Beers, Burgers, and the Nantahala

Trip and Katie arrived sometime yesterday afternoon after a long drive from the D.C. area. They were able to get a head start Wednesday night and continued the rest of the way Thursday. We were all really excited to see them! We were able to have a quick visit with Trip over Labor Day, but we hadn't seen Katie since June- and Nicholas has grown a lot since then! She even commented that she had never seen him so awake until now. We decided to do an at home dinner with tacos for the main dish. Chris and I had made an earlier trip to Ingles Markets, the local grocery store, to gather all the ingredients. We did well, even thinking to get guacamole (my mom's favorite) as well as chips and salsa. However, in Maitland tradition, we forgot the essential ingredient to tacos....tortillas. We made it work though, and taco night became taco salad which was equally delicious with all the added ingredients we rounded up. And healthier too!
My mom opted to stay in with Nicholas while Trip, Chris, Katie and I ventured out to check out the Tap Room (Nantahala Brewing Company). It was a really cool local hangout, the outside looked like an airplane hanger and the inside was very open and spacious. Dogs were allowed inside and there were plenty of them, and it even had cornhole and the giant jenga stacking tower game. They had lots to choose from on tap, our favorites including Dirty Girl Blonde (a light and crisp lager-ish beer), Rivers End Oktoberfest, Bryson City Brown (smooth and light with a chocolate flavor), and Pattons Run Porter. We were able to sample beer, as well as had a pint each, and purchased several growlers (beer-to-go) to take back with us.

To complete the night we decided since it was almost Halloween we had to watch a scary movie. We felt that The Shining would be perfect since we were staying in the mountains and it would be extra spooky with all of the lights turned off. This was Katie's first time seeing the film which made it that much more fun. To her credit, she did really well and only jumped a couple of times. My mom even sat in on the first part until it started getting into the creepy parts. Afterwards, it was late and we needed to get some rest since we were going to be tackling the Nantahala River the next morning.
Now that we have a baby we do not need an alarm clock. Especially since we are sharing a room with him which is "fun." He does well and sleeps through the night, but he loves kicking and scratching the mesh siding on his pack 'n play which would wake anyone up. So around 8:30am we got started with our day, had a yummy breakfast of oatmeal and pumpkin granola and headed for the river. Trip had a special breakfast of his own. A belated birthday breakfast compliments of Chris and myself.

 He loves the show Breaking Bad so it's only fitting. My mom once again opting to stay with Nicholas (can you blame her?). It was cool out, but the sun wasn't very bright when we first arrived making the water seem that much chillier. Chris showed everyone up by his impressive stone skipping talent (even eliciting a "good job" from a random kid) while we waited for our self-guided tour to begin.
We opted for a four person raft and decided to go on our own as we had all been white water rafting before (Trip and I both having done this river) and elected Chris to be our "captain" so to speak and be in charge of actually steering the boat. We were given jackets to wear underneath our lifevests, and Trip opted to wear these giant Aladdin looking pants.

We had to watch a safety video before riding over in a van to where our starting point would be. It was the perfect day for rafting and the sun finally came out. It was an 8 mile trip that took about 2 hours to complete. We had tons of fun doing it and only got stuck on a rock once. The water was really low in parts so it was almost impossible to get through without getting stuck. Most of the rapids were Class II's and fairly easy and straight-forward. We got turned around a couple of times, but overall we were a really strong team and did well together (except for the times Trip got silly and tried to throw us off course).

At the end of the tour was the Nantahala Falls. They offered a cheat spot which rafters behind us opted to take in which you can pull over and take a walkway back to the Outdoor Center leaving your raft behind for the workers to pick up. We did stop, but just for a photo opp and to watch the kayaks attempt the falls.
We did get back in though and went down the Falls which was a lot of fun! We nipped the edge of the hydraulic and ended with a big splash.

At this point in the day it was close to 2 so we decided to stop for some lunch at Jimmy Mac's in downtown Bryson City for some elk and buffalo 1 lb. burgers. They were delicious!!

Tonight we are just going to take it easy, Trip and Katie are cooking homemade pizza tonight for dinner. We plan on taking advantage of our awesome porch space and doing a game night. Late tonight my dad will be flying into Ashville where he will meet up with us back at the house to join us for the rest of the weekend.