Yurtin'

Last weekend, Pam and I traveled for an overnight trip to the Nantahala River Gorge area SE of Bryson City for a night away from Lexie for a belated 9th Anniversary celebration. We originally thought of either staying at a bed-n-breakfast or camping but instead I found an Adventure Camp called "Falling Waters" run by Whitewater Rafting Company that had a "Yurt Village". If you have never heard of a Yurt, it is a circular Mongolian tent that is built onto a wooden platform. The yurt we stayed in had a mini-fridge, heater and four-poster bed! On the premises was a hot tub and clean bathrooms and showers. So we kinda ended up in the middle of the hotel-camping experience. The Yurt was very nice so I highly recommend it to any looking to stay in the Outdoors mecca that is Nantahala. We will probably go back to enjoy some white-water rafting, horse-back riding and train-riding through the Smokies.

Pam and I took a hike to a finger at the Eastern end of Lake Fontana and were amazed by how low the lake was! We are in a drought in N.C. (about 11 inches below normal) and I swear the Lake was down 15-25 feet. So much so that we ended up hiking in the lake-bed and found old coke bottles and other interesting lake-bottom things like fish-bones.

Lexie had a nice stay with her Mima and Papa (Jim's parents).