Day 3 continued...........

Before I get to our next "adventure", I forgot to tell you why Grandfather Mountain is called that name. From a certain angle (and a distance away from the mountain), it looks like the profile of an old man's face when he is laying down. Here is a photo we took that shows that face....use your imagination to see Grandfather's forehead, eyebrows, nose, and chin.....
After we left Grandfather Mountain (on the morning of Day 3), we went to see The Blowing Rock. There is an Indian legend connected to this site. It goes as follows.......

It is said that a Chickasaw chieftan, fearful of a white man’s admiration for his lovely daughter, journeyed far from the plains to bring her to The Blowing Rock and the care of a squaw mother. One day the maiden, daydreaming on the craggy cliff, spied a Cherokee brave wandering in the wilderness far below and playfully shot an arrow in his direction. The flirtation worked because soon he appeared before her wigwam, courted her with songs of his land and they became lovers, wandering the pathless woodlands and along the crystal streams.

One day a strange reddening of the sky brought the brave and the maiden to The Blowing Rock. To him it was a sign of trouble commanding his return to his tribe in the plains. With the maiden’s entreaties not to leave her, the brave, torn by conflict of duty and heart, leaped from The Rock into the wilderness far below. The grief-stricken maiden prayed daily to the Great Spirit until one evening with a reddening sky, a gust of wind blew her lover back onto The Rock and into her arms. From that day a perpetual wind has blown up onto The Rock from the valley below. For people of other days, at least, this was explanation enough for The Blowing Rock’s mysterious winds causing even the snow to fall upside down.

Blowing Rock is 4000 feet above sea level and hangs over the Johns River Gorge in NC. Here are some pictures we took there.....(double click on them to see them in greater detail)

And this is another high place upon which I did NOT venture!!! BUT...there is hubby out there taking pictures, apparently oblivious to the crazy height of that observation platform. I will say that the carpet of evergreen trees and deciduous trees (with their beautiful colors) below the platform was breathtaking.....as you can see if you click and enlarge the photo.

Once I get hubby to pull some frames from his video, I will show some other photos of both of these places....probably not for a few more days, though. After we saw these two places, it was lunchtime and we went into the town of Blowing Rock to look around and eat lunch. It is a really neat place with an oldtown, Main Street feel to it. I have heard they have an old-fashioned 4th of July parade and I'm sure that's a treat to see. These are some photos we took around the town that day... first...a cute dulcimer shop and the lady behind the counter (not visible in this photo) was giving nice demonstrations here.

There was a wonderful park in town....with a gazebo, basketball and tennis courts, a playground and many benches on which to relax. This tree in the park really caught my eye that day.

Oh...how I loved these mums they had planted next to one of the little shops!

There were many cute shops in this town but they were all quite pricey (in my opinion) so we looked but didn't buy. We then went back to our hotel for a swim in the indoor pool and attended the manager's reception (which was held 2 nights we were there). It was very nice......complimentary wine, beer, soda, and munchies. Then we called it a night. Tomorrow......a post about our drive out to Tonya's house.