Last weekend we flew to a different part of North Carolina, where Tim’s brother had rented a vacation house in the southern Appalachians. So we had a little family reunion and an early Christmas there. We spent the better part of Saturday at the Western North Carolina Nature Center in Asheville. It was very cold there in spite of the welcome bright sunshine!
We bundled up and enjoyed seeing many animals native to the Southern Appalachians. All of the animals there are rescues and could not survive in the wild. Katherine especially loved watching the river otters gliding in and out of the water, but I couldn’t get a good picture of them. They were moving too fast!
This little screech owl is blind in one eye and is being used to educate the public about rescuing wildlife. Katherine was paying close attention.
We stayed in Asheville for dinner out at the Tupelo Honey Cafe, “a southern restaurant with mountain south roots.” Tim enjoyed the food so much he bought their cookbook! And after dinner we took in the Christmas light and music extravaganza at Shadrack’s Christmas Wonderland. There were so many light displays it took us a full hour to drive through the two-mile maze, synchronized holiday music playing on our car radio! It was a pretty dazzling experience.
Sunday we stayed in the cabin, enjoying each other’s company by the fire. Dima, Larisa and Fran whipped up some scrumptious dishes for us. A perfect weekend!
thanks for sharing your family joy Barbara, beautiful photos xx
Thanks and you’re welcome, Tai! It tested my patience waiting for that cougar to look my way. 🙂 *hugs*
What a wonderful time, Barbara! Katherine is adorable–not only beautiful, but so intelligent and vivacious, too, qualities that come out clearly in your photos. All your pictures are so good, they make me feel as though I had been with you! 🙂
Thank you so much, Timi! Katherine is a huge animal lover which is why we picked the nature center to explore that day. And she is definitely one smart little cookie – talking in sentences now. I’m happy you enjoyed the pictures so much. I do love photography! 🙂
We’ll have to put this place on our itinerary for the future. It looks lovely, as does your littlest subject!
I think you would love it there, Susan. The nature center clings to the side of a mountain so there is a lot of walking up and downhill! The enclosures for the animals are large so at times it takes a while to spot them, but I’m glad they have some room to roam and plenty of hiding places.
Great pictures – It’s fun to see the how fascinated Katherine was by whole experience at the nature center.
Thank you, Sheryl. Katherine was so into the animals that she never complained about the cold, even though she traded her mittens in for that brochure. 🙂
Beautiful nature pictures! And lovely to see Katherine again. She reminds me of my 2 yo Cayleen. Happy you had a chance to have an early Christmas together. I so look forward to seeing my two girls in a couple of days. Happy Holidays!
I’m glad you enjoyed the Nature pictures, Tiny. Coming from you that means a lot to me as I am dazzled by your nature pictures! Happy Holidays to you and your loved ones! Probably your little Cayleen’s eyes are full of wonder. 🙂 I hope Dylan is enjoying himself, too.
I know 🙂 Still remember the snow storms up in Maryland.
Oh yes, sometimes Maryland gets more snow than we do. 🙂
I love your photo of the vine on the tree and the owl!
Thank you, Jane!
Look at Kat scoping out the map for places to go. I don’t think I knew what a map was at age 2! This looks like a fun place to visit.
Not sure what she actually understood the map then but her interest was very keen and has continued to grow over the years. We had a wonderful time at this nature center!
It sounded like you all had a wonderful time – Kat’s enthusiasm for her surroundings showed us it was a win-win trip.
It sure was! 😊