Bookend

As a bit of a "milk-the-summer-for-all-it's-worth" trip, my parents took Kel, Moira, and me to the mountains a week ago.

We ended up in a great cabin/mansion in Foscoe, NC just under the now-closed slopes of Hawksnest Ski Resort.

The week was a truly great time of porch sitting, wine drinking, and quality family time.

Dad and I went up to the Hawksnest Zipline Course and had a blasty blast.




The whole family also went to the Banner Elk Winery and sampled the goods...then took Moira blueberry picking in a field right by the winery. It really turned out to be one of the better times we had on the trip just because she was so into it!




Kel and I went on a few hikes off of the Blueridge Parkway one day as well...and checked out the Ship Rock climbing area that I want to climb at some point...not quite up to that speed of lead trad yet, but hopefully next year!

We also went to a legit sleuce mining place called Doc's Gem Mine in Blowing Rock. It claims to be North Carolina's only educational gem mining experience that is recognized by the NC state department of education. It ROCKED! (sorry...I know the pun was lame) Doc will sit you down after you pan through a bucket of unfilterd ore and tell you what mine in NC each gem comes from as well as how it's formed...even down to how the gems get their color based on the elements.




So now that we're back, I've been at school pretty much every day this week eventhough we don't officially start until tomorrow (Aug 12th).

I've been doing lesson plans, fixing up the room now that I'll probably be in this classroom for a while, and basically just getting mentally prepared for teaching 3 different subjects this term.

I guess I'll go ahead and call the summer DONE....here's to a great year at the Valley!