Birthday Hikes and Waterfalls with my Mama!

My mom is in town all week, while Andrew is out of town for work, to celebrate my birthday…  I turned 23 today!! I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday.  We spent our day hiking to gorgeous waterfalls in Western NC, taking lots of pictures, and eating.  This birthday was the most memorable thus far!  We had no distractions whatsoever (no phones, tv, computers, etc.) other than our cameras!  Along with the many other things we have in common, today was a perfect day to share our like interests: hiking, talking, and taking pictures.  The temperature was perfect as well, never breaking 60F.

First stop- DuPont State Forest.  And if you didn’t know- parts of The Hunger Games was filmed here!
This first waterfall we hiked to was Hooker Falls (only about .5 mile from the road):

From Hooker Falls, we hiked to the bottom of Triple Falls (about 1 mile):

Here is a complete view of Triple Falls:

And from Triple Falls we hiked about 2 miles to High Falls:

We even hiked up to the covered bridge at the top of the High Falls, which was only about 1 mile away from this view.  It was jaw dropping…

We spent our afternoon in Brevard where we shopped, took an ice cream stop (I ordered a delicious pumpkin spice ice cream), and rested for a bit before heading to our last 2 waterfalls on the agenda.

This is the famous, Looking Glass Falls:

(No hiking needed for this one, its right off of Hwy 276 N!)

My mom used to come to this next waterfall a lot when she was my age with her friends to swim under in the summer.  It’s called Skinny Dip Falls and is about 1.25 miles off of 276 N (1/4 of a mile from Looking Glass):

Mom and I hung out behind Skinny Dip Falls for a while before heading back to the car.  Hiking during the week is the way to go- there was hardly anyone else on the trails.

Overall, we hiked around 10 miles total.  We’re tired girls now

My birthday dinner since I was a little girl has ALWAYS been my Dad’s spaghetti.  So Dad, since you’re not here this year- you owe me!!
However, my favorite meal my Mom made when I was young was her Chicken Pot Pie with a side of Apple Sauce.  So, she made just that for me for my birthday dinner… except she made it all veggie.  She’s so thoughtful!

Vegetable Pot Pie with a side of Apple Sauce

Two extremely full bellies later, its movie time!