Townsend weekend

Friends invited us again to stay the w/e in some cabins near Cades Cove.  Here are some pics of the w/e:

Our room

About to set off on the loop road.  A drizzle was starting....

The kids

Andrews Bald

Huckleberries at Andrews Bald

The umbrella came in handy for shade

A waterfall along the way back

A BD picnic

A group of us family descended on a local lake/dam for a birthday picnic.

Let me check - does it say 21?

Happy 21st! 

Yummy food!

Ahhh - swim time!

The best place to catch salamanders - temporarily of course!

Ahhh, a sweet salamander.  Isn't he cute?

Bats out of ..... a cave.

No, not like bats out of hell.  Here is a little local trip we made to see about 100 000 bats coming out of their cave just after sunset one evening.  Yes, the bats themselves are just blurs but you get the idea.  We canoed and kayaked there with a couple friends - a 15-20 minute paddle.  Also while there we saw a Heritage train go by.  Hubby knows more - I don't....

Unloading the canoe

Stay still, will you!

Approaching the cave.  It's fenced across the entrance to protect the bats, (and humans who might get lost there...once, a scuba diver had only minutes of air left before being rescued)

The dog was wise to remain still, ha ha.  So cute!

Every now and then a large fish would jump out of the water which startled poor Murphy dog.

Minutes before sunset

The train track went right by us on a finger of land.

Sun almost down,  the cave is directly behind us.

Taken from below the lip of the cave looking up.

Enhanced a bit

Photo enhanced and shadows lightened

More and more bats.....

The only sound was the quiet whirring of wings and a squeak every now and then.

This is a sight to see, local Chattanoogians - you don't have to go to Mammoth or Carlsbad to see thousands of bats emerging.  It's quite literally awe-inspiring here in your own backyard!

Summary of Summery activities

Since my camera is now NON waterproof, I am very limited in the amount of photos I can take,  so this is really barely representative of some of the things, especially water related doings.

Waiting for the plunge.  Later in the afternoon a train went by - usually only a once-or-twice-a-day event.

Wishing she could jump!

A rescued Lunar moth whose abdomen had been eaten by a fish.

The water was high

Looking downstream

Looking upstream

A bucketful of harvest

This summer we had a LOT of this!  Over 17 inches of rain ABOVE NORMAL.

Pasta in a pot

Did some tomato canning

The three water ballerinas

Lake Conasauga

Another character at the lake

What fun we had off this dock.

Daddy coming closer in the canoe

Packing up to go home

Lots of rain makes jungle.  This is my compost area.....or it WAS.

Our cute greenhouse/garden shed.

The grassy patch masquerading as a vegie garden.  Oh, sadness!