Some Days are Diamonds and Some Days are Coal

Our day started out by taking Mom to her conference.  We came back to the hotel in order to get dressed and ready for the day.

Because of popular demand we headed out to Sliding Rock.  It was about 40 minutes away.  We made it all the way to entrance of the park and the road was closed.  I asked one of the network info-babes who was there shooting what was going on.

We were informed that there was escaped felon on the loose in the park.  I asked if there was any other way to get to sliding rock and she told me that is where they think he is and that it was closed until this episode passes.

Next, we decided to go to Lake Lure to swim.  When we got there we found that it was quite expensive to swim at Lake Lure - so we left there also.

Ultimately, we ended up swimming at the pool back at the Hotel.  We will hope for better sightseeing luck tomorrow.  For today we swim.

Back and forth it went from the outside pool to the inside pool and then to the hot tub.  Now we were here at this conference two years ago and I noted then that I had never seen a hot tub that made bubbles.  Anyway, it still does and it is probably not good but they still loved it.

We got cleaned up and went to get mom from the PE Institute.  I found that she had been here for lunch.  I am happy for her but my lunch included a clown and yellow M.

We were determined to turn this day around so we went to The Grove Park Inn.

Megan finally made it in a picuture

I relaxed a little

We took a lot of pictures with the great views

This was Megan's idea and would be my favorite except Emily Grace did not smile

The girls relaxed and the fire glows in the background - even in summer.  I love to get the chance to say this: Nice touch - Good job guys!

We went out for dinner and found our first choice restaurant to be closed so we found this BBQ restaurant which, like most restaurants here, was eclectic but it was also good.

There were things to occupy the kids while we waited

The food came and it was good!

Before and after of the Peanut Butter Pie

Nothing today went as planned but then again Megan had a great day at her conference.  Our healthy girls got to swim, we had a great night together as a complete family.  All in all - not bad, not bad at all.  We will take it as yet another stab of joy from a loving God and we will lay our heads down and breath a prayer of thanks for a great day of vacation.