Last entry of our vacation to Barkwells in Asheville, NC (if you are just tunning in, see posts 1,2 and 3).   It wouldn’t be a vacation if you didn’t get to spend time relaxing, right?  That is what we think.  I hate vacations where you come back home and you feel like you need a vacation just from being on vacation because you tried to do too much and did not get a chance to relax.  We wanted to make sure this vacation was not going to be one of those.  We spent a fair amount of time relaxing.  Taking a cue from how the hounds seem to spend most of their days.   It was too hot to use the fireplace, which was a shame, as I was hoping to see their reaction to it since we do not have one at home.  Maybe next time.  Mitch thinks it would be really cool to come back and stay for a week in the winter.  He said the hills are perfect for sledding.  This won’t be a place we visit every year, but it is on our list to visit again.

Cueball preferred to do his relaxing partly on the couch and partly on the floor.  He does this at home too.  He just balances himself for a while.  Not sure how that is comfortable.  He looks like he is going to slide right off the couch at any moment.  Such a goof!  😉

Pippi chose the more traditional way to relax if you’re a hound.

I prefer the hammock.

We ventured out most days in the morning and enjoyed Asheville and in the afternoons and evenings we were back at the cabin.  We enjoyed smores one evening on the charcoal grill.  Not the prefered way to do smores for me, but we had to work with what we had.  The kiddos had a lot of fun roasting marshmallows.

Mitch being a big kid.  🙂

Ramona showing us her talent at roasting marshmallows.

I like mine black just like I like my hotdogs when cooked over an open fire.  Yum!!

We also enjoyed walks around the pond with Greta and meeting new friends along the way.  She is one regal beagle!

And spending time with the kiddos.  Mitch and Katie-Beth chilling by the pond.

And picking flowers.

And flying planes.

And trying to figure out what was killing the catfish in the pond.  We found two like this on one of our walks.  Just the bellies were mangled.

And watching/catching lightning Bugs.  Depending on where you grew up, you may call these fireflies.  We have them in our backyard too but not like at Barkwells.  There were thousands every night and the kiddos had a blast catching them.  I tried to get the best picture I could.  It is still not great.  I tried changing the aperture, shutter speed, flash but this was the best I could do.  It was interesting to see them respond to my different flash settings.  Some settings made them all light up when I flashed the camera and some made them stop lighting up when I flashed my camera.  It was weird…..and a you had to be there kind of thing.  When they all lit up across the field in front of the pond…….it was breathtaking.

Other pictures of nature that I took while we were out and about enjoying Asheville.

I love Sunflowers.  I actually have some seeds to plant just have not done so yet, but plan to in the fall.

Day lilies were abundant all over the medians of the highways in NC.  They were beautiful!  We had some orange day lilies in our flower bed at home years ago, but they overtook the bed, so we removed them and planted some liriope instead.  They need a lot of space to populate and the medians on the highways are the perfect spot.  Virginia should take a cue from NC.  Our roadways are looking pretty sad with overgrown grass/weeds.  All the roadways we drove on in NC were cut and manicured.

Pretty Butterfly and a Bee pollinating at Pisgah National Forest.

 

Well……that’s all for our Barkwells vacation folks!  We hope you check back again….we have some pretty neat photos from recent bath time of the hounds, Booyah and Cueball’s 8th birthdays and some pics for Wordless Wednesdays coming up.

Maggie and Pippi want you to know life is greyt!