in late october, we had a surprise and very whirlwind visit from our road life friends, the jacksons, when they found themselves with some extra time while passing through the area on a long stretch of travel from the northeast to florida.
i had already made plans to take a hike to hanging rock that day, so they were happy to join in the adventure. with the recent flooding in western north carolina, all leaf peeping attempts were canceled, so this was our best bet for some fall colors. of course, that’s the idea a lot of people had for this day and the park was packed as full as i have ever seen it.
we opted for the actual hanging rock hike, even though it’s the one i made them do the last time they visited, mostly because i had recently done the other fave hike in the park a couple of times, and because it would offer the best views.
we found ourselves a little spot at the top for some faux-serene views. but make no mistake, it was swarming with people, up there.
we took our standard array of hanging rock pics. jenn had to conveniently block out a group of teens who set up camp on the iconic rock of hanging rock, ruining everyone’s photo ops. i did not block them out on my selfie with anna, demonstrating their inconsiderateness. of course we did a good bit of dangling on the other rock photo prop, photos of which also took a great deal of effort, patience, and logistics, whilst the clueless general public milled about.
on our way home, we stopped at several places to procure pumpkins for carving, but it was pretty late in the halloween season and most places were cleared out. our final stop was food lion and it did not disappoint. we scored some massive pumpkins and for very cheap. wins all around.
i took them home and jenn and brandy came by later for a fun evening of pumpkin gutting and carving.
we were pretty pleased with our creations. of course i made a bills logo. anna, currently obsessed with edgar allen poe, made a raven. hazel made her own original design (with a 17 on the backside, for josh allen). jenn made the epic octopus and brandy came through with the minion.
we had a great very fall themed day. leaves. pumpkins. (candy and such, not shown). and then they were off. leaving their pumpkins behind for us to enjoy and then feed to the chickens. 🙂