The Wilson 6 Chronicles

Word of warning before you start reading- this post is pic heavy so if you have a slow connection (do people even have dial-up anymore?), go grab a beer because you might be here awhile. Anyway, we continued our adventure week by heading up to Tweetsie Railroad on Thursday. I've never been up there and the kids love trains so we thought it would be fun. Plus, it was close (yay for short car rides) and fairly inexpensive. We were all just glad to get to go on a vacation. It has been 2 years since we went on a vacation. We went to the beach shortly after Eleanor was born but the next summer we moved to Florida so that summer was odd (and one could argue that living in FL is kind of live being on vacation) and then last summer, I was pregnant. Not that being pregnant makes you unable to travel but it makes it tiring. But I digress. So we woke up at the crack of dawn on Thursday and headed up to Blowing Rock. After a driving altercation that ended with me rolling down the window to flip off an obnoxious driver who tried to cause a wreck, we made it up there in pretty good time. And off we went for a few hours of Old West fun. First we went on a train ride. That was pretty cool. Until we got to the part where the "savage" Indians attacked the train and I realized that, bless my bleeding liberal heart, this was kind of uncomfortable for me. I mean, the Native Americans were way mistreated by the white people so I knew that Zachary and I would have to have a talk in a few days.







(Justin again shows why he is the undisputed master of the self-portrait.)



After the train ride, we stopped off to let the kids look a the "jail" before heading up to the next part of the park. Eleanor immediately started freaking out and wailing, "I don't want to go to jail. I don't want to go to jail." So I grabbed her and we walked over the horses so she could ride for a second.

We stopped off to give the boys a chance to look inside of a tee pee. Again, I knew that a talk about Native American culture might be in our future.
I think the boys would really like to have a tee pee.

So we headed up tot he next part of the park where they had a few rides. Including a Ferris wheel. Let's all keep in mind that Justin is not a fan of heights so I was a little incredulous when he asked the Middles if they want to ride with him. So off they went. Justin recorded a video of them going around- let's just say that watching it makes my tummy hurt...from laughing so hard. I might try to upload it later but it will probably take forever because it is long. But oh so funny. Let's just say that he was trying not to totally freak the hell out and Eleanor kept trying to lean over the rail to look down. Zachary had to ride alone since I didn't want to take Harper on it but he seemed to enjoy it.

The boys and I headed over to ride the cars. Zachary and Alden rode the lead car and Eleanor and I followed behind them. I let Eleanor steer the car and we spent most of the short trip in the wall. We headed back over towards the Ferris wheel because the guy was starting up the planes and helicopters ride and, on the way, Eleanor managed to walked straight into a pole. A metal pole. The one that they had chain hanging from to herd people into an organized line. Yep, walked straight into it. I only mention this in case you notice a big red lump on the side of her head later. She walked into a pole.

Then we headed up to the very top of the park to feed the animals. Zachary and I took the chairlift (omg- I love chairlifts) and Justin walked the rest of the kid up the hill on a gravel trail. There was a bus he could ride but he wanted the exercise, I suppose. UP there, the kids rode in boats and we fed some deer and goats. Basically the same animals that the girls saw at the zoo a few weeks ago, just a few more of them.

And that was it. We took the bus back down the hill. Stopped in a few of the shops and bought the kids some fun stuff that will drive me crazy for at least a month including a really cool carved bow and arrow set for Zachary. We took one last look at the train and headed off to our hotel. Next up, Grandfather Mountain.