Our Family Vacation 2011 ~ Part 6

Thursday, we drove to Marion, NC to Linville Caverns.  This was the first time the kids have been able to walk into a mountain and explore a cavern.

Everyone really enjoyed it.  There were some tight quarters but we all managed.

 

These are live fish that actually live in the cavern.  I think she said there are 3 different types of trout that live there.

 

They called this the “fireplace”.  It was actually used as a fireplace for soldiers during one of the wars. (Can’t remember which one!)

  

We called the second picture, “The Giant Pickle”.

The tour guide told us that the green was caused by people touching the walls which is why we were instructed not to touch.

 

I really wanted to touch the white one but I didn’t.  It look like a bunch of slime.

 

Our family in the cavern

After the caverns, we drove to the Linville Falls.

It was going to be another hike for us.  The sign said it was only .4 miles but we found out it was farther than that once we got started.

 

This little dude was tired and didn’t want any part of the hike that day.  He hadn’t had his normal nap schedule this week so he was pretty tired and cranky toward the end of our trip.  He would be the reason we didn’t go on all of the routes.

We finally made it to a place where we could see some of the falls.  There were three different falls.

 

Down in the Linville gourge

 

Here’s our family minus Rob and Isaac

(There were others around but no one offered to take our picture.  Yes, we could have asked but you don’t know what it took for us to make it to this spot!!!!)

 

Christine, this sign is for you!!!

Making our way back

(We couldn’t take anymore.  It was time for lunch!)

We left to go eat lunch.  We ate at Pappy’s Barbeque in Banner Elk,  NC.  We heard that NC was known for its BBQ so we had to eat it once while we were there!  It was yummy and we were pleased with our meals.

On our way, we decided to stop at Shatley Springs.  We passed the entrance every time we went to town and knew there was an inn there with family style country cooking.  It was a spring that was discovered in 1890 by a man named Martin Shatley.  You can read the history about the springs if you click on Shatley Springs above.

Anyway, we got there and saw the inn/restaurant.  We all went to the restrooms before looking for the spring.  We knew it was free and that you could bring containers and bottle the water for free, too.

We went on our search for the springs.  There was a woman filling up bottles on the side of the building but it didn’t look like much so we kept walking and looking.  We didn’t see anything so we went back to where the woman had been.

This is what we found:

This was a concrete block on he ground next to…

this!!!  I don’t know what I expected but it wasn’t this:)

 

They had paper cups there so everyone sampled the spring.

Shatley Springs Inn

This was an old timey car on someone’s trailer in the parking lot.

Once we got home, we settled in for a relaxing evening.  Some of the boys sat on the porch and played checkers.

After dinner, we sat together and watched a movie.  Poor little dude was so tired that he fell asleep on the floor during the movie.

 

Another fun and exhausting day!!!

Guess what???  There is only one post left to finish off our vacation posts.  I’m sure you will be glad when I finish but it has been fun remembering the trip all over again:)