Old Salem, Fall Pictures and a Death

Saturday was a busy, but fun day. I was up at 9:00 and gone by about 10:30 to go to a wedding at my church. One of the young ladies, who is from Haiti but has lived here and been a part of our church for several years, married a man who is also from Haiti. Most of the ceremony was in English. A song (by Celine Dion) and a portion of scripture were in French. When they exchanged rings, the groom got down on one knee. Aww. The recessional song was "I Win" by Clint Brown. (Pause the music player at the bottom of this page before clicking on the link for "I Win".) One of the groomsmen danced down the aisle "Holy Ghost" style. Ha! I loved it. :-)

I would've liked to have gone to the reception, but I'd already made plans to go to Old Salem (a Moravian village that dates back to the 1700s) with Kelly and my mom for Harvest Day: Pigs and Pippins. I got home at a little after 12:00, changed clothes and fixed Kelly's hair. My mom wanted to drive, so we had to wait for her. She finally got here around 12:30 or so.

We had a good time in Old Salem. It was a beautiful day, with highs in the upper 60s. If we hadn't had other plans for the afternoon, we would've toured every building. Charlie, the kids and I went last year for Harvest Day and were able to tour all the buildings. We really enjoyed it. I wish Kelly, my mom and I could've done it this year. I know my mom would've really liked it. As it was, we only had time to tour a couple buildings, walk the main street, go to Winkler's Bakery (I bought a piece of vanilla pound cake and a piece of almond pound cake; Kelly got a lovefeast roll and a couple pieces of vanilla pound cake) and browse a few gift shops. Still, we had fun.

African-American church in Old Salem.
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Making apple cider the really old-fashioned way.
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 Making sausage. The lady on the left seemed pleased, and a little surprised, when she pointed at three herbs and asked what they were and I was able to correctly identify them: sage, rosemary and thyme. :-)
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 A side street in Old Salem. Many houses in Old Salem are private residences. A few are for sale. What a lovely place to live.
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We left Old Salem around 3:40 and made it to Sean's football game at Oka T. Hester Park, here in Greensboro, about two minutes after it started at 4:15. (The warm-up had started at 3:15. That's why Charlie and Sean didn't go with us to Old Salem.) It was a great game. Sean's team won - 21 to 12.

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After the kids were done with their schoolwork yesterday, we went to Hagan-Stone so that I could take pictures of them. There wasn't as much color as I'd expected there to be, so we might go back and take more pictures another day.

 Sean, 15.

Kelly, 12.

After leaving Hagan-Stone, I dropped Sean off at my mom's and then Kelly I went to Wal-Mart (a few toiletries and grocery items), Lowe's (paint for Kelly's room - Surf Spray by Valspar, paint supplies, air filters for the house) and then Belk where I got two pairs of shoes, which I really needed.

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My aunt Nancy, one of my mom's younger sisters, passed away yesterday. Their brother Tony just passed away a month ago. Just like that, my mom and her remaining siblings (Wanda, James and Sherry) have lost a brother and a sister. I can't imagine what that must be like.

Old Salem and the Blue Ridge Parkway

We took the kids to Old Salem for a few hours on Saturday. It was Harvest Day at Old Salem, with a focus on pigs and apples. But that wasn't as interesting to us as touring the town and the buildings. We had been there before when Sean was little (before Kelly was born), but it was hot and we didn't stay long. The weather was perfect this time with temperatures in the low 70s, mostly clear skies and a nice breeze.

Back of the Tavern. George Washington slept here two nights.

The kids and I wanted to ride the carriage, but it costs $10 per person. Crazy. The building on the left is the Single Brothers' House.

The Winkler Bakery. A very popular place. I wanted to buy a few things there (Moravian cookies, bread, almond pound cake), but the line was too long.


Many of the homes in Old Salem are private residences, including this one. Most are nicer than this outwardly humble-looking abode.

After leaving Old Salem, we went to La Hacienda for supper and then came home.

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We went to the mountains on Sunday. A lot of the colorful leaves had been blown off by high winds on Friday and, most annoying of all, there was a detour on the Parkway that caused us to miss a few of our favorite overlooks (Alligator Back, Mahogany Rock, Stone Mountain), but it was a nice day and we enjoyed our time on the Parkway.

Fox Hunters Paradise overlook.

Tall hill at The Lump overlook.

Looking back from the top of the hill.

View from the top of the hill. That pale spot in the distance is Stone Mountain.

Another view from the top of the hill. (Click on the picture to view it large.) The mountains in the distance remind me of where the Blue Ridge Mountains get their name. The Cherokee called them "The Great Blue Hills of God".

Another view from the top of the hill.

Near the Mt. Jefferson overlook. Grandfather Mountain is the tall peak in the distance on the left.

We took the Parkway from around Fancy Gap,VA, to Boone, NC. (Though, as I said, there was a detour that took us away from the Parkway for several miles. Part of the detour took us through the very small town of Sparta. We can't help but say, "This is SPARTA!!" everytime we go to the mountains and see "Sparta" on the road signs.) Once we got to Boone, we went to the Dan'l Boone Inn Restaurant, as we always do, and enjoyed some delicious country cookin' - fried chicken, country style steak, mashed potatoes and gravy (we couldn't get enough of them), green beans, corn, salad, cole slaw, country ham biscuits (yum!). For dessert, we had a choice of banana pudding, strawberry shortcake or chocolate cake.

It was after 5:00 when we left Boone. When we got outside of Wilkesboro, we stopped at a produce stand and bought apples (Jona Gold) and pumpkin bread. They didn't have pumpkin bread at the Northwest Trading Post, where I usually get it when we go to the mountains, so I bought some at the produce stand. It's good, but not nearly as good as the pumpkin bread I've gotten at the Northwest Trading Post in the past.


I'm hoping we can do something else fun and interesting this Saturday. I was thinking maybe Alamance Battleground. We'll see.