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| Formal portrait of a cow. |
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| Formal portrait of a cow and his friends. |
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| Mom and Maddie pose with Tinsel, an elf helper this morning at the Inn. |
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| Our view from our balcony at the Inn this morning. |
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| Visitors at our balcony! There were some nesting in the ceiling above us, which you could hear pretty clearly as we were sitting there! |
It was time to go home today. We had our big breakfast once more at the Inn, the wonderful buffet they have set up there - it was a bit more crowded, but we got a table out there. I got one more omelette - that's one thing Maddie and I have been enjoying all week: the omelette station there.
We packed up things and one fun thing that happened is our visit to the Santa Suite. There's this ultimate room there, dead center at the top floor. It's a bigger room, and the maids were cleaning it up, so I asked if we could look around in there. They said yes, so Maddie, Mom and I got to walk around to look around the Santa Suite.
After that, we made our way out of the Inn at Christmas Place one more time. We made a few stops along the way home, firstly the Christmas Shop across the way. Mom wanted to stop there and look around, so the three of us walked around the ornaments, nutcrackers, villages, and carolers - it's kind of funny how we started this little mini-trip out with a visit to a Christmas store and here we are closing out with a visit to one.
After this, we had a smooth drive over the mountains, which were extra smoky today with the humidity and rain. No animals seen though - not even the elk. That just made our trip up more special, getting to see elk and bears and cubs like that was really cool.
After that, through Cherokee and over the mountain and through Franklin... and that's when we made a stop at a visitor center there just south of Franklin, North Carolina.
We hadn't been here before, and it was kind of cool! There were some unique sodas there - I got a strawberry rhubarb and Mom got a lemon lavender flavor. Maddie got an old-school Dr. Pepper bottle, and then we were on our way.
But then we stopped at Goat Landing, a place that was formerly Goats on a Roof, and it was a fun stop. There were plenty of unique furniture items and other really random things for sale inside, including the food to feed the goats outside. It's a really unique stop along the road, and the exterior is pretty fantastic.
Some of these birdhouses - and even that front tower - are very reminiscent of a place we visited near Blairsville, something called Whimsical Fairy Garden. From what I remember, this place was taken by the government because eminent domain and widening roads. Which is a tragedy, of course. I'm glad we picked up a birdhouse from that location, one in the style you see above. We keep it inside the house, a really nice piece. And it is good to see some more of these houses here too.
And it's nice to see the goats are still here too, ready to get some food from visitors and tourists. Goat Landing is a fun destination!
After we left there, moments later... we were at the Blue Ridge Honey Company picking up some jellies and honey. We got some local honey, and Maddie got to try some habanero flavored honey. We got some chai flavored honey too, something we've picked up before.
But then finally it was time to get home. We arrived around 4pm, a little delayed because we were stuck in high school traffic there nearby. But we got home, unpacked... and then promptly got a visit from Nana and Ye-Ye! They dropped off some souvenirs from Alaska and were talking with us about their remarkable vacation up there recently. It sounded like fun!
We watched the Braves game tonight - even with the rain delay - and got to bed after that. It's been a fun day.
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