Visiting Dixie – Day 6 Part 2

I never ceased to be amazed at how great the parks were on our vacation! After visiting Natural Tunnel State Park in Virginia, we went back across the border and hit Bays Mountain, a city park in Kingsport, Tennessee.

This park had a bit of everything: a museum, a small zoo, a planetarium, a challenge ropes course, a lake with barge tours, hiking trails… Very cool!

We didn’t get to take a tour of the lake or do the challenge course but we did see the museum, the zoo, and watch a presentation/show in the planetarium. I think I learned more in an hour than Zack did in his entire college astronomy course… LOL

I never knew what the inside of a beaver dam looked like before

 

The rocks and minerals display in the hallway to the basement was very nice!

 

There were lots of local animals at the zoo…

If you are squeamish, look away! It was feeding time for the snakes!

   

The otter was much cuter than the snakes! ;o)

The wolves would not hold still but Chris did manage to get a few pics…

The owls were my favorites!

By the time we got out of the show at the planetarium, there wasn’t tons of time left. But we decided to hit some of the trails anyway.

First we walked along the lake to the dam…

Then to the footbridge…

We really wanted to go to the fire lookout and see the view!

But as you can see, it was a little too far away…

Fortunately, there was a second lookout much closer that we could make it to before the park closed! It was a steep climb up but made for very nice views along the trail!

   

Then we finally made it to the lookout… and more stairs!

I think the view was probably better about 20-30 years ago. :o(

All we were able to really see were trees and this sweet little farm!

All that hiking worked up quite an appetite! So we stopped for some authentic Tennessee BBQ at Pratt’s. How could a place with a 10-foot tall concrete indian not be good? We were right! The food was delicious!

     Then it was back to North Carolina for the night. But all that BBQ meant we needed a pit stop along the Tennessee border. So we stopped at a rest stop along the freeway.

 

  Yes, the REST STOP had fall decorations outside, quilts hanging on the walls, rocking chairs by a fireplace and travel brochures organized by region and in alphabetical order! Wow, Tennessee, you know how to make people feel welcome!

When we got into North Carolina we made another stop at a rest area to find out about hotels. Not quite as nice as Tennessee, but it was also VERY nice!

I think the PNW should be taking notes on how this should be done… ;o)

Cranberry Boggin’

My youngest son and I went on an adventure today out to Long Beach to pick  cranberries. Every year I run out of fresh cranberries long before I get tired of them. Mainly because I adore my friend Lois’ cranberry sauce recipe! This year I wondered if I could can the sauce and have it all year round??? So, I asked a canning expert/teacher and she said it was a go for canning! But that meant I needed a whole LOT of fresh cranberries!

We also happen to live only an hour from the Washington coast where they grow cranberries. And there happens to be a lovely little cranberry farm in Long Beach that lets you u-pick your own, Cranguma Farms. And they are only 50 cents a pound! It was totally worth the gas to drive out, so I picked up Will from school at noon and we drove out to the coast…

When we got to the farm we discovered that the bog had already been flooded. This would make picking difficult but scooping easy. Unfortunately, we didn’t bring waders. :o(  But they did provide us with the nifty pails for scooping!

So, off we went to the water’s edge to scoop out our cranberries. The problem was you also scooped up a whole lot of leaves! Little tiny sticky leaves…

  First, you scoop them out along with a whole bunch of leaves and a whole bunch of water. All the while being very careful not to get your shoes wet. Then you carefully drain the water off and drop the whole messy bunch in a bucket.

After getting 20 pounds of leafy cranberries, I decided I wasn’t sure it was worth all the work to save 50 cents a pound when there was a  giant bin full of already picked and clean cranberries just ready to fill my bin. So, we quit.

In the end, we brought home 50 pounds of cleaned berries and 20 not-so-clean berries…

    We’re working on the cleaning issue right now. We’ll let you know how it goes… :o)