Murray's Mill

The fun continues in western North Carolina! Today we visited Murray's Mill, a historic mill in Catawba County listed the National Register of Historic Sites. The mill, dating back to 1913, is still able to grind flour from wheat and corn but only operates during special events and festivals now. One of these festival is the popular Harvest Folk Festival that takes place on the last Saturday and Sunday in September every year and provides music and fun for all. Other historic structures on site are The John Murray Home, Murray and Minges General Store, and the Wheat House. The General Store, built in 1890, is full of old time goodies and treats for the eyes as well. The Wheat House, built in the 1880's, now functions as an exhibit gallery featuring work by local artists and also traveling art exhibits several times a year. Outdoors, there are grassy areas perfect for picnicking and a short hiking trail that ambles down to the river. We enjoyed the short scenic hike and discovered and caught a frog to the delight of our children. We finished our tour with a trip to the general store to enjoy frosty cream sodas in glass bottles and giant pixie sticks. It was fun and educational trip for us. Self guided and guided tours are available for $5 and $6 per person respectively and we look forward to coming back in late September to catch the Harvest Festival! For More information visit the official website at www. websiteHere is my cute husband humoring me and letting me take his picture in a field of flowers. Be still my heart!

Love Valley, NC

A couple of months ago when it was still jacket weather, we visited NC's very own cowboy town just north of Statesville,"Love Valley." With a name like that you have to go check it out. Note to anyone who might plan to visit: schedule pony rides in advance and plan to go when they are having an event. We had fun taking pictures on ponies though and feeding one horse it's favorite treat, skittles! The kids also had a blast playing with an awesome dog. The dog's owner taught the kids to pick up a little pebble and throw it and the dog would bring the exact same pebble back every time. Afterwards, as we were walking, Liam spotted and fell in love with a busted soccer ball. He picked it up and enjoyed pushing it around in the stroller. On the way home we found an amazingly beautiful field of blue cornflowers and had to stop and admire. The blues were breathtaking!

Hunger Games District 12, Hildebran, NC

About 20 minutes from Greg's parents house in the town of Hildebran sits a small abandoned mill town where parts of the hunger games (district 12) were shot. It is right off the side of the road and they did not have to do hardly anything to get it film ready. It is private land but anyone can drive by or up and take a look around. It feels like a different world there. Parker dug up an old 7up bottle and Meadow found some diffusion paper in the grass! Diffusion paper is used in films to go over lights to alter the lighting. :) Some of the mill homes still had old furniture in them. It was fun to explore!

Eno River

What a great little family hike just outside of Durham! What a very fun bridge that Liam threw his passie off of into the river. We did do a daring rescue for it though. :) We parked in the Cole Mill access and started the hike there and then branched off onto the the Fanny's Ford trail. Next time we'll start our hike a little earlier because I think the kids would have played for hours in the ford.


Sneaking up on the crane. Click on the picture below to enlarge. See if you can find it!





Fording the Ford. :)