Kate, Tasha and I ate dinner at Bacchus Bistro before ladies night at Taylor's cabin. 
Taylor made a fire for us.
We had a great time talking, singing, and drinking. We made up a song about Marshall to the tune of Row Row Row your boat.
Kate is snuggled up with Stella, Tasha's new dog. 
Tasha is lighting her cigarette. 
A couple weekends ago the weather was perfect for some outdoor adventure. So Bri and I headed south to Dupont State Park. We found directions to 3 waterfalls within a mile of each other from ncwaterfalls.com, absolutely fantastic website for waterfall hunting. They were about an hour and a half drive from Alexander and a mile trek from where we parked the car. 
This is the middle waterfall of Triple Falls. Bri makes me nervous with his daring gotta-get- closer spirit.
So cool. At each tier of Triple Falls there were hug flat rocks that you could lay on. I laid right next to the water which was very rapid and powerful and scary or exciting. 
This is High Falls, my favorite of the falls. The other falls were short and not as impressive, Hooker Falls. High Falls had an area where you could slide with the waterfall on the rock into the base. Bri and I did that once, the water was really cold. Standing close to the most powerful section was exhilarating. Thats what Bri is doing in this pic. 
Aaahhhh....good day for the out of doors.
...to the Blue Ridge Parkway. 
I stopped at Graveyard Fields to check out the waterfall. You can see it from the Parkway, so it's not a far hike at all. It was a partly sunny day and lots of people were there walkin round. 3 waterfalls can be seen here, but I just checked out the one closest to my car. 
The falls are about 60 feet tall and the base is deep. Teens splashed around doing dives, cannon balls, and other creative jumps. It was fun to watch, but I was nervous for them. The under currents at the base of waterfalls can be strong enough to suck you in and not let go. Didn't seem to be a problem here. Families hiked together- babies strapped to moms and dads, preteens with back packs and lots of couples with dogs. It was good to see people out and about. I was trying to take a photo of this water bug, also took a cool pic of my reflection. 
Bri came down Saturday, March 28, and stayed till Monday afternoon. It was a cold, windy, rainy weekend. But we made the best of it. 
Sunday we took a drive through Pisgah National Forest looking for Max Patch, a clear summit where you can see views 360 degrees around you, but decided to eat our lunch-meant-for-picnic in the car, stop looking and head back before the dirt road turned to mud. On our way back we stopped at the Hot Springs Spa to take an hour soak in the natural hot springs hot tub near the creek. Delicious! 
When we returned to Alexander we made a home-made pizza with pepperoni, pineapple, and jalapeno. Double Delicious! 
My co-worker, Cindy, and I took off on Wednesday, March 18th, afternoon to Atlanta for the national dental conference they call the Hinman. We took turns driving the county SUV (along US 40, then 219 to 95 to 85, I think) and listened to Huey Lewis and the News, John Cougar and George Strait, in that order. It was was a beautiful day and surprisingly not uncomfortable riding together. 
After we checked into the hotel we hit the nearest mexican restaurant. I had two bean tacos and a peach margarita and Cindy had a cheese quesadilla and Long Island ice tea. Delicious! 
And the next day we threw ourselves into 3 hour lectures, everything dental.
Cindy and I were happy to be done with our last 3 hour lecture riding back to the hotel on the shuttle bus. Bye Bye, Hotlanta!
