Blowing Rock

We spent last weekend in Blowing Rock, NC for our 2.5 year anniversary. (a whole quarter of a decade!) Blowing Rock is a very cute town, right off the Blue Ridge Parkway. We spent Thursday afternoon after we arrived walking down the main street of town and looking in all the shops. That night we had dinner at Bistro Roca Antlers Bar, a restaurant in town that Glenn had heard a recommendation for. It was really great food and I would recommend to anyone heading out that way. I just wish we had made it back there again!

Friday we had a full day of exploring! We started out first thing in the morning to Crabtree Falls. It was about a hour and half drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway...through some really dense fog. It made for quite a mystic drive - except for all the turkeys on the side of the road. The falls were beautiful and worth the hike back up the mountain.


After the falls we decided to embrace our inner kid and go "Gem mining." Or otherwise known as "sifting through gravel on the flume to find all of the stones they've added." It was great fun though. We found a lot of garnets, rubies, and quartz though nothing of any significant value. :)

The tricky task of "flume mining"

After working up quite an appetite trying to find some precious gems we stopped at the Little Switzerland Cafe a couple miles north of Crabtree Falls off the Parkway. Cute little place that locals and us tourists alike seem to enjoy. Next we were off to Linville Caverns, the only caverns in NC open to the public. The limestone formations look like they are straight out a sci fi movie. I was fine until they took us down this tiny little tunnel and started talking about how deep the water was beneath the grate under our feet. Yikes!

And here is an example of the pretty views we had driving back the Parkway.

We had a great time. Thanks Glenn for the wonderful trip! :)