I am back from an absolutely wonderful four day vacation with Marcy. We had a great time. The Inn in Blowing Rock, NC, Crippens, was very nice. As with most of them in the country it is an old restored house. After checking in on Wednesday we spent the afternoon roaming up and down the main street of Blowing Rock going in shops, having lunch, etc. We ate dinner at the Inn which is known for its wonderful food; and it was. The weather was a perfect 72 degrees with blue skies and a slight breeze.
Thursday morning we started out from Blowing Rock on the Blue Ridge Parkway. About the first hour it was a foggy drive before things finally cleared up by the time we arrived at Lake Lure, NC. We stopped at the visitor center for brochures and lunch suggestions ending up at a lovely restaurant at one end of Lake Lure where we could sit outside and enjoy the now warm 72 degree weather and sunshine. We then drove back around to the visitor center at Lake Lure to take the hour long pontoon boat ride on the Lake. That is the only way to see the entire lake. You cannot drive or walk all the way around.
After we finished the boat ride we drove the ten minutes to Chimney Rock to check into Fibber MaGee’s B&B for the next two nights. The downstairs is a gift shop and coffee/snack place. The upstairs has five or six rooms. We had the only one furnished with two beds, queen sized. I took a picture of the room. The whole upstairs is delightfully decorated with bears and fishing motif since the river runs right along the road in Chimney Rock. We checked in then took a walk around Chimney Rock before driving back over to Lake Lure to eat at a very nice Italian Restaurant across the street overlooking the front part of Lake Lure where the boat rides leave from.
Friday we spent the morning doing the shops in Chimney Rock and lunch on the patio of a very good deli sandwich place overlooking the river. We then took a nice, winding back road trip up the mountain where we spent the rest of the afternoon in Black Mountain roaming around doing those shops. Back to Lake Lure for dinner at Larkins the upstairs fancier restaurant over the place where we ate lunch on Thursday.
This morning after a nice drive back up 221 to the Parkway we got off just this side of Boone, stopping for lunch in Wilkesboro and a side trip to the Amish Market in Yadkinville before arriving back here at my house around 3:30.
A very, very relaxing break. We spent time walking along the river front and the lake front both nights after we ate and then sat on the porch of the B&B overlooking the river.