Tim and I drove up to see Mom and Dad the weekend of the 24th. The ‘real’ objective was to bury the cat in the “Ewing Pet Cemetery” (which is next to the indian burial ground their house was built upon) but it turned into a pretty sweet side trip where Tim was able to spend 24 hours hiking/camping on the Appalachian Trail while I spent time with the parentals and their zoo.
Saturday, we dropped T off on the trail up at Unicoi Gap and then we drove over to visit Mercier Orchards in nearby Blue Ridge. It was a really cool place. We picked up a ton of apples and even picked up some sweet potatoes… yum! And good lord, you COULD SMELL the fried apple pies from the freakin’ parking lot! We didn’t get any but it was SO tempting. I LOVE the byline on their site: “Nothing says Mercier like a Fried Apple Pie.” haha
We ate lunch at a shi shi restaurant called Repaz on Main. It was okay, but the portions were a little small, even by bistro standards. The interior was gorgeous though and I wish I could have stolen the painting from above the fireplace. It would’ve looked supa-sweet in our living room. The cool thing about the place, that I found out later (and was disappointed that they didn’t advertise very well), was that they buy almost all of their food locally- farm to table.
After lunch, we drove by the Blue Ridge Reservoir which was pretty cool.
Overall, the weekend, as usual, passed by far too quickly. Sunday afternoon, we picked up Tim at Dick’s Creek Gap (he walked 16 miles this trip), went home and ate a delicious rib dinner (complete with Mom’s potato salad and deviled eggs(!)), and afterwards laid the Shadout Meeps to rest. She got a good spot.
The drive home was (thankfully!) uneventful and Mort, Sarah, & Harriet were excited to see us. :)
Georgia Pictures:
Tim’s Hike:
