Friday with the Tallers- Henry.

The Tallers came down on Wednesday and mama and papa left on Thursday. It just so happened that papa had to give a speech in Raleigh and mama was invited along. They sweet talked Aunt Jenni and Uncle Jim into watching us and sped away on a 24 hour vacation. They got to stay in the only 5-star hotel in North Carolina and were very reluctant to come back back on Friday morning.

When they got back, we loaded up the car to do a little site-seeing. We traveled west to the mountains and ended up at the Stumphouse Mountain Tunnel. These pictures aren't blurry, it was a dreary, foggy day.

Back in the 1850's, there was work to dig a tunnel under Stumphouse mountain to get the railroad north to Cincinnati. (even back then, everyone wanted to get to the 'Nati.) Men blasted and dug the tunnel about 400 feet in (at the pace of 20 feet a month!) until they ran out of money due to the Civil War. The project was abandoned and a couple of years ago, the tunnel was opened up to the public.

Here we are on our way in. The foggy weather made the tunnel very spooky.

So did the fact that the tunnel is completely pitch black. It's very humid inside and very foggy. And because it has been raining for about 3 weeks straight, water was running down the walls and dripping from the top of the tunnel. Good thing we took our flashlights.

Luckily we reached the end of the tunnel quickly and got back out before any bears caught us. Rumor has it that Clemson used this tunnel in the mid century to age its famous blue cheese. We didn't stick around long enough to try to find any.

We were glad to get back outside into the light. Outside the tunnel was an out flatbed rail car for us to climb on.

Right down the road was a little trail to another local waterfall (that's 2 off our list!). Isaqueena Falls was named for an Indian Maiden who ran away from home to warm her English lover of an impending attack. Her tribe chased her and she pretended to jump over the falls and hid to make it look like she died. You can't see the full falls from this picture but it is about 100 feet down.

What a good looking family. Mama tried to convince them that they needed at little boy to complete things but they refused to take me home.

Here's a video of us on our way down to the lookout. I tried to get Aunt Jenni to come look while she stood under a tree. Juner ran down the hill.

Good thing Aunt Jenni dressed her in brown, because Junie was a mess by the time we left the falls. She fell in every mud puddle she could find.

This really doesn't do it justice, but if you look closely, you can see her left leg is covered in mud and the toe of her shoe is blown out.

Next we headed into Wallhalla (holla!). We visited a shop that featured any kind of Confederate flag merchandise you could ever want (including 5 different bikinis!). Then we visited a great restaurant called the Steak House Cefeteria. Cafeterias are big down here and this one had the very best fried chicken we've ever tasted.

When we got back into Clemson, we visited papa's office on campus and took a walk down to Death Valley.

Of course, the Tallers immediately jumped into pose to spell out O-H-I-O. Don't you guys know where you are?

Annalise hitched a ride back up the hill on Uncle Bran.

Uncle Jim and Aunt Jenni took an alternate way back to the car and immediately sent Schlee into hysterics that her BFF was not in sight.

Aunt Jenni cuddled up close to Dr. Cox- the University's 10th president.

Things really got crazy when we got Beatles Rock Band out. We all played while Juner took pictures.

What me rock the pedal during Yellow Submarine.

This is our favorite video. Not oblivious to the great injustices of the world, Annalise got mad because she "NEVER gets to play the drums." I took over on vocals, later to be backed up by Juner.

And Aunt Jenni showed everyone how it is done.

Waiting for company- June.

We had more visitors this week- Aunt Jenni, Uncle Jim, Evie and Annalise came down to spend their fall break with us. Mama and papa had a lot to do to get the house ready so they told me to keep myself busy.

I put on my hat and climbed up to my favorite chair to park some cars, just like my big brother.

Mama wondered why I was being so quiet. Then she realized that I had pulled the fruit bowl over and was eating an apple.

Then she realized I'd taken a bite from every apple in the bowl.