Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
21st Nov - We packed up our things, left our lovely hotel and headed over to Darran's family's house in Wake Forest near the capital of North Carolina, Raleigh.His sister Michelle and her husband Charles made us feel so welcome and were incredibly hospitable, something we cannot thank them enough for.Their three daughters, Kiera (8), Niamh (6) and Ashlynn (5), were so fun, polite and intelligent and a joy to be around.Their dog Monty and the cats added to the mix and we were officially preparing for thanksgiving!We spent the day sitting outside in the sunshine, playing bouls, cards (is it Go Fish or Goldfish girls??!!) and various other games and were cooked a lovely meal for the perfect end to a relaxing day.
22nd - Thanksgiving was here!Ralph helped make Key Lime Pie (by squeezing the limes - the important bit!), which my dad would have absolutely loved, and then we went for a walk with Michelle, Darran and the girls to get our appetite ready for the big feast.Charles stayed behind to do a huge amount of cooking and our input in any preparations was, we were ashamed to say, less than minimal.More friends, (Keith and Jennifer and Rick and Emily) arrived in the afternoon, bearing more foods and we had a lovely feast of every type of food you could imagine, such as turkey and cranberry, glazed ham, stuffing, sweet potato, turnip etc.It was totally amazing and, as Darran and Michelle are vegetarians, everyone was totally catered for.We moved on to deserts such as homemade carrot cake cup cakes, Key Lime Pie and caramel cake with homemade caramel sauce (just putting that in to remind Darran - he guarded that cake and sauce with all his powers for the best part of the afternoon!).When we were totally stuffed we collapsed on the couch to watch some of the American football game.It was lovely to be able to talk to friends and people we knew, we have not seen anyone we know for 6 weeks!!Copious amounts of alcohol were consumed (mainly by Darran and Ralph - no surprise there) and we collapsed into bed at 10 p.m.
23rd - Ralph and I spent the day in Raleigh taking a look around the capital.The weather was really nice and sunny and we had a lovely Mexican meal at lunchtime and spoke to an American guy in there who suggested we take a look at the University of North Carolina campus.He never told us how far away it was though and so it took us most of the afternoon to find it!It was a totally pretty campus though and we got to see quite a bit of Raleigh on the journey, before we headed back to Darran's local while he is over here, The Flying Sorcerer, to meet him for some drinks. The day ended with card games with the girls and then chatting into the night with a few more drinks after the girls had gone to bed.
24th - Michelle and Charles offered to take us for breakfast at the local deli and we had great food and enjoyed the company while we could (we are still not happy with you guys for not letting us pay for anything while we stayed with you, but thanks again!).We set off for Chimney Rock, recommended by our hosts, and had to say goodbye to them all and hardest of all, the girls, who Ralph and I had become surprisingly close to after just a few days of staying with them. Chimney Rock has the forest waterfall used in the film The Last of the Mohicans, as well as some beautiful views over the forest canopy towards the Smokey Mountains, which separates North Carolina from Tennessee. The views were spectacular on the mountain trails at Chimney Rock Park and the ice and sheer drops on the 'footpaths' made for our first adrenaline fuelled hike. Even the drive to Chimney Rock was spectacular, once we had left the interstate, because this was our first glimpse of life away from the cities or coast, and it really was tons of ravines and mountain rises with log cabins and shingle cottages dotted about. The mountain roads would have been great fun if we'd had a car with a little more power and grip too!Some of the houses we saw on the way were unbelievable, little more than one room shacks, occasionally even open to the elements, where people seemed happy to be living.We thought it would be manageable in the summer months but there is no way we could cope during the winter.
After the park it was the long drive to Knoxville (our overnight stop-off on the way to Nashville, Tennessee) and the discovery of a radio station playing Christmas songs 24/7 as the weather threatened snow.We therefore spent the three hour journey singing non stop Christmas songs!
25th - Before we left Knoxville we headed over to the Convention Center to see the Fantasy of Trees Christmas exhibition, but gave it a miss when we saw they were charging $10 each (plus whatever the parking was) 'just to see a bloody Christmas tree!' and, instead, headed off to Nashville for a bit of line-dancing, stetson-wearing, bull-riding, whiskey drinking Americana.We have crossed another time zone to Central Standard Time, which means we are now 6 hours behind the UK as opposed to 5.
- comments