Clingman's Dome. 

 Hiking the trail to Andrew's Bald.

 On Andrews Bald - one of the grassy balds in the mountains.  Because of the warm air, we were not able to stay long due to the yellow jackets and other flying insects.

 The paths on the bald were covered in yellow jacket nests in the ground.  We almost walked right into one, but luckily caught it right in time.

Here is a video of the view:

 No matter the view from the mountains, this is always my favorite view!

 The tower at Clingman's Dome.  Its a steep half mile walk up - not too bad, unless you have just spent the last few miles hiking up from Andrew's Bald. Totally worth the walk, as their is a 360 degree view that is beautiful.

Here is a video of the view:

Three days before this, my little brother set out on a 5 month trek to hike the Appalachian Trail from start to finish.  We were a little ahead of where he would be at this point, but good to see where he will be in a few weeks.

 It took me forever to convince JP to take this picture.  He finally - and reluctantly - relented.  Part of why this picture is probably only hilarious to me!

 This was going on while we were in town.  There were Santa's everywhere.  Out of respect for the fact that they were being harassed every where they went, we talked with a few of them, but did not take pictures.

 Ok.  We didn't take pictures of them.  We did take pictures of a few of their vehicles, though.  The owner of this vehicle talked with is a long time.  He even explained that he has his Bachelor of Santa Claus from the International University of Santa Claus - and that he was working on his Master's in Santa Claus (no joke - you can google it).  They even belong to competing professional organizations (this conference was not organizationally affiliated).  It was actually quite interesting...

 Making the hike to Rainbow Falls.  It was in the morning and absolutely gorgeous.

 The small falls.

 The big falls.

 Part of the way up the boulders.  

 All the way up to the falls.  Climbing up there was fun, but rough in some spots because the rocks were slick from the mist.

 I was trying to venture out to the bottom of the falls, but the only way there was on a rock that came to a point at the top (it's flat on the back side of where I am standing and I would have had to sit and scoot the rest of the way out...yeah, not so much).

 Hiking back down we encountered these two deer, feeding from the bottom of a tree.   We were quite close to them, and they tolerated us as long as we didn't move around too much.

 The first mile of the trail ran along the water.  It was a peaceful beginning and ending to the hike.

 The original Ogle family settlement property.  I am still blown away by the original structures - just like the Freed Man's House on Edisto.  I took a close up of the chimney because it was made out of rock and mud.  So simple and yet quite effective.