Idyllic......

ok, so.......we are just returned from a charmed long weekend in tennessee.....and north carolina......let us start with our accommodations.......which looked like the country living film crew just left......called creekside cabin...its theme was a melange of bears, troutfishing and moose.....2 porches with rockers and swings-one facing the stream and the other the shaded lawn.....a stone fireplace flanked by Adirondacks-style furniture, a screened-in porch with a chaise-longue, beds with those branch-style headboards......and the details...wow....the knickknacks were overthetop......'twig'-handled silverware.....papabear/mammabear/babybear chairs on the porch, a towelrack that looked like a moosehead....even the showerstall was 'tiled' in river rocks......absolutely charming........and really close to carver's gap....where our hike began.......i must say up front that my spouse's insistance that our daughter and i walk only part of the trek was a good call........the 13 mile trail started on an uphill so steep that within 5 minutes we could see none of our 15 member party.....we walked 1.5 hours up the trail, past misty scenery, wildflowers in full bloom....and blueberry bushes.....omg...nobody told us there would be ripe blueberries.......suffice it to say that few of our friends and family who saw the hike as a competition...save the observant middle child..... actually saw the berries....let alone ate them......in fact....once we had reached the top of our third bald...or peak...and turned back toward the car.......the sun shone so brilliantly upon those bushes that the ripest berries seemed spotlighted.......such a delightful surprise for a blueberry fan.........and so we who only did part of the course were able to grocery shop, cook supper, and shower and relax before the rest stumbled into the end point...where out friends were staying in a b&b that was not so charming as our rental......they all came over to our creekside cabin...we fit 16 around the picnic tables, including a duke divinity student that the lone bachelor in our midst acquired along the way......she was charming as well.......and so we are back home, settling into a month as a foursome rather than a threesome......for the record, the best moment of the trip was coming back from supper in north carolina on friday...when all three children were singing the theme to goldeneye...accopella....now that was priceless...........