Advertisement
Published: July 25th 2018
Edit Blog Post
This past week, our little family had the opportunity to travel again to our beloved family cabin at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina. Situated near Waynesville, NC and Maggie Valley, NC, Lake Junaluska is a peaceful retreat that has become like a second home to us. I had never heard of the locale until I met and married my husband, but he grew up riding his bike along the paved pathways and taking family walks around the lake with his brother and parents.
Since then, we have come up here at least two to three times every year to reflect, spend time together, and disconnect from the technology that can be so overwhelming at times. This past trip was especially sweet, and very memorable!
We got up to the cabin around 11:00 p.m. on Friday night. We like to drive in the evening, as it usually allows the children the opportunity to sleep in the car on the way there and we enjoy grabbing dinner out together as a family. We dined on roast beef sandwiches at a local restaurant in Mocksville, NC for dinner that night. When we got there, as we expected, the kids had napped and were
ready to play, even though it was nearing midnight by the time we got everything unpacked!
We all enjoyed exploring the cabin this time around, as my mother-in-law had recently made many aesthetic and structural updates to the space, including putting in a new floating, laminate floor in the bathroom, a new vanity and mirror, and new paint in the back left guest bedroom, where my daughter and I stayed. It was all very fresh and felt new, which was nice seeing as the cabin is about fifty years old and was in dire need of a facelift!
I should say that everything stayed that way for a few hours. The next morning, however, my two-year-old son managed to lock himself into the bathroom. Though it was a simple push-button lock and he could have easily turned the knob to let himself out, he couldn't grasp that concept and 20 minutes went by. Beginning to worry that he would turn on the water in the bathtub or try to climb onto something and hurt himself, my husband and I decided we had to take action. After the decades-old doorknob broke apart but remained locked, he kicked down the
door and we were able to retrieve our son. However, in the process, we broke lumber off the wooden doorframe that led into the newly renovated bathroom! We are currently working with a local contractor (the same man who did the initial repairs) to come back and address the issue!
From there, we really enjoyed eating at all of our usual favorite restaurants, including Ammon's Grill, Creekside BBQ, Pat's Hamburgers and more. We also tried out a new breakfast spot, the Kornerstone Kafe, that will definitely be on our must-do list the next time we come up! It was the sweetest little place, the coffee was great and the staff was amazing.
We also took two full laps around the lake, totaling about eight miles in all. It is always such a treat to see the landscaping all around the lake that changes with the seasons. In the summer, we can see hibiscus plants, peonies, and roses galore on the beloved Junaluska Rose Walk. Though we didn't get to the downtown area of Waynesville like we usually do, we were able to go somewhere new nearby: The Haywood County Public Library.
As a mom, I love seeking
out local public libraries any time we visit somewhere new. They are free to visit, and there is usually a children's section where my kids can play, read and explore. This one was incredible! It had a special "Travel Around the World" exhibit set up, where visitors could read books about different countries, learn about different cultures, touch different exotic foods and more. While they played, my husband and I joked that maybe now we didn't have to book that
Turkey tour we have been contemplating! Everything we needed to visit another country was right there in front of us. This was our passport to see the world!
Before heading back on Sunday, we took one last walk around the lake and stopped to rest on the rocking chairs at the Terrace Hotel before packing up and heading back to our home near Winston-Salem, NC. For dinner that night, we stopped at a new local place called The Snack Box in Hickory, NC. The name is misleading, as it isn't a snack shop but a full-blown family restaurant. We got a ton of food including baked beans, fried chicken, chicken and dumplings, macaroni and cheese, and fresh hot rolls. It was a highlight of our trip and made us so excited to go back!
Of course, we look forward to going back every time. The fellowship, family and fun that we experience at our time away at Lake Junaluska is like no other.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.184s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 12; qc: 50; dbt: 0.1325s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb