• Thoughts,  Travel

    Whitetop to Beech Mountain

    Every year we alternate which side of the family we spend Thanksgiving with. This year it was the Rollins side, and Mom and Dad wanted to meet up in Whitetop, VA rather than Chattanooga, TN. My parents rented a second place down 58 and had my brother and our families stay at their place on Pond Mountain. My sister has been going hard since having her third baby girl this past summer, so she and her family stayed back in Chattanooga. The food was excellent and the time together was warm and fun. About 30 minutes after we arrived on Wednesday, Andy excused himself from the table and reappeared decked…

  • Travel

    Grayson Highlands

    We’ve returned from our Labor Day (Weekend) trip to Virginia, and once again I’ve taken far more pictures of wildlife than my family. The “wild” ponies were exciting for the kids, and we loved our hike in Grayson Highlands. I did get plenty of cute shots of the boys, but I’ll save those for the family. The first day we hiked, it was foggy and chilly, but two days later it was hot and clear. The ponies had moved from grazing in an open clearing to the bottom of the hill in a grove of trees. Of course, we hiked back to the top of their usual area before a…