$$ - Highlands, NC - $$

Kathy and I decided that a little R&R was in order so this past weekend we headed to the mountains for a long weekend. This was one of our mini-vacations, but turned out to be a maxi-vacation dollar wise. We had never been to Highlands, NC before so we thought it would be a good place to spend Labor Day weekend. We made reservations at Mountain High Lodge which had the pricing of a 5 star resort hotel, but it turned out to be a 1/2 star rundown motel type accommodations. Saturday night we ate at Nick's Fine Foods and I must say that the meal was very good, and I also must say that I am not sure that I had ever paid that much for two people to eat. Highlands has lots of little shops, but they are apparently not for people who are accustomed to shopping at WalMart. We did see one painting in an art gallery that I started to purchase, but the cash I had in my wallet was just shy of the $12,500.00 they were asking for it.

We really did see some beautiful scenery such as Whitewater Falls pictured above. These falls are 411 ft high and are the highest falls in Eastern America. Of course the mountains were spectacular as usual. Below is a short video of Cullasaja Falls - turn up your speakers and pretend you are there - it will be free for you!

We were really excited about Monday morning as our plans were to go to Hendersonville, NC to the annual Apple festival which is always lots of fun. The closer we got to Hendersonville the harder it rained so we stopped at a roadside stand bought some apples and came on back home.We did have a good time -- good times are always present when Kathy and I are together.