Beginning of fall break includes eating and climbing!

Monday was our first day of fall break and Maynard didn't have to work so we racked our brains for something to do.  We headed south and ended up at McCloud Mountain restaurant.  We have heard a lot about it and thought it would be a perfect day to go try it out.  We were not disappointed.

Picture of the restaraunt

For some reason it wouldn't accept the format of my pictures so the only way it would work was to screenshot it so that is why you are getting the big black box around it.  I hate that, but it's the only way it will work for now.

Our view from the table.  Amazing.  It was like sitting on a cloud while you ate dinner.

My selfie. lol

We went right at lunch time so the prices were very reasonable.  However, if you do plan on going for supper it's going to cost you a lot more.  Like a lot.  Like, you won't see me there for supper.  It's also a good idea to go during daylight time so that you can concentrate on your driving because you do drive up, up, up, up a mountain and there are lots of curves to navigate.  Also, the view is amazing and I'm not sure how well you would be able to see everything at night.
After we ate, we went out the walkway to take it all in and got a few pics.  Again, bear with the screenshots.

We were really glad we went and enjoyed the breathtaking view.  The leaves are changing colors and it was just beautiful.  I really recommend you taking your family there before they close for the season.

After we left there we headed for Pineville, KY and went to Chain Rock Park.  We took a wild hair and decided to go on a hike to see the chain rock.  It wasn't a too bad hike at first because we were walking downhill most of the time.  There were lots of steps to navigate and a bit of rough terrain at times.  We made it to the end of the trail and didn't see Chain rock anywhere.  We were a bit confused until we looked up and realized that part of our hike included climbing up a rock and then the trail continued.  Well, that wasn't going to happen.  Ha Ha.  I completely freaked.  I didn't know how safe the climb would be and I had 3 little to people to account for.  So they kiddos were disappointed they walked all that way and didn't get to see the actual Chain Rock.  Let me tell you about our climb back up the trail.  You know?  The one where it was mainly downhill all the way to the end.  Yeah well the opposite of down is up.  Too bad I wasn't thinking about that while we happily walked down the trail.  It was a rough one.  I was very thankful me and the kids had been walking and wasn't too bad out of shape so it wasn't unbearable, but we were thankful for the park benches at the top of every hill for a quit break in between climbs.  We finally made it back to the car and collapsed!

Our stragglers we had to keep waiting on.

View from top of Chain Rock mountain.

After our hike the kids were famished.  We stopped at Pizza Hut and shared a pizza,  Then drove next door and got us an ice cream cone.  We had burned a lot of calories and felt like we deserved it.

I am happy to have days like this with my family.  I have great memories of family outings growing up and I want my kids to have special memories too of their family spending time together.