My Birthday--August 5, 2014

WELL Friends---I celebrated my 72nd birthday this past week!!  Yipes--how can it be???  BUT--as you can believe,  my hubby took me on a wonderful Surprise Trip to North Carolina to celebrate!   I have over 500 pictures to share --but don't think I'll show them all to you today! ha...

We stayed at Blowing Rock,  North Carolina ---and spent a few days discovering that area.  We traveled and explored the Biltmore House and Gardens,  the Blue Ridge Parkway,  did alot of hiking,  discovered many new waterfalls,  ate some delicious meals,  and even spent a day at Grandfather Mountain..  It was a fantastic trip!

Today though,  I will start by sharing my actual Birthday Dinner/Celebration on Tuesday, the 5th.  As you can tell from the photo above,  we had the Birthday Dinner at the Mountain View Restaurant at Little Switzerland,  North Carolina.  We had been to this restaurant a year ago and loved it.. SO---going back there was PERFECT and we were thrilled to go again.  AND---it does have a "million dollar view"...

We were lucky to have some fantastic weather so we ate dinner on the porch where we could enjoy that fantastic view.   Dinner started with a dinner salad.

Here is a photo of our VIEW from the Mountain View Restaurant... Isn't it marvelous?

It was fun standing up on the porch taking photos of that gorgeous view.

Here's another view from the porch (looking the other direction)...   For those of you who know the North Carolina mountains,  that is Mount Mitchell in the distance.

Besides the dinner salads,  my dinner consisted of Chicken Mediterranean,  Scalloped Potatoes and homemade bread.... George had Capri Chicken made with whole wheat linguini.  We both enjoyed our dinners very much!

Besides this wonderful trip,  George also made me a CD filled with favorite love songs.  He has given me a new one EVERY year since we got married... He collects these love songs throughout the year and puts them on a CD for my birthday each year.  I LOVE it--and love listening to all of the CDs from the past years also!!!  This gift is VERY special to me.

AND --this is my favorite gift of all... George took this photo from one of our favorite places,  the lagoon at the Biltmore House and Gardens  in Asheville,  North Carolina.  You can see the back of the big house from the lagoon.  George took the photo and had it made into a beautiful CANVAS for our Memory Wall in our office at home.. Isn't this one gorgeous? Wish you could see the entire wall.  I am a blessed woman!!!

Wonder what George is eating and obviously enjoying????!!!!

This is delicious Raspberry Vanilla FUDGE --from the Fudge Shop at Grandfather Mountain...  George chose this one --and loved it.

And you can see a very happy 72 year older here!!!!  Mine is my FAVORITE,  Peanut Butter Fudge... YUM!  I opted for FUDGE instead of a Birthday Cake --since I love it,  and never eat it much these days....  Oh how special!!!!!

My sweet mother-in-law used to make me a Peanut Butter Pie for my birthday until she died in 2011...  She knew that I love ANYTHING PEANUT BUTTER.... ha

I'll close by sharing with you a photo a nice lady took of us when we were at the Mountain View Restaurant celebrating my birthday.   Again you can see that beautiful view,  and you can also see their bird feeder---which all of the little birds in that area enjoyed!!!!  AND---there were NO squirrels... Yeah!

Upcoming posts will include many more photos we took while here in North Carolina.  All in all--it was a fabulous week and for me,  a TREMENDOUS Birthday!!!

Hope you had a good week last week--and are enjoying your August so far!  (Don't miss checking out the new quotes on my sidebar this month.)

Hugs,

Emoticons

Rain or Shine??????? A Visit along the Highland Scenic Highway, West VA

Me standing at one of the overlooks;  I loved the Red Spruce trees which grow well in higher elevations.

Holy Cow--it's August!!!  Is it just ME --or is time flying????  Schools are already starting in Tennessee in certain places...  Mercy Me----Slow down World!!!!! ha

Today,  I'm sharing a wonderful scenic drive that George and I took on June 24, 2014 while we were there for a few days celebrating our Anniversary in the beautiful state of West Virginia.   We visited here after we had been to the waterfalls. (Click HERE for that post.)  We drove along the Allegheny Highlands in the Monongahela National Forest traveling on the highest major road way in West Virginia,  known as Highland Scenic Highway 150.  We took the 22 mile stretch of Highway 150 from the Cranberry Glades area to US 19 north of Marlinton.

The drive along this stretch of road took us to an elevation of over 4500 feet.  In fact, most all of the drive was over 4000 feet in elevation.   This road would remind you of the Blue Ridge Parkway and/or Skyline Drive in Virginia, with overlooks all along the way on both sides...  While driving north,  the Cranberry Glades and Wilderness was to the west and the Appalachians were to the east.

BUT--for us,  it was not just the drive on this beautiful road/area.  It was, on this particular day, ALSO the WEATHER... Rain was ALL around us --and we were so lucky that we didn't get wet where we were. But we got some fantastic Rain/Sunshine photos... Hope you enjoy this special scenic road trip through our pictures today!!!

Dark clouds in the sky ---but sunshine was peeking through!!

George standing next to Mrs. P  (our wonderful Prius)

Oops---Rain is NEARBY...  Still love those Red Spruces!!

Beautiful Red Spruce (see how much I loved them? ha)---but note also the BLUE sky --among all of the dark clouds around us!!!

We took a walk along a boardwalk --and I loved seeing these ferns and wildflowers.

OH MY----Rain is getting closer;  "Run to the Car,  George".... (It still missed us!)

I love this picture since it shows both RAIN and SUNSHINE....  (Photographers LOVE these kinds of days!!!!  We had so much fun..)

We made it down to the Williams River.  I read that this river is wonderful for trout fishing!!!

I caught George getting a shot of the Williams River!

I loved seeing all of the WILDFLOWERS along that scenic road.   See the BUTTERFLY????

Wooooo--This "Puff Ball" was gorgeous and HUGE.  It may be in the Dandelion family--but was MUCH larger and prettier... Beautiful!!!!  (Do you know what it is?)  UPDATE:  Thanks to Furry Gnome,  this is called Goatsbeard.  You can read his description in the comment section.

More gorgeous Wildflowers blooming all along our way

I also love this 'rain' photo--and I'm sure the Wildflowers love that water!!!  (NOTE--we did not get wet!!!  Amazing!)

More flowers;  more butterflies;  AND LOTS of rain in the distance!!

Beautiful views,  sunshine,  shadows,  and gorgeous skies-----what else could we  want???

I hope you enjoyed seeing these 'weather' photos... I hope you clicked on them for enlargements. We were truly in that area at the right time!!!!  To think that we saw so much rain on all sides of us ---yet it stayed away from us... We probably could never have a photo session like this again if we tried!!!!! What a fantastic day ---and SO SO SO many photos to share!

Here's a map showing you the entire area (Falls of Hills Creek AND the Scenic Road 150).  I got this map from the internet.

Hope you enjoyed this scenic drive. For more information about this area,  click HERE.  I'd love to be here in Autumn to see the Fall colors.  We highly recommend this area to ALL.  West Virginia is a gorgeous state.

Have a wonderful week/weekend.

Hugs,

Emoticons