Roo, Me and the Mountains of Tennessee - Day 2

[roonlou]

Day Two, Saturday 4th May 2013
Water Water Everywhere!

Usual first night sleep with the 2am bathroom breaks, but eventually stopped dozing at 6am. We drew back the curtains to find it very dark still and heavy rain - this was not a surprise as we're expected rain for at least for the first few days of this trip.



Today we'd needed to drive a couple of hours further up in Georgia, around 120 miles, to a beautiful Bed and Breakfast that we booked in a town called Blue Ridge just north of the outskirts of the Smoky Mountains National Park. We had already planned a visit to the Aquarium in Atlanta (largest in the world and even had a whale shark) and as the day was going to be a weather wash out this indoor experience was even more perfect as far as planning could go!

We lounged in bed drinking coffee and relaxing more before finally showering and packing up for the day and headed out of the hotel just before 9am to pick up our hire car. This was nice and simple as we only needed to hop back on the Sky train and ride to the next station, the only thing we needed to worry about was the state of the hire car.

We had to make a brief visit to the Hertz Gold Member lobby as Roo's name wasn't listed for having a car ready, and also to check I was on the car insurance. Everything was all good, and we soon were checking out our slightly stale smoke smelling Jeep, all tripped out with electric everything! After Roo had familiarised himself with the setup we headed out of the car park and into the by now filthy raining day with our Sat Nav programmed up to get us to the Thumbs Up diner, a little local gem found with a spot of earlier research.

The drive out of the airport was very quiet, with some poor soaking wet runners completing in a long distance run of some sort being escorted by a few snazzy police cars, and soon we were pulling into a small, almost village like area to find parking right outside the diner. The restaurant was very vibrant and busy, but not so full that we weren't seated right away in a booth near the kitchen. The diner itself was kind of contemporary in a simple decor with an entire wall of exposed brick work flanking the side of the dining area.



The waitress was really friendly and delighted to hear our "out of town" accents, and soon we had giant cups of coffee, iced water and the promise of homemade chicken and waffles to arrive shortly at our table. The food arrived soon as promised and was really tasty, light fluffy butter milk waffles, soft scrambled eggs and freshly fried chicken, and soon smothered in warm maple syrup and mustard - a great but odd combo and very much enjoyed by us both.



Soon our tummies were full and our plates emptied! By now the rain was kind being blown sideways outside and the skies were an ominous steel grey, and so the Georgia Aquarium was going to be the perfect dry activity, we settled our tab and rushed out to the car for the 15 minute drive to our chosen destination.

The city seemed slow to wake at the weekends, as the roads were still very quiet, and due to the bad weather the tops of the sky rise buildings were hidden in the mist. We found the aquarium and the parking pretty quickly even with the overly complicated one way system and parked on the fourth floor of the already filling up multi story car park! Feeling keen, we avoided the lifts and headed down the stairs and then along the covered pathway of the ocean stars, The Olsen Fins and Dolly Finparton to name a couple etched in the concrete paving before taken a quick dash in the rain to the main entrance.



We soon found ourselves in the much shorter queue for the automated ticket machine rather than opting to join the long line at the kiosks, and after parting with some dollars were soon passing through security, compulsory "fun" green screen photography and entering the aquarium. We were impressed to be greeted by an entrance line with two huge tanks filled to the brim with large grouper, and a brave diver cleaning the glass! Wow, this was a great entrance.



The main exhibit area was ginormous, very open with a very high vaulted ceiling and the different themed exhibits leading off from this area as indicated by the huge and decorative signage. There was a dolphin theatre within, on a similar scale to Seaworld, but we wouldn't be experiencing that as the show was well after the time we needed to be heading out of town. However there was lots of other attractions to keep us entertained!

We started with the hands on Georgia Explorer area and had the opportunity to stroke some willing and some not so keen sting rays. The area was very well presented, and even had a jungle gym style area for the little ones to let some steam off. The tanks around this area were again massive, and one apparently even contained turtles, but they were being a little elusive for us and we didn't spot any. Next up the amazing amazon themed River Scout area, which felt like you were wading through the mangroves with the twisted roots wrapping round the attractions, and also included an overhead river teaming with catfish and other exotic creatures.



This area also contained piranha and Asian Short Clawed otters crying and desperately trying to open the door to their enclosure, no doubt to access their lunch! The other main attraction was of course another diver cleaning the river that flowed above our heads.



The next visiting area was entitled Cold Water Quest, and by far our favourite - here we found Beluga whales, alien like Japanese spider crabs, a close up penguin experience as you crawled through low tunnels to pop up in their exhibit. But the icing on the cake was the Sea otter enclosure, where 6 of these cute and very playful animals were wrestling in and out of the water, smashing muscles on their furry bellies, and grooming each other mere inches away behind the glass wall. The enclosure had many different viewing options, from above water, below and on dry land - and each area was visually very rewarding.

The main attraction was the ocean voyager, and wow, we have both never seen an aquarium so large in our lives all 6.3 million gallons of it. There was of course a tunnel to pass underneath as well as many other viewing locations including a 63ft long stadium style seating viewing area. But also had not only one but four Shark Whales amongst the giant manta rays and sharks, very impressive and beautiful to see.



The shark whales themselves were flown in from Taiwan in special tanks that kept their gills submerged, and were the only ones in the whole of the USA. We spent a long time in this area and even experienced the diver interactive set where three divers appeared in the tank and you could ask them questions via the man with the microphone on the dry side. One of the divers was acting security guard and had a large stick in hand to protect themselves from curious creatures with. This was entertaining but not very educational as the questions went along the lines of:-

Question - "How long do whale sharks live?"
Answer - "Good question, nobody actually knows!"
Question - "How many fish are in the tank?"
Answer - "Quite a few I believe! More than three"
Question - "How long does the air in you diving tank last?"
Answer - "Depends on what I'm doing!"

And so on with no actual real answers provided - we were also amused by the constant reminding of the land-side man to use indoor voices so the divers could hear us and us them.



The time was drifting by and the attraction was filling up fast, no doubt with like minded people avoiding the bad weather too. Next up on our tour was Tropical Diver, an area filled with brightly coloured fish, some contained in a giant tank that gave the impression that you were out in a bright and sunny day!



The final area we had to explore was the less impressive Frogs, and this was only because the theming was as of a more standard aquarium. But the frogs and toads themselves were very interesting, and we were lucky enough to find a creature in every single display case - my favourite being the bull frog tadpoles, some with only tails or one or two back legs - very cute.



The whole attraction was super busy now which was perfect as we had reached the agreed departure time, so after heading out through obligatory gift shop to the exit we stepped out to find the rain falling even harder to return to our car and make track to a little town named Blue Ridge just after 1pm.

The freeways were up to 8 lanes wide and fairly busy, but due to the inclement weather people seemed to be taking it easy. We stopped after a few miles to find a Quik Trip service station to grab a huge cup of iced tea and some spicy jerky for the journey ahead.



The journey was spent admiring the scenery (that we could make out) and as we headed further along onto smaller roads and higher into the mountains.

As the B&B had no resident Inn Keeper we had already been requested to provide an arrival time so the owner could meet us and let us in, and as we were running slightly ahead of schedule we spotted a huge Sporting Goods store and decide to go have a nosy round.



The store was amazing, clothing, fishing gear, gifts, hunting stuff, guns, knives, boats, bows - you name it, they sold it.





We spend half an hour or so exploring all the products that they had to offer, fascinated by how cheap the guns appeared to be, and were impressed by the indoor shooting range for testing the bows! Wow! In the end Roo brought himself a baseball cap and we finally left the store to find the rain even heavier than before.

[roonlou]

We had been requested to phone the owner 30 minutes before arrival, which I did whilst on route, and soon were pulling into a small sprawling village and onto a track to pull up outside the Fernbrook Inn to be greeted by Jane the colourfully dressed owner!



The house itself was gorgeous, set in a leafy and landscaped garden - she guided us to the back of the house where we passed an outdoor fire pit, another little bungalow and into the large and modern kitchen.

The property itself was over one hundred years old, but had been added to and expanded over time, finally giving them a three bed inn. The kitchen led through to a bright and beautifully decorated open planned living dining room, where she told us lots of information about the house and the services provided, and the million and one light switches. One of those was for her permeant Christmas tree that she liked so much she hadn't taken it down.

Finally into our master suite, and wow, it was beautiful. We entered through a door to find a corridor leading to a large bathroom with separate shower and jet tub (lined with candles) and twin basins.





And then into the large bedroom with a king sized bed, antique furniture and a cosy seating area by the fire. There was also a giant walk in closet containing sumptuous robes and slippers for us to use.





She had already made us dinner reservations at a local brewery come restaurant at our request earlier on during the booking and told us she'd also booked another place incase we fancied something a little more high brow than the causal dining. But releasing our relaxed dress said she would cancel the posher one. She also told us one of the other rooms was booked, so we would have company later on, and then she bid us goodbye and left us to settle in.

After unpacking a bit, we enjoyed the posh coffee machine and had a fancy coffee in the lounge whilst relaxing for awhile, I had some messaging from Mickeyetta and was delighted to send her some pictures of our amazing accommodation.

But as we had dining to get to, this was short lived as we headed into our part of the house and enjoyed a hot shower and freshen up ready to drive off in the rain to the nearby Blue Ridge Brewery.

We arrived at 6pm exactly, and were greeted warmly in the busy and cosy dining room, the pub apparently was further out back. Our waitress was very friendly and soon we were enjoying a beer flight each with four of the brewery's own beers whilst mulling over the small but interesting menu.

The four beers were strong in flavour and cloudy in nature, they really had a "home brew" look about them, we both decided the dark stout, named Black Bear Ale, that actually was made using beetroot was the tastiest. We decided to share a Shrimp mac and cheese starter, and then burgers all round to follow.

The couple on the table next to us was intrigued by our accents and enquired whether we were Australian, and then chatted to us awhile across the table. This cross table chatter seemed a common theme, as everyone seemed to know everyone else! The starter arrived and was delicious, creamy, shrimpy and covered in crispy bacon - a real crowd pleaser.



The burgers next, I had the Kobe beef with spicy sweet potato and creole slaw (spicy spicy spicy), whilst Roo enjoyed the chipota burger with more sweet potato and beans and rice.



The food was delicious, the burgers perfectly medium with a charred edge, but unfortunately the jet lag was creeping in and we both struggled to eat much food. Eventually we admitted defeat and waited for our table to be cleared. I took this time to pop to the restrooms, to be cornered by two rather drunk ladies whom after realising my nationality wanted to talk and have a drink induced display of emotion and cry about the loss of Princess Diana - very awkward and strange.

I managed to escape and found Roo had already settled up, so we high tailed it out of there and back to our little house for the night. The other guests had arrived and we briefly greeted before heading into our amazing room, Roo lit the fire, dimmed the lights and we snuggled down in the seating area for a game or two of cards and a drop of vodka listening to the crackle of the fire and the rain outside.



All in all very romantic, until we started to notice how absolutely every item within the room had a price tag - Jane had mentioned she owned a shop, and it would appear this property was part of the exquisite show room. Very amusing and finically driven!

But by ten o'clock we were both starting to drop off to sleep, so settled into the large bed for the night, knowing that the inn keeper would be there to cook us a sumptuous breakfast at 9am - very civilised.

[highland lass]

Enjoying the read
Your accommodation looks fab laughing at the price tabs !
Great food

[ginger ninja]

Wow your room looks amazing

[Guest]

Amazing accommodation and amazing looking food. Can't wait to read more.

[Guest]

hi brekkie looks amazing do you have the name of the restaurant thanks,

I feel this is going to be another brilliant trippie,look forward to reading

[Helen0705]

Wow wow wow ! Your room looks amazing !

[roonlou]

Originally Posted by roadtrippersx2

hi brekkie looks amazing do you have the name of the restaurant thanks,

I feel this is going to be another brilliant trippie,look forward to reading

See more...

Sorry, bit of a cut and paste error, missed a bit that has now been put back! The name of the breakfast joint was 'Thumbs Up Diner', would highly recommend it.

[*source*]

WOW! Accommodation looks fab Would love to do that route... Almost got to it a couple of years back but changed our plans... !

[vanlou]

what a beautiful place - love the fact everything has a price tag on it