On Thursday (October 18th), we packed up the entire family (dog and all) and drove up to Brevard, North Carolina for our first little family vacation. We make it a point to drive up to the Blue Ridge Parkway every fall to see the beautiful colors. See:
The next morning (Friday), Logan and I both agreed that life is too short for bad coffee, so we skipped the hotel’s coffee and went to a local coffee shop called Brighter Day Coffee where we got lattes and macaroons for a little pick-me-up. Then, off we went to the first stop on the Blue Ridge Parkway, the highest elevation: Richland Balsam Overlook.
Next up, a lovely hike at Graveyard Fields. It was 45°F with a chilly wind, so I bundled up Liam in the Moby wrap and kept him nice and warm with a blanket. He enjoyed looking at all of the trees and was so relaxed that he got a nice nap during the 3 mile hike!
Once we came to the falls, Liam decided to wake up and suck on his fingers for a bit, while Logan took this lovely photo of the falls. 😀
Next stop: Asheville!
The downtown area was so packed that we never were able to find a parking spot, so we decided to venture out from our usual favorite Asheville restaurants. We ate at this lovely little cafe, City Bakery.
Leland even got to be a part of the lunch table, having his own seat.
We also enjoyed being humored by the massive Great Dane that was sitting just feet from Leland. The big and the small! Leland was literally the size of the Great Dane’s head.
I ordered a lovely spinach, walnut, cranberry, and goat cheese salad with a freshly baked roll. It was delicious! I was even a nice wife and shared some of my goat cheese with Logan. Speaking of Logan, he ordered a turkey, cheese, and tomato panini and a garden salad, both of which were also delicious.
We all hopped back in the car and headed to the North Carolina Aboretum, were we hiked a little nature trail and explored the gardens. It was gorgeous!
Once we were done at the aboretum, we headed back to the parkway for a little more driving and headed back to Brevard for dinner. At this point it was 8pm. We were exhausted from the long day of adventure and it was freeeeezing outside (where we ate every meal because we had Leland with us). I ordered some comfort food in the form of chicken parmesan over spaghetti and Logan ordered some trout over risotto. Mmm! We were too tired to remember to take a photo of the food. Oops. 😉 We did manage to get one of each of us at the table, with the crazy power of the 50mm f/1.2 lens. Check it out! It was quite dark and these photos make it seem fairly light!
And for those of you eyeing the bottle, yes, I have had to supplement with one bottle of formula per day. You can read more about that discussion here. And apparently, the bottle wasn’t enough and his fingers taste very delicious, according to Liam. 😉
Stay tuned for the day two recap tomorrow!
Love these beautiful photos and Liam is just so darn cute!
Love that part of NC. Graveyard Fields is such a nice hike. When we were there, they still had lots of blueberries on the bushes..yum!
Haha. Dog at the lunch table pictures make me laugh. 🙂
And I admire your willingness to go hiking with a baby. Strong girl you must be! And those are some beautiful pictures.
Beautiful pictures! I adore NC!
Gorgeous photos, and what a fun trip!
Looks like such a fun trip! The falls are so pretty and same with those stunning fall colors! Just gorgeous!!!
What a gorgeous little family!
Thanks so much for sharing, love this xo
You have such a pretty family! I wish my dog behaves like yours. He is a mess. Lovely pictures! (¡Hermosas imágenes!).