Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

The beginning; taken about 7:30 AM
Around 10 AM
About an hour later, I saw a father and his daughter building a snowman on the 10th green.
3:30 PM - about 8 inches
Caught with my mouth open !!
Our condo is on the far right.
A view of the pond.
A line of trees on the golf course.
The next morning, looking west. Looking east.  Someone had the audacity to walk in the snow before I
had a chance to take the picture !
I actually got her to go out for a walk.
I was hoping you could see her first-class boots:Genuine Winn-Dixie white 13 gallon plastic garbage bags !!
It is a winter wonderland!

Friday December 18th....our blizzard of '09!!   Some of the mountains got 2 feet of snow.  Here in Spruce Pine, we got 13 inches of the beautiful white stuff.

Linville Falls and a Spruce Pine sunrise and sunset

Table Rock Mountain. 
Just east of Linville Falls.
The Linville River.
The Upper Falls.
Father and son.
Mother and son bonding.
The Upper Falls and Lower Falls.To get an idea of the scale: there is a right and left Upper Falls.  Just below the left falls you can just make out someone in red standing on the rocks.
Enjoying the view.
Both Falls from an distant overlook.
Our bedroom faces south.  It has a sliding glass door with vertical white blinds.  One morning I woke up just after 7 and the blinds were red.   When I looked out, it was as bright as the photo appears (this is facing east).
Same morning, but looking west.
Sunset.
Looked like a fire in the sky.

My son, Jerry, came to celebrate Thanksgiving with us.  On Sunday the 29th, he, Caroline and I went for an outing at Linville Falls.  It is at milepost 317 on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The leaves may be gone, but it was still spectacular.

We're in Spruce Pine, N.C.

Welcome to Spruce Pine
Our condo is the tan one on the right.  It overlooks the Grassy Creek Golf Course.
A view from our condo: the 10th hole.
Another view
The North Toe River.  Downtown Spruce Pine is just to the left.
There are 2 main roads in downtown - upper street and lower street: this is upper street looking west.
Upper street looking east.
Lower street
Part of Spruce Pine looking down from a hill.

For those who don't know where Spruce Pine is, it's half way between Boone and Asheville.  We arrived here on November 23rd and will be here until January 23rd. We choose this area to be near our daughter Tracy and her husband Kreg, who live in Bakersville, which is 11 miles north of Spruce Pine.
We had to stop off in Durham first to change out our clothes.  It's a little bit cooler here than the low 80's we enjoyed in Florida !! 

Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge - Georgia

We are back in North Carolina !!

Many of the places that are naturally wet much of the time have boardwalks instead of trails on the ground.  It keeps people from walking where they should not, yet gives a good view of the environment.
A boat ride at Billy's Lake (and the next 3 photos). 



Working on his tan
Cute little guy - about 3 feet long
(Way down upon the) Swanee River... yes, the river that Stephen Foster made famous.
(Actually, the river is spelled Suwannee;Foster changed it to make the river's 
name sound better in the song . The 'real' name of the song is
"Old Folks at Home")

We spent 3 leisurely days on the way back.  The first stop was at the Okefenokee NWR. It is just over 400,000 acres of cypress forests, marshes, lakes and islands. There are 3 entry points: north, east and the west, which is side we stopped at.

Day trip the east and south portion of the Everglades

On one of the boardwalks
Miles and miles of saw grass
An anhinga; it swims primarily 
under water to catch its food
.There it goes...
and comes up with a goodie !
We really like gators; this is a 6 footer
Baby gator, about a foot long
A 4 foot rattlesnake crossing one of the parking lots.
A 13 foot crocodile. The Everglades is the only place
where crocodiles and alligators exist in the same environment.  We did not see them both together.  A white heron.
Mt. Everest, eat your heart out !!
The dwarf cypress forest.
Full moon rising over the Everglades.

We saw the west side of the Everglades a few of weeks ago and decided to check out the other side. Both were essentially the same except for the crocodiles, which are just in the southern portion.