Well, another glorious day in paradise! We got here Wednesday night after the sun had already gone down, so we didn’t get to see the beautiful view that always welcomes us from the balcony. But we had a wonderful dinner of pizza from the Brown Trout (the best pizza, EVER, according to J), unpacked all the stuff and slept like babies. It started raining in the middle of the night and it is just so cozy with the windows open, listening to the rain and wind blowing through the trees. Yesterday it was still sprinkling, so our view was hampered a little bit due to the clouds and haziness, but it was still so nice. The smell of the rain and the pine trees was intoxicating. Took Rosie for a walk around Lake Cardinal, finishing with a swim in both lakes. She was so happy.

We were expecting the new mattresses to be delivered at noon, so we drove down to check the little shops in Lake Toxaway for rocking chairs for the porch. We found a couple that were nice, but too “finished” for the look of the patio furniture for a mountain home. So we drove a little ways down and found a consignment furniture store, full of cheap, pressed board, 70’s kind of furniture. But sitting on the front porch was the perfect, unfinished, handmade rocking chair! And inside he had just one more…so they were perfect, and 1/3 of the price of the other ones! We loaded them in the back of the SUV and picked up sandwiches and got back to the house in time to meet the delivery guys, so it was a perfect start to the day. I went for a run (or slow jog, if you can call it that, on the roller coaster hills here), and when I got back, B & B (our friends from home) were just getting here. We had the perfect evening and a fabulous dinner, then another wonderful night’s sleep listening to the rain!

Today we worked out in the gym (first time as “members”, not “guests”), then lunch and hike with Rosie to the small waterfall. Now, J and B are playing golf, and B and I are sitting on the porch, reading, and looking at the perfect, cloud-free, view of the lake and the granite faced mountains. Ahhhhhhh……

What a great weekend. It is a long drive, but it’s worth it. The view from the balcony is really breathtaking. We face the west so the sunset behind the mountains and the lake right below is so beautiful. When I got there with the girls, J had the wine open, potatoes in the oven, salad made, and steak ready for the grill. We had a really nice dinner and then sat outside on the balcony to listen to the birds and tree frogs. Rosie was a little skittish…not sure where we were. Saturday we did a long hike around Lake Cardinal and up to the halfway point at Toxaway River Falls. Rosie had a blast running down into the water and swimming around. There’s a little waterfall at the halfway point and to get up to it you have to climb up a rock that has water flowing over it. Rosie had a hard time holding on, and slid into the water a couple of times. It was pretty funny. After that she started to feel at home. She just loves taking walks when there’s water around, and there is definitely a lot of water up there.

Saturday afternoon we rented a boat and waterskiied on Lake Toxaway for the first time. The water was a little chilly but not too bad. It was really great. Then we had another great dinner at The Brown Trout. The only thing wrong with this trip was it was too short. We got internet and satellite and security alarm hooked up, and our lists of things to bring up is getting smaller, so that’s a good thing. Next trip is for fall break, so we’ll have a longer time to enjoy it. Can’t wait!

J left this morning with every single square inch of space in the SUV packed. Thank goodness H and I are going up later in a separate car. There are things stacked, packed, stuffed, and squeezed in so many places that if he opens any door other than the driver’s door, things will explode. We bought the mountain house FURNISHED, for God’s sake! I think we are just taking everything we have here that we think we need there. It’s not a big house, by the way. We want to have everything we need because the nearest shopping is 30 minutes away and we want to just get there and relax. After about 3 or 4 more trips like this we might be able to finally relax. Or else we’ll have to have a garage sale to get rid of all the junk we keep taking up there!