Day Two On The Mountain

So not nearly as many pictures from day two as days one or three, but not for a lack of fun things to do. Part of the fun in vacations is that first morning waking up in a new place, at least if the beds are comfortable. It also was something we put a little thought into in advance, with Eve's parents warning us that she doesn't always venture off to Sleepytown easily. Luckily we wore both babies out pretty well on day one with the activities, so hitting the sack the first night was a breeze. Both babies slept about 12 straight hours, and I had to wake them up for breakfast.



Check out Buxton enjoying the pack and play, while Eve got her own bedroom. Because Anna will read this post, I dare not mention it might be Buxton's last year in the pack and play, but compare and contrast here.





Once we did wake the babies up, they were ready for breakfast. One of the thoughts we had upon getting a griddle for Christmas was cooking pancakes, and at least I imagined doing it in the mountains. We woke up to eggs, pancakes, grits and sausage at the inn. We needed a big breakfast for a big day ahead.



When we found out about the Georgia mountains last year, and found out that one of the places featured on The Travel Channel that Anna and I wanted to go see for some time is less than an hour drive away, we knew when we came back we were going to the gem mine. The Sheffield Mine in Franklin, N.C. is known for native rubies and sapphires, along with special kid-friendly "rainbow buckets" enriched with easier to find, non-native stones. We spent several hours there, with Anna calling it something along the lines of a "redneck spa" or "hillbilly spa" or something because you get mud all over yourself and, after running your hand over rocks for several hours, become quite exfoliated. No, I probably didn't spell exfoliated right but I'm a man and I'd be more worried if I had, so let's move forward.

We took a fair amount of video, but only the one picture. It was pretty muddy and we didn't want to ruin the camera. The nice gentleman helping us scour for rubies did take the one, though. The irony is that Buxton spent more time feeding his lunch to the gem mine dog than panning for treasure, while Eve got her hands dirty and talked about "rocks" and looking for "honkers" (what they call large ruby finds) most of the time we were there. Then in the picture he looks like a mountain man and she like we drug her there with car battery cables. Oh well. You'd have to see the video I guess.