The Rest of NC

So the highlight of the NC visit was of, course the 4 day long 4th of July celebration put on by my fabulous younger sib AKA "Uncle Timmy". To get a full appreciation of the event, check out the youtube vid posted HERE.
We had family members and friends in from all over the country, and of course fireworks prep was a big part of the whole thing.

Here's Tim  and Uncle Mark working on fuses.

As if this isn't enough, the dude has become a prodigy with the whisky still, churning out bottle after bottle of toe-curling while lightning. I think it's too strong to drink so Brea and I filled a few bottles with fruit and we just eat the fruit out of it. This kind of cuts the remaining liquor a bit but it is still amazingly strong. We call it "special fruit":

And of course, the pig was incredible and cooked to perfection. Here's Ana and Tim enjoying the fruits of everyone's labor:

Bree hooks the band up with some "special fruit". That'll keep 'em playing into the wee hours!

The place was beautifully decked out for the holiday. There is something about this property + Tim's party that makes 4th of July play out like a National Geographic Special on how 4th of July SHOULD be celebrated. It's magical.

Cousins! Teddy and Sasha had so much fun with their Ferris cousins that Ted cried for a day when they finally had to leave. For the rest of the summer each time he saw a plane he would yell "My Cousins!!"

Tim and Julie. Put these 2 together for any amount of time and great things happen.

Later in the week we picked the hottest day and rented a pontoon boat. We had an awesome time motoring all around lake James. Whenever we got too hot, we just stopped and jumped in! It was a perfect day.

Teddy loved driving the boat, being on the boat, and being in the presence of Brea, who always makes sure he looks super-cool.

We got to visit with Nana for a few days and took another opportunity to get in a "4 generations" picture.

And since we did such a good job cleaning out Tim's whisky stores during the party, we got busy starting a new mash a few days after everyone had gone home. It has to sit for several weeks before you can run it through the still.

Next Sasha and I were off to the Swannanoa Gathering. A short week of fiddling and fun up in Asheville. My new friend Jeremy and I were classmates in Martin Hayes Irish class.

So we had Martin as a teacher every afternoon for 3 hours. HEAVEN! He taught us some amazing tunes, but the best stuff Martin gives you is his outlook and the way he sees things. It was great.

Sasha had so much fun in the kids program and she also took a Cape Breton style class with me which was great. One afternoon we went down to the Swannanoa river to splash and swim.

Here's Sash having fun during a slow-jam.

I also met up with Manus McGuire, one of the teachers I met last year at the Texas fiddle retreat we went to. He's the one in the striped shirt smiling. He's super cool and really nice. It was great to see him again. You never know who you'll run into at fiddle camp.

On the last day of camp we cleared out of our dorm room, drove back to Golden Valley, got some quick lunch, did some quick laundry, and then said good-bye to Grammy, Poppy-Duck and Nana. We were headed to Virginia Beach!

Our 2.5 weeks in NC were so packed with fun, friends and family that it seemed like we were there for at least a month. AND I left with only a few chigger bites and didn't even need to be sent to the doctor or anything so I'd call that a successful trip!

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