We all woke up early this morning, so we could finish packing all the bags and loading up the cars. We did one more squinty family photo in the morning sun on the top of the mountain, and then hopped into the cars.
We drove about 1.5 hours down the road, then stopped in the little town of Wythville, VA, for some gas, and headed into the nice downtown for a latte at a very cute local coffee shop.
Back on the road, the girls spent some time watching movies on their Kindles, and then eventually, Addison fell asleep for about an hour, for a little morning nap time.
Since we split the drive home into two days, with a special surprise planned for tomorrow morning, we actually went down through Asheville on our route. As soon as that plan was put into place, I texted my old college roommate and one of my besties, Emily, who now lives in Asheville with her little family. And it worked out perfectly to meet up for lunch! She picked a local pizza place for us, and it was good food, but the best company! We actually stayed for two and a half hours chatting and catching up and letting our kiddos play together. We’ve known each other for 18 years, since we were 18 years old, but it had been wayyy too long since we had seen each other!
And just for fun, here’s a picture of Emily and I from our sophomore year of college in 2007, at Flagler in St. Augustine. Who would have thought so many years later, these youngins would be meeting up for lunch in Asheville with their own youngins?!
We drove another 3-ish hours after lunch, to Dahlonega, GA, for our last night of vacation. We got a nice little hotel room at the Holiday Inn Express right in the middle of their sweet little downtown. We walked directly across the street for dinner and put our name on their waiting list. Then we had about 45 minutes to walk around and explore the area. There were lots of cute shops (we got some fudge to save for dessert) and even made our way to the free outdoor concert on the square, with a nice playground right next to it.
Fried Mac & cheese bites, which were delicious. Then I got a blue cheese and bacon burger with onion strings, but the cole slaw on the side, and Jeff got a very similar one with bacon, onion strings, and provolone.
We had also ordered some “chick bites” from the appetizers for the girls to share, which were basically like Chick-fil-A copy-cat nuggets, and they were very good. But all-in-all, we had way too much food, and couldn’t even finish everything. It was a great little spot though, and a nice splurge out on our last night.
By the time we finished dinner, it was right after 9pm, but the girls did really well at dinner and were still sweet and silly, even though it was so late. We came back to the hotel room and let them play and giggle and run wild a bit, trying to get the last of their energy out. Then I gave them a bath and got them smelling so good with Dove products here in the hotel shower. We’re all snuggled up in bed watching “The Parent Trap” for a little late night tv for just a bit, then we’ll have a late bedtime for the girls, but an early bedtime for us…
