My birthday

Now that I have a little more time I want to tell y'all about my birthday . Our youngest son, Mark and his wife Whitney, decided to treat us to a trip to the mountains. A nice leisurely drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We started out going the back way from our home to the parkway. We could have saved time and gone on the interstate, but that would have defeated the purpose. A couple of times we thought we had made a wrong turn, but after a few more miles discovered we were right where we should have been. We made several stops along the way and did a little shopping. Can't go to the mountains without stopping at road side markets and buying apples and such. We had lunch at the cornucopia in Cashiers, NC. The restaurant is in the second oldest building in Cashiers. The food and service was excellent. I must say I couldn't eat all my food, but did save room for a delicious desert. Before we got on the Parkway we stopped at a fast food place at Silva. We had noticed a pickup truck with an Alaska license plate with two beautiful labrador dogs in the back, one black and one chocolate. I was wondering if he came all the way to NC with the dogs in the back or if he got them here. He stopped at the same place we did, but we didn't get to talk to him. They did take a picture of the dogs though. The Parkway was a very nice drive even though the trees are late turning this year. There were a lot of over-looks along the way and we took advantage of most of them. At one we found a little paved, walking trail that led to a wooden over-look. The walk was short and worth the time. After that we started watching for the paved trails. We found one later on down the road, but since it started off at a sharp incline I decided to wait at the car. Between 45 & 60 minutes later the three of them returned. By that time I had walked to the top of the incline but couldn't see any thing or any one so returned to the car. When they finally returned they said that they had walked almost the whole time, weren't aware of how long they were gone and never came to the end of the trail or anywhere that had a good, open view of the mountains. There was nothing to indicate how long the trail was or where it ended. Since we had spent more time there than we intended we didn't stop at as many more to the over-looks as we probably would have. We arrived in down town Asheville around 6:30 or 7 (I think). We walked around a little and then had supper at a BBQ restaurant. Not a run of the mill BBQ restaurant, but a rather swanky one. The food was good, but I brought most of mine home as did Whitney. After supper we walked around some more and found a chocolate store. Just walking in and inhaling was a delight. I probably gained a pound just doing that. By that time I wasn't feeling very good, so refrained from buying any candy. Ron did buy some hot chocolate though. It was delicious. We arrived home around 11 pm. Tired but relaxed and ready for bed. This will be one of my most memorable birthdays, thanks to Mark and Whitney. I decided to include a picture of Mark and Whitney at the highest point on the Parkway.