Over the weekend, we took J to see the rhododendrons on Roan Mountain.
The blossoms were a little past peak, and some of them were already wilting, but it was impressive nonetheless.
Roan Mountain
travel
Grandfather Mountain
When I was growing up in southwest Virginia, I would occasionally see advertisements for relatively nearby Grandfather Mountain. They were local productions, and looked it -- something someone had filmed with a high-end video camera, then added a voice-over.
I was really unimpressed.
Yesterday, twenty-some years after seeing those ads, I visited Grandfather Mountain.
The key attraction at GM is its "world-famous" mile-high swinging bridge. Just to make that clear -- the bridge itself is not suspended with a mile of empty space below it. The actual height of the bridge is probably about sixty feet. However, it is on a mountain with an elevation above 5,280 feet. Certainly, no one expects a literally mile-high bridge, but I was thinking it'd be a bit higher than sixty or so feet. Then again, I never looked closely at the TV spots.
Graveyard Fields
Memorial Day we took the Girl and the babcia for a hike at Graveyard Fields. A short, easy hike: probably less than 4.5 miles all told.
Along the way, new flora continually caught J’s eye. “What’s this?” and “What’s that?” and “Is this X? It must be!”
“Nie wiem” became the phrase of the day, renewing (for about the 100th time, at least) my desire/resolve to learn more about plants.
L “met” a young lady named N who, despite being two months younger, was significantly smaller.
And of course we took lots of pictures of the Girl.
Biltmore II
We recently went to Biltmore again. Yes, once is enough in a lifetime, but J hadn't ever been, so we went.
The gardens were not nearly as spectacular as we would have liked because of the record low temps in April. But it was pleasant anyway.
Limits and Liquids
We went to visit family yesterday. This meant a lot of time in the car, which meant, for L, a lot of time in the car seat.
We discovered, much to our surprise, that L doesn't really like the car seat as much as tolerate it. Imagine -- she doesn't like being strapped into a virtually immovable position for hours on end.
We think liquids might help, because she seemed to cry much less violently during that last hour when she was working on a bottle of tea.
In Poland, in summer, potatoes -- those ever-present tenants of the Polish table -- are always served with fresh dill. All told, I had to scrape of pounds of it during my years there, and no one could understand that I just don't like the stuff.
"Tea!? You give your 5-month-old tea?" I can just hear the voices now. Well, to call it "tea" is really a stretch. It's a special granulated herbal concoction J brought from Poland with her. It's made specially for infants, and it's made from dill and aniseed. To my nose, it stinks like the dickens, because I don't like either one. But the girl likes it, and it eases her stomach, and it will undoubtedly ease time in the car.
After all, K and I buy green teas for the road. Why shouldn't she have something to drink to?
Maybe it's just one of those paradigms you slip into when your baby is breastfed. Additional drink is like additional food -- unnecessary. What we're learning is that that is only true -- duh -- for the first four or five months.
Blue Ridge Parkway
Having J in America has meant re-visiting a lot of places: Biltmore, parks, etc.
This weekend we finally went out to the Blue Ridge Parkway, specifically Craggy Gardens…
And Mount Mitchell
It was, I believe, J’s first “true” picnic. The tradition in Poland is equally pleasant, but a little more “adult.” It involves a bonfire, some sausage, and a lot of vodka.
The last part is optional, but once you say “yes” to an offered drink, turning down a subsequent shot is virtually impossible.
And that’s why the thought of posting “No Alcoholic Beverages!” signs was somewhat odd for J.
Put your roots in the air like you just don’t care?
This weekend, we took J to Biltmore. We were hoping the gardens would be more fully developed (i.e., more in bloom), but the frigid spell in April literally nipped everything in the bud.
While out in the garden, though, we saw a most unusually tree.
J had never seen anything like it, and I, not knowing a single thing about trees, was at even more of a loss.
Anyone have any idea what's going on here?
Chimney Rock II
Chimney Rock
Sunday was the second time we'd been to Chimney Rock. The first time, we were sans L, sans camcorder, sans D70. That, of course, means lots of images of the Girl and a bit of video of the Girl.
L began the day in my custody:
But fussiness overwhelmed her about 2/3 of the way through the outing -- only K could comfort (what alliteration).
More pictures at Flickr; video coming soon.
Outing
Last Saturday (21 April) the folks and I took J, K, and L on an outing to the old homestead.
(The somewhat cheesy music is Brian Eno, surprisingly enough. I used it because of the title: "Deep Blue Day.")