Say Cheese: Popaw's Father's Day

Since we may not see Popaw tomorrow, we did his Father's Day today. The girls and I got up bright and early to eat breakfast with Nana and Popaw at Shatley Springs in Ashe County. The restaurant is in the middle of nowhere but they serve an awesome family style breakfast. And my family has been going there for years. After breakfast, we sat on the front porch for a while listening to a couple sing and play guitar.

Then we made our way to Ashe County Cheese. This place is a dream come true for cheese lovers. They have a cheese making plant with a viewing room where you can watch them make cheese. Then you walk across the street and load up on samples and have to decide what your taking home.
How do we get in there?

Huge mouse holding yummy cheese curds.

Makena had a hard time deciding what to buy. In the end, we brought home a wedge of cheese and a large tub of butter (oh my!).

The girls posed with the cute fire hydrant outside Ashe County Cheese.

Popaw and the girls.

After filling ourselves with samples, we headed to Grandfather Mountain. None of us had been in a while and it was nice to go back. It is absolutely beautiful up there. It's also funny how different the weather is on the mountain. While it was humid and in the low to mid nineties in Winston-Salem, it was really windy and cool on the mountain. The girls actually wore jackets! It was so windy in fact that they wouldn't even let us drive up to look at the mile-high swinging bridge (not that I was planning on crossing it.) Unfortunately, my camera died and I was only able to get one picture at Grandfather Mountain. The girls and I posed with this bear statue in the museum. Their expressions are great. Little Megan growled every time she saw a bear.....the real bears, a statue of a bear, a picture.....anything. It was pretty hilarious.

We got to see otters, eagles, deer, panthers and two really cute black bears that absolutely had it made. You could buy a cup of bear food and toss it to the bears. These big black bears would sit on their "bottom" in a reclined position and catch the food that people threw them. Quite the life if you ask me.