Hello all! Nancy here. For the record I just typed up all this with two thumbs on
my phone and lost everything so this my second attempt. Before I had kids my favorite thing to do was to go on trips
and explore new places and do cool new things that you can't do just
anywhere. After I had my son, I
obviously still wanted to do this, but it is not as easy travelling and
enjoying all the things you used to enjoy with a toddler. However, I was DETERMINED to continue to
cross things off my bucket list even with a kid.
I started focusing on the things on my bucket list that I
could do within a day's driving distance of where I live. So one of the first actual vacations we took
as a family of 3 was when my son turned two. We went to Ashville, NC. I know moms that talk about how amazing their
kids travel and blah blah blah blah...well that is not my son. He hates staying in that car seat. Ashville is about 6 hours away from where I
live, but we started early to try to take advantage of him sleeping and then
most of the trip we survived by putting Cars 3 on loop on a portable DVD player
my husband rigged to the back of a headrest. I don't like him to watch too much T.V. and my
mom says I'm ruining him, but I don't care.
It beats him screaming and crying all the way to Ashville.
Anyway-this was also our first experience using Airbnb. For those of you who may not be familiar with
Airbnb, it's where owners rent out their places, or rooms in their places to
people. They are usually cheaper than a
hotel, and you really feel like you are living in the place you are visiting. Where all hotels feel pretty much the same,
each Airbnb has a different feel. It's
not for everyone, but we love it! So we
took my mom and we stayed in the upstairs of someone's house. This couple was super hippy y'all. They smelled like coconut oil. They were all natural everything. Apparently that is a thing in Ashville. Good to know. Anyway, we were a little weirded out at first, but they ended up being
super cool, and we had fun talking with them and about them.
So the whole reason why we went to Ashville was because I
wanted to slide down Sliding Rock, which is a natural waterslide in Pisgah
National Forrest. The second day
we were there we went to Sliding Rock.
The park is awesome with pretty waterfalls, lots of trails, and all that
good stuff that you find at National Parks.
The slide down Sliding Rock was super fun! I recommend that you get water shoes though
because the rocks are slippery. I don't
always plan ahead that well, and I'm more of a wing it person...so I was
sliding a little on the rocks. There
were a bunch of kids sliding down the rock, and K did go down with
his dad. But he hated it...the water was
cold, and when you get to the bottom, you will go under water. There is no staying above water. Probably people judged me for having him even go down. But I don't care. I got to snuggle him once he got out and warm
him up. You can get more info on sliding
rock here.
We also went to a nature park. K's favorite part was the big rock. He talked about it for weeks afterwards. It's a smaller park with some native North Carolina animals and a small petting zoo. There are little stations for kids to play at. K liked the stem and music stations. They have fake animals and rakes, and he literally raked up hay in the barn and threw beanbags in holes for almost two hours. Whatever makes them happy?
