Hickory Nut Falls

Looking up from the base of Hickory Nut Falls in Chimney Rock State Park

What's Happening

Erin and I returned from out Asheville, NC/Atlanta, GA trip at 3:20 AM on Monday, May 22. On Saturday, May 27, we will begin the Cottonwood 200, a 3-day bike ride through the Flint Hills of Kansas.  The following weekend, on Saturday, June 3rd, both of us will run the Dam-to-Dam half marathon in the Des Moines area. I'm going to follow that with a few days of Dad-time. 

Number of the Day: 98

Age of Dr. Brenda Milner, who still works at Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital. Many believe her to be emerita at her age, but she is still working some 7 decades after she began. She is currently weaving together the biology of memory and a hemisphere specialization: how the halves divide up labor. 

I saw this article appear in the Science Times on Tuesday, May 16th although it appeared first on Monday, May 15th. It was of interest to me as I was reading The Power of Habit at that time. In chapter 1 of this book, it describes a patient "Eugene" who loses the ability to create new memories. The scientist studying Eugene was professor Larry Squire.  When Larry was a PhD student a MIT, he worked alongside "the group" studying Henry Molaison. 

Whether he worked with Dr. Brenda Milner, I could not assess, but Dr. Brenda Milner was one of several scientists to have studied Henry Molaison extensively.  

Atlanta

Flights to Atlanta are much cheaper than flights to Asheville, NC. Since our friends Rachel and Dennis live in Roswell (northeast of Atlanta), we thought we could carpool with them to Asheville to meet the organizers of this trip, Gerrit and Kristi. They graciously let us crash their trip when we caught wind of it a month ago.

Rachel picked us up from the airport Friday evening and we stayed a night with her and Dennis in their new place. We had a late dinner of leftover Indian food, and stayed up late catching up.

The following morning we had a brunch at Another Broken Egg before taking off for Asheville.

Asheville

True to our nature, our first stop in Asheville was at a brewery: Catawba Brewing Co.

We made plans on the fly. I chose a brewery to go somewhat at random, and decided on Burial Brewing Company. In our attempts at parking in the area of Burial, we were unsuccessful at first, and finally found a lot that happened to be right across from Catawba. Since there was no rhyme or reason that I chose Burial in the first place, we walked into Catawba. It suited our needs and desires for that particular moment.

When Gerrit and Kristi arrived, we were able to see their 4 year old twins Gatlin and Gillian for the first time in several years! However, they had just ridden several hours in a car, and so they were wound for sound.  A beer later, we decided on ordering Indian food and joining them at a local park where we ate and let the kids play before heading to the cabin. 

The Cabin

Our cabin was in between Black Mountain and Bat Cave, NC, about 40 minutes outside of Asheville on some of the steepest and windiest roads I've been. It was a mansion of a cabin that could have very comfortably held at least one more couple. We each had our own rooms with our own bathrooms. 

Dennis captured this wonderful panoramic picture of the dinner table

The view from the deck. 

Left: Cuddle time with Gatlin and Gillian. Right: Erin cooking us an amazing breakfast.

Chimney Rock State Park

Saturday plans were made on Saturday morning. We decided to go south from the cabin first and enjoy some time at Chimney Rock State Park, so we packed for a picnic. It cost a little more than we were expecting to get into the park, but it was worth it. We chose the hike to Hickory Nut Falls as that seemed to be the easiest one for the kids and the one with the most reward.

Shots at Hickory Nut Falls

It wasn't until later that I found out this was the sight for many of the shots taken in the movie The Last of the Mohicans.  

Taken during our picnic at the base of Vista and Chimney Rock

 The scenery and company were great. Once we were finished with our picnic and playing around, we went north to Black Mountain to enjoy Black Mountain Ciderworks + Meadery as well as Pisgah Brewing Company. They were right beside each other.

A selection of ciders and mead makes Pleepleus happy.

A quick beer at Pisgah since there were no shaded tables or comfort available

That evening, we interrogated Dennis to make sure he was holiday meal ready. He flawlessly passed, navigating around our intense and rigorous questions effortlessly.

The Trip Home

We were in no hurry on Sunday morning, so we had breakfast at the cabin and some much needed R&R. After a late lunch at the Straightaway Cafe, we parted ways with Gerrit, Kristi, Gatlin, and Gillian, and headed back to Atlanta where Erin and I had a late flight out.

Left: Pre-dinner beers at Taco Mac. Right: Erin told me to order anything I wanted. I ate the entire boat.

It felt like it was my birthday at the Japanese Sushi and Steakhouse. Erin told me I could get anything I wanted! I ordered a sushi boat for two just for myself. It was delicious. I ate it all, and even had a few bites of her dish.

We couldn't thank Dennis and Rachel enough for their willingness to drive us all the way to the airport for our late flight out, which meant they also had a late night getting back to Roswell. It was a fantastic time catching up with all of them. Postcards are coming soon!