Blue Ridge Parkway and Grandfather Mountain, NC

Margie has been visiting for the last few weeks, and we ended her visit with a car tour of the North Carolina mountains this weekend. She loves the fall and we couldn't think of a better way then to show off our state's gorgeous world famous Blue Ridge Parkway. We did a small chunk of it, getting on at Sparta and getting off at Boone. Let me preface this by saying, if you haven't done this drive (particularly in the autumn) put it on your life list...it is breathtaking. Unfortunately, it was a very grey day and unseasonably cold which didn't do our mountain view justice. Regardless, we had a rockin' good time!

A picture from the overlook, Sam was asleep in the car.

Overlooking the great Smokey Mountains, which always look blue and well, smokey.

Poor Mom, her little California butt was freezing. She toughed it out!

Once we got off at Boone, we headed into town to warm up and get a cup of coffee. Boone was packed with leaf peepers and football fans, making it a bit tough to navigate through. Cody and I decided to make our way up to Grandfather Mountain, a short drive away. To our surprise, the main attraction was closed due to ice and snow. We still got to enjoy the views and their small animal enclosure, which had some very friendly bears and an injured bald eagle.We ended the adventure at Six Pence Pub in Blowing Rock, with a pint of Guinness and some rib sticking pub food. It was a fantastic day, we rolled out at 9am and rolled back in at 9pm. It was a long and wonderful day.