A Day in the Life

This past weekend, we packed up the car with most of the contents of our home and headed out to the fall LEAF festival.  This festival takes place in Black Mountain, NC which is just about a half hour east of Asheville.  As we made our way into the mountains, the fall colors on the leaves were truly breathtaking and immediately lifted away any stress.

We arrived 0n Friday and boy, was it cold!  The temperature wasn’t too low, but it was a blustery day.  Chris, Tammy, Ben, and Noah met up with us and we found the most private spot to camp bordering a creek.  Our site was high on the hill and the leaves enveloped us. 

Friday night’s musical highlight was  the Skatalites which we watched until Graham was too tired to watch anymore.  It was a super frigid night and I was proud of Graham for curling up in his dinosaur sleeping bag and not waking up all night to complain about the cold.

Saturday the weather comfortably stayed right in the 60’s.  After a yummy french toast breakfast, we caught the ukulele driven female led Mad Tea Party first which was lots of fun.  That day we did lots of wandering around the festival grounds taking in all of the sights and sounds.  There is no better people watching!

One of my favorite things to do is to check out the kid’s market.  Children 5-12 can sell handcrafted items in this little market area and they sell them for no more than 5 bucks.  I love it and adore watching the kids try to push their wares.  Michael let Graham pick out a few items for my birthday which was a great idea. 

We also spent some time watching people dance in the dance hall.  Many people come to LEAF solely for the Cajun, contra, and salsa dancing opportunities and they are fantastic to watch for a while.  Michael and I twirled Graham around on the dance floor for a while to Cajun music until he got to heavy to hold which happens fairly quickly these days.

On Sunday, we were able to catch Mamadou Diabate, a West African band.  The lead musician plays the kora which is a 21 stringed instrument that makes a uniquely peaceful sound.  After that, we packed up, got some lunch, and hit the road.  I was sad to go and wish we had more time.  We vowed to come back in the spring a day earlier so we could fully enjoy the place.  Regardless, I’m so happy to have discovered the magic of LEAF once again.

We made the journey up the mountain this weekend to stay with our friend Bill at his cabin near Brevard.  Bill’s brother’s family joined us as well as our friend Brad.  We had hoped to have time for a little hike, but got a late start.  So, we ended up stopping at Caeser’s Head for a quick walk around the peak.  It is an amazing view from there and such a treasure to have so close to home.   We hiked a little bit and Graham had fun trying to climb up rocks. 

   The mountain house was as tranquil as ever.  The guys sat around playing guitar and Graham joined in.  Graham has a little green guitar that he got for his birthday and he really likes to pluck as those strings.  He’s actually improving I think.  Michael brought up a pumpkin and carving tools and he and Graham carved a pumpkin.  Graham tried to feed the pumpkin garlic bread during dinner. 

Brad and I then took on Michael and Jay for a game of overland bocce.  Michael was able to pull off a victory once again!  After an enormous spagetthi dinner, we had to retire to the living room and the fireplace. 

It was freezing outside!  The thermometer actually read 25 degrees at one point.  We stayed fairly warm under lots of blankets, but it was tough getting out of bed in the morning.  All in all, it was another glorious mountain adventure!