The Vacation Documentary...

Greetings, to all of my faithful readers. I hope you have not been missing me too much over these few days. (Ha, ha. As if.) For those of you who haven’t heard, I have been on vacation in North Carolina with my family and my cousins’ family. It was just awesome. Here’s a little description of the cabin. You drive up, get out of the car, and walk into the front door and the first thing you see is the stairs and fireplace. There are eighteen stairs and too many stones to count. If you chose to go up the stairs you would be in the master bedroom/loft area. There’s a bedroom, bathroom, balcony and rather large closet… large enough for an eight year old and a two year old to sleep in. If you chose to go towards the fireplace you would see a black leather chair, yellow leather couch, old television, a swell record player and a coffee table. On both sides of the fireplace there are doors to the balcony outside where you can watch the sunrise or sunset and look at the picturesque mountains. Past the fireplace there is a kitchen with black appliances and a table with four chairs. Down the hall there is a bathroom and two bedrooms. One bedroom has a queen bed and one has two twin beds. Katelyn, Lyssa and I pushed the twin beds together to make a king bed and slept on that. There’s also an unfinished basement with air hockey and foosball.

 

      Here is a documentary of our vacation…

            Day 1 (Sunday) – My family left at approximately 4:00 a.m. and we started driving. We arrived at the cabin at 4:00 p.m. The whole way there Katelyn and I were like, “They’re in worship practice right now.” “Church is starting right now” “Church just ended…” and it was really sad. Later we ate at this restaurant called Rib Country where we all ate this really crazy greasy chicken and ribs and French fries. Then we came back to the cabin and sat around and then went to bed.

            Day 2 (Monday) – Well… on this day…………… it snowed. Yes! Real, honest-to-goodness snow. Snow is the cold stuff that melts when you eat it, and the stuff you throw at people; the stuff for real ice cones and slurpies and the stuff that freezes in your shoes; the stuff that’s so cold when it goes down your back and the stuff that falls so beautifully from the clouds. I decided to look very closely at some snowflakes, one at a time, so I caught one on my finger and held it two inches from my face… hmmm… I needed a microscope… no chance of that. I’ll have to look it up on Internet sometime…

            Day 3 (Tuesday) – A little more snow in the morning, but it melted by mid-day. We went down into the town to look at the shops and there isn’t much… we did find some nice old bookstores though which were extraordinarily fascinating, as they had many books I had never read… I finished Artemis Foul (book 1)…

            Day 4 (Wednesday) – The day of exploration, exploration to nowhere. We decided to hike to the top of the highest mountain in Georgia, yes, Georgia. I know we are in North Carolina, but bear with me. So, we decided to hike to the top of Brasstown Bald. We stupidly assumed that Brasstown Bald was in the city of Brasstown. Imagine the insanity in thinking something like that. So we went to Brasstown and asked, “Hey. Do you know where Brasstown Bald is?” and they’re like, “Well, honey, that’s in Georgia. Yeup. You’re in North Carolina right now…” Hmm. So we went to where she told us, somewhere called Blairsville. We saw a sign for Brasstown Bald and drove to the top of a mountain where we were greeted by a NO TRESSPASSING sign. Well, that’s not the right place… better turn around… So we stopped at a gas station and asked Cletus and Billy Bob (no joke.) for directions to the mountain and they’re like, “You go left, right, left, left, right, left, right, left, and it’s right there. See it? Right there.” (Thank you, Billy Bob.) Soooo, then we went to Park-a-Pet Boarding House for Dogs and Cats and asked if the lady there knew where Brasstown Bald was. She said that she hiked it ten years ago and it was the hardest climb. She knew where it was, but she didn’t advise it since we had Timmy and Tanner. After some discussion we decided not to go on this hike and to go find somewhere to eat. No wait, it gets better. We’re driving around through cities (if you can call them that) trying to find a suitable restaurant to eat dinner at. We landed at Daniel’s Steakhouse/Buffet. HINT: Don’t ever go somewhere that combines steak and buffet in the same sentence. We later decided to call it Daniel’s Barf-et… enough said. Yet, it was a jolly day, grey skies and rain and all that. Finished Artemis Foul (book 2)…

            Day 5 (Thursday) – We spent half the day at home, but then we got a call from my Mom and aunt Eli asking if we girls wanted to go to the Biltmore Estate Candlelight Tour thing. Alyssa didn’t want to go, but Katelyn and I decided to go and we left the house at 1:30 p.m. We had the most amazing time. The house is so grand and rich. The gardens and walkways are so beautiful even though it is winter. The inside is so rich and perfect. Their main Christmas tree that stands in the dining hall is thirty-five feet tall and there are large presents hanging as ornaments. There are 43 bathrooms, a bowling alley with two lanes, an indoor swimming pool, a conservatory, a bedroom for Mr. Vanderbilt, and a bedroom for Mrs. Vanderbilt. There are large portraits of the architect and the gardener, and the family and an individual portrait of Mr. Vanderbilt holding a book. Oh, yes. The books. The library holds over 10,000 volumes. Mr. Vanderbilt had a vast range of interests and held books on every subject. Books just line the walls; it’s absolutely magnificent.

Day 6 (Friday) – Well, we didn’t get home until 1:00 in the morning, so technically that was Friday. We didn’t do much on this day. Mom, Dad, Timmy, Tanner, Aunt Eli and Uncle Jeff went on a hike while Katelyn and I hid from Tanner in the basement while Alyssa and Tyler played some noisy air hockey. Then when the hiking party came back, I took the other Merwin’s family pictures, afterward Katelyn, Lyssa, Tyler and I went on a hike around the mountain. Now, in the middle of the hike Katelyn and I heard this “whoaoeweheooo” noise and then Katelyn freaked out and told Lyssa and Tyler that there was a bear and that was the end of all peace and happiness. Everyone started running down the road (except me) and saying that they heard it again. We did get home, un-eaten and without seeing a bear. We decided that it was Mexican night so we ate chicken enchiladas for dinner and watched Nacho Libre. Finished reading Passion and Purity by Elizabeth Eliot...

Day 7 (Saturday) – The day of sadness. On this day we left the cabin at 9:30 a.m. after washing the sheets, loading the dishwasher and loading the cars. We drove home and were filled with sadness and joy. We were filled with sadness because we were leaving the mountains and the cabin and the snow. We were filled with joy because we would never have to hear the words “Blairsville” “Brasstown Bald” or “Daniel’s Steakhouse” again; and because we would be, once again, within 100 miles of a Target store; but I was happy the most because I was going home to see all of my amazing friends. Oh, and finished reading Artemis Fowl (book 3)...