North Carolina Fall 2007

10/18/07 - 10/22/07 - Bryson City, NC

View photos from the trip

    After dealing with another summer of sweltering Florida, Emily, the family event planner and social director, decided that the Hayes family was going to take a much needed trip to North Carolina. 

The trip was perfectly planned out based on the last 27 years of almanac history, cross referenced by numerous websites predicting when the leaves would be at their perfect color.  Emily also decided it would be even better if we included her parents and Drew and Fran, and she was right. 

We took off from Orlando on Thursday afternoon and arrived at the Charlotte, NC airport around 4:30.  Hunter enjoyed his second airplane ride and could not have performed better.  We grabbed our bags and our rental car and headed West to the Great Smokey Mountains.  The drive was about 3 hours and might have been the worst drive I have ever experienced in my entire life.  You think I am kidding.  Towards the end of the drive as we entered the mountains we were greeted by a road that thought it just didn't make sense to go straight.  We wound back and forth and up and down and mind you it was dark the entire time.  Even the Dramamine and relief band had no effect on the nightmare that was my stomach.  We arrived at the house at about 8:00 and I went right to bed.  I think they all had fun that night but you would have to ask them.

The first day we woke up to Hunter the human alarm clock at 6:00.  The morning also brought some rain so we decided to spend the morning hanging around the beautiful house that we rented.  The house was about 3/4 of the way up the mountain so the view from every window was absolutely breathtaking.  We hung out and played games while the weather loomed.  We decided we needed to hit the local dining scene to see what kind of cuisine lived in Swain county.  Emily, in her due diligence, researched the area prior to our arrival and found a restaurant called Jimmy Mac's that was voted best hamburgers in North Carolina for two different years by Southern Living Magazine.  Who can argue with Southern Living so we had to test it out for ourselves.  The magazine was not wrong and the food was delicious.  We licked our fingers and headed back to house.  The night was completed by a Taboo battle between the entire family.  Yes, I believe we had a few competitive folks in the bunch.  The game ended, nobody was hurt and we all went to bed.

Day two was kicked off by our little rooster at 6:45 (it felt great to sleep in).  Today was an absolutely beautiful day.  Not only was the weather great but it was the annual Bryson City chili cook-off.  We were so excited that everyone got dressed and ready to go by 10:00 and headed into the city.  We got in line and got our wristbands and we were ready to eat.  As we checked in we were informed that we needed to vote at the end of our experience for our favorite chili.  This of course excited the entire bunch because who was more qualified to judge chili than this bunch?  Before we started, we all thought to ourselves you really can't screw up chili, right?  I would strongly encourage everyone to never say this phrase about anything.  For the record, yes you can screw up chili and you can screw it up really bad.  We all got really good at pretending it was delicious as we ate it in front of the cooks at the booth.  There was a little dissention between the group members between which chili was the best but I assure you it was the one I picked.

After the chili cook-off we got to enjoy my favorite past time, shopping.  I was given the responsibility of pushing the stroller which I must say I am pretty amazing at.  The ladies went in and out of shop after shop looking for the hidden gem that could only be found in Bryson City.  Grandpa, Drew and I walked up and down the two streets of the town and decided we needed to apply for jobs as Bryson City tour guides because we felt we knew the city well enough.  Unfortunately, since nothing is open on Sunday, we never got on the schedule.  The ladies finally visited every store within Bryson City so it was time to grab some sub sandwiches and head back to the house.  We spent the rest of the night with round two of the Taboo challenge.  Another cutthroat competition, but we were all able to remain friends before we called it a night.

Day three was greeted like clockwork by our little buddy at 6:45 again.  Another beautiful day in the mountains of North Carolina.  The previous day Fran found the local bakery which we all soon found out was her one weakness.  This visit was good for all because she bought assortment of baked goods that made for a delicious morning.  After breakfast we relaxed for a while on the back deck and enjoyed another sunrise.  Hunter was entertaining as always as we watched him crawl laps around the house.  We decided to get sub sandwiches for lunch so the Colonel (Emily's Dad) and I headed into town the grab some sandwiches.  As we drove we had to weave through all of the tumbleweed because the place was a ghost town on Sunday.  There were two restaurants that were open so we had a lot of deciding to do.  We went to the first restaurant and the guy in the kitchen said he would be right with us but it might be a bit because he was here by himself.  As we watched him meticulously arrange the pepperonis on his pizza in size order according to the year the pig was born we thought it might be a while so we headed to the second and final option.   We were in luck and get some delicious sandwiches for lunch.

The afternoon Grandpa, Drew, Fran Emily and I went for a hike through the Great Smokey Mountains.  The walk was absolutely beautiful and the trees and leaves were well documented by the five cameras that we took along.  Grandma was very kind and stayed back at the house with Hunter.  After the hike we returned to the house and got ready for our last dinner back at Jimmy Mac's.  The food was delicious again but the service left a little to be desired.  We returned to the house watched game seven of the Red Sox and Indians and went to bed.