Our Trip to the Mountains

A while back, I had mentioned to Trav that I wanted to take one last trip before Baby Ferg 2 got here, with just the 3 of us. We weren't sure when we were going to squeeze it in, but this past weekend we found ourselves with no plans, so we decided last minute to head to Blowing Rock! And by last minute, I mean I booked the hotel that Friday morning. #YOLO

We got in to Blowing Rock kind of late due to a combo of Charlotte rush hour traffic and several bathroom stops for the pregnant lady and her newly potty-trained toddler. In retrospect, we were probably a little crazy for taking this trip in the first place, with Ella only being potty-trained for a week, and me at 33.5 weeks pregnant, but oh well. 

Anyway, as soon as we got in town, we made a quick decision just to head to Mellow Mushroom for a super late dinner. 

I was expecting Ella to have several meltdowns and/or accidents, but she did great! She wanted to hold the "flowers" (aka mushrooms on our pager) and even ordered her own meal herself!

You would have never guessed she was eating dinner 2 hours after her normal bedtime. 

The next morning, we headed to Tweetsie Railroad! 

Ella had been talking all Friday (remember, this trip had been in the works for a whole 24 hours at this point) about going to the mountains and riding on the choo-choo. So she was really excited!

Of course we had to ride on the train first thing!

Next, we went up to the petting zoo. 

No surprise here, Ella walked up to every animal and tried to pet them through the gates. She also said hi to every animal, and thought the sheep were Ramses and his family. This child has no fear! We had to force her away from the emu because we were scared they would peck her fingers off. 

Speaking of no fear, right outside of the petting zoo was this spinny ride she was dying to go on. I thought she was absolutely nuts, but my sweet husband agreed to take her on it (pregnant people were not allowed on...oh, darn). 

Next, we opted for something a little calmer, the Mouse Mine Train! Ella kept talking about this one the next day. 

It's a train that takes you in a "cave" where there are fluorescent glow in the dark mice mining for cheese. It was super cute.

We headed back down the mountain to the rest of the park, but not before taking a family picture!

I am going to go ahead and blame the bad angle for the reason I look so large and in charge. 

Yes, we rode on these chairlifts....and yes, I was more scared than Ella! 

At the bottom of the mountain, there was the merry-go-round....

...bumper cars...

...and more opportunities for awkward-angle family pictures!

Ella really wanted to go on the train again, so we did...

They have these little Western Cowboys and Indians-type shows that they perform when the train stops. They used little pop guns (not to mention some violent fighting/wrestling moves) and I thought Ella would be scared...but nope! I am telling you, this child has NO FEAR.

We had a great time at Tweetsie! I did think it was a little expensive, but we ended up staying about 4 hours and I feel like we got our money's worth. I liked that they had a variety of attractions and Ella seemed to have a total blast! 

After naps, we headed up to Boone and walked around.

Then we came back to Blowing Rock to play on the awesome playground they have right downtown.

For dinner, we ate at Canyons. This was the view from our table!

And the view from their parking lot!

Sunday, we stopped at Moses Cone Park on our way back to Charlotte. So pretty!

I wanted to walk down to Bass Lake, but then learned it was a 5 mile walk round trip. Ummm, no thanks! Apparently, there is a special Bass Lake entrance that's closer...we'll go there next time!

Ella saw a picture of a bear and wanted to look for the "teddy bears" on our walk. Thankfully, we didn't see any!

We probably walked about 1/2 a mile before we turned around to walk back uphill toward our car. I was basically dying. 

We decided to take a more scenic way home and drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway for a little bit.

We stopped at Linville Falls so Ella could see the waterfalls!

We had such a great time on our little last minute "not quite a babymoon" trip! I'm happy to report that Ella was such a trooper and did so well with her potty training the whole time! 

So glad I could spend extra time with 2 of my favorite people before this new baby arrives!