Fall Vacay: Part One

It may be surprising to some people that these two teachers' favorite season is fall, but it is. Summer may mean time off and beach trips and sleeping in until noon and general debauchery, but there is something about pumpkin desserts, and that cold snap, and Halloween, and football (that's Dan only) that we can't get enough of.

For Christmas last year, Dan's sister Emily gave us a gift certificate to go to Big Meadows, a huge lodge with individual cabins in Appalacian Mountains. Thought I'd share some pictures from our overnight trip. What up, fall??

We snapped this on the drive up:

During our drive up, we stopped at this adorable place called The Apple House and indulged in cider, barbeque, and apple and pumpkin doughnuts. And samples of apple cake, too. And then may have licked the extra icing out of the bag.








Big Meadows was really rustic and pretty, with great views and those view finders that you can pay 25 cents to see landscapes better:


And this guy. Dan is looking elsewhere to make sure no one is watching him pose.

The view:


I guess blackberries grow wild up there because Big Meadows boasted four different blackberry desserts. Their cobbler was freakin' awesome.

Dan and I did two hikes, the first being a rather rocky trail to this gorgeous waterfall:

The other trail was four miles, but felt more like forty with the steep inclines and having to scamper up boulders. There was a lot of talk about "Why don't we go to the gym more??" Then, we stopped talking because we were gasping for air which made us tease each other mercilessly. Still, it was a pretty walk.

We were completely alone on this trail, except for these deer that we spotted:

I think this guy was as curious about us as we were about him because he walked right up to me. Sorry for the blurriness but I didn't want to use the flash for fear of scaring him away. He just blinked a couple times, casually munched on a few leaves, and then walked right in front of us down the path.

View from the top:

Another waterfall:

Last short walk to the summit:



Words can't even describe...

Be back with part 2 of our fall vacation soon! You know I can't get enough...