Another Round of Golf Anyone?

I know it's been a week since part I but here is the continuation of my relax-cation.

We woke up after our sleeping off our 16hr travel day around noon. We rolled off the sleeper and into the house (seeing as we were sleeping on the porch, see previous).

Gaga had made us coffee and we discussed our plans with my grandparents. My great grandmother JP came up to the house (she lives down the hill) and we headed off to the grocery store, Ingles, which John pronounced as "Ingles?", Spanish for English. But it is the American pronunciation of the Spanish word for English pronounced Ing-gulls.

We stocked up on Diet Cokes, soda and tonic water for which to drink Vodka on the porches, and snacks for our drive home that did not reek of fish or garlic. We bought celery, mushrooms, Wasabi peas, and alas decided to make tuna sandwiches (well, to have my Gaga make tuna sandwiches because he makes the best tuna salad ever, and I will take that fact to contest. Bring it on tuna-wannabes. Tuna-bes.

We got back from the store, changed into swimsuits topped with hiking clothes, and headed for Whiteside Mountain, a 3 mile hiking trail with a very steep incline.

Our hike started out pleasantly. I did however become winded almost immediately (thanks cigarettes), causing for frequent rests on rocks and roots.

All the colors were vibrant and fresh. There was moss everywhere, green green moss

<-------------- John inspecting the green green moss.

And then we ate this mushroom.

When we saw this mushroom, John said, "Look a mushroom" and I whipped my camera out and said, "And then we ate this mushroom."

Ya see. I plan out my blogs weeks in advance. And remember my plans.
This is the first lookout point, about halfway up. I was worried the pictures wouldn't come out because it was a little foggy, but these shades of blue are beautiful. It's something out the sample pictures from Microsoft.
This is a sign talking about the Continental Divide. Which I don't know what it is, but John started telling me about it and I got bored and I started reading the sign and realized I don't care. The end.
Another gorgeous lookout.

This is a platform suspended off the mountain, and it was shaded and so beautiful. I really do love the layers of blue in these photos.
Eventually, a wire fence appeared. So that we didn't fall off the edge of the mountain because we were walking on edge. Oh man were we on edge. Literally.

At this point we were nearing the top. There were pink and yellow and white flowers, tiny stars dotting the horizon. We were on the lookout for some naturally grown THC, but alas the vegetation was too thick and that was boring.





This is another sign I didn't read all the way through, but it's a story about my great great great great uncle or grandfather or something named Charlie Wright. In 1911 he and his gf(or wife?) and his friend Gus Batty and his gf or wife went hiking up this mountain and I'm not exactly sure what happened, but he rescued them and won the Carnegie Award for Heroism. My family has been living in Cashiers for a very very long time. I just looked up the population and it says it's 196. I bet half of those people are my family.

Our final altitude at the top of Whiteside - 4,930 ft.

More Microsoft Blues. This is the view from the top.
John doing tai chi kind of. What an outfit.
Overlooking the trail back. You can see all the bald spots of the mountains from here. We made our way back down which was way easier than going up. It was fun to run down this mountain. We made it back to the car and then swung around to Slide Rock, maybe my favorite place ever.

The following is for scientific purposes only:

Slide rock. This is a natural waterslide! Those holes are whirlpools. It's hidden back behind the trees off the road and it smells amazing. The water's always a little too cold, but when plunging right in one gets used to it quickly.

John sequence:

I took 2 takes of John sliding and I believe this next video was fated. I was so lucky to have captured this wonderful blooper of John falling into one of the holes on Slide Rock, ass first. Please watch it, although the quality isn't the best, it's hilarious!

P.S. no, I don't know if I've really been going here since I was 5, but I'm pretty sure that's a close guess.

After sliding for a little while, we went back home for a dinner of Macaroni and Cheese, crock pot style, and lots of veggies courtesy of my Nana. We were tired, watched 27 Dresses (which John hated very loudly for a very long time), drank some of Gaga's vodka, and finally passed out.

The next day we woke again at noon, which surprised me. I thought we'd be up early but I guess we were still worn out. We made our way to Whitewater Falls. This is the lookout along the road.

This is Whitewater Falls from the walk up the trail. We made our way down to the falls and got to the first checkpoint.

We probably could have gone further down, but as you'll see in the next picture it was a very very very steep trail down and it seemed like it would be majorly unfun on the way back up. So I opted out and we headed back up....

8 billion stairs! That's right, someone came in and build a billion stairs down to the waterfall. Which is fine going down. But I've done the whole "I'll take the stairs" thing before when it's difficult to distinguish exactly how many flights to climb and I didn't feel like coughing up a lung so we trudged back up and then back down and made it to our next destination, Silverrun Falls. Which is amazing beautiful and secluded.

The river floor is covered in Mica which is basically what the entire mountain is made up of. Cashiers -- flaking away one silicate sheet at a time.

The water was cool, and it looked so refreshing. The waterfall tumbles into this silver lagoon. John and I made it back to my Nana's house where I grabbed my suit and my towel and we headed back.
The water was too cold to really swim in. We both sat down as low as we could, which was shoulders deep. I put my clothes back on and sat in a sun spot and dried. We left the lagoon and headed to the Iron Bridge where some drama occurred that I won't go into details about. Let's just say, when spending every waking moment with a person, ones patience tends to wear thin. And that happened to us for a little bit.

We headed back to the house, showered, changed, and at at Happ's, which was amazing. If anyone is ever in Glenville NC, go to Happs. It was delish. I had mountain trout with crawfish ettoufee, John had Scallops, and Nana, Gaga, and JP all had friend catfish.

Once we got back, I mixed John and myself another beverage, I sat on the swing and smoked cigarettes while I drank. John and Nana broke out the bubbles.
Isn't this cute. That's my Nana. She's named Sandra first. Oh, my real name is Sandra Grace. SandrA GracE.

That's where my name comes from. That's what happens when pregnant and bored I guess.
This is JP. She's 87. She's my great grandmother. We call her JP. John loved JP. He thought she was adorbs. Me too. I don't really see her that much. But she's pretty healthy for an old lady (My Nana called her an old goat jokingly to her face and JP laughed as though she was flattered that Nana had called her that). Apparently, she walked up Whiteside Mountain(our hike from before) a year prior after having both knees replaced. And she definitely talked about her colon alot. The two videos that follow are her dirty limericks. The video is bad, I was trying to look inconspicuous which led to me pointing towards the ceiling. But the audio is priceless. The first is titled "Adam and Eve". The second is a toast titled "Here's to you":

This is my Gaga. He was killing bees alot while we were there. This is him in his bee killing costume. I like my Gaga, he's funny.

This is the porch of their house. They've lived here about 15 years or so I guess. I love this house, they better leave it to me in their will.

When I was about 13 or 14, I got an E.T. Furby. E.T. is a pretty common theme in my blog, I love E.T. Anyways, E.T. would tell jokes and stories and play games and you could make him fly and his finger lit up and his heart light. My nana got one too. While Nicki Cathro threw and broke mine once out of fear, Nana's is still alive and kicking. On the same batteries I think. Apparently she does this alot:

After E.T., we headed to Highlands, a little shopping town about 10 miles out of Cashiers. I read up on Highlands too. The population was 909 as of 2000, but will peak from 10,000 - 15,000 from Spring to Fall. I like Highlands alot, it's very quaint. Kids will pick a bench and grab an ice cream from Kilwins (more later) and lick up dripping lines off their napkin wrapped cones while their moms buy Escada blazers, souvenear spoons, and Strawberry Rubarb jams.
Kilwins is a great candy store. The above picture is their Superman Ice Cream. I just like the way it looks through the glass, it has a very interesting taste. Kilwins was packed when we entered. John bought a turtle cone and I bought some Maple Walnut fudge to bring home to Daddy. Maple Walnut fudge might be the only thing my Dad will ever be happy about me bringing home.

We stopped at Colonel Mustards, the wine/jam/spread/condiment store. I took a picture of this for my dad because he loves to eat dead animals and flaunt that in my face. John got a bottle of NC made Shiraz for us to share with Alex and Jro (which we did a few nights ago).

This is Anna Wear, the mountain Urban Outfitters. I love this store, the sales are great and the clothes are eclectic and rare. Well, the brands aren't but these are clothes you'll find in few boutiques in Texas. I bought a green polyester dress that was a cut off version of my mom's prom dress, of which I wear from time to time.

We headed back home. A video of the winding road and some Dylan plays below.

This is the short drive up to my grandparents house. It's changed immensly over the years. That stone wall wasn't there. That rope swing used to be on the porch. And the newer bonneville is their updated version of the old airplane they gave me for my 15th birthday. Yes, I got a car for my 15th birthday.
This is the house my great-great grandmother lived in. it's fallen down almost completely, some idiot in our family bought the land and let it go to pot. There is overgrowth everywhere, and snakes. John and I wanted to walk back in there but we were told not to because of the snakes. It's a beautiful view, driving past.

John and I drove down to my Aunt Celeste's house a few miles away. And this is her house, the Victorian Wonderland. She's thinking about renting it out as a movie set. Which is totes possible.

This is the river in her front yard. No lie.

These are my cousins trampolining. Left to right, Maddie, Brooke, and Harper, and John. These babies are growing up. And it makes me sad.