10-24-11 Sunday (Rock Climbing!)

We met up with Mike and Billy for a roadtrip today!  Off to McDonalds for breakfast first and then a 2 hour drive.

First I want to tell you that we ate in a recently remodeled McDonalds close to home.  What a dumb remodel.  The majority of seating were picnic bench style or ottomans.  I'm not sure about you but I hate sitting to meal with no back support.  Jim says it's so people won't be comfortable and will leave sooner.  Probably so.  The other thing about the seating was that the few seats that did have back support seemed to be a hard surface with a piece of leather (or pleather) stretched over it.  Why bother?  No padding or fill, can't slide across the leather, and it probably tears easier.  It's like it looked comfortable but wasn't at all.

My next observation was the help wanted poster.  I'm not down on anyone who works there.  You gotta start some where, or maybe you like it or maybe you'll be an owner or manager someday or maybe they have hours that work for you or ?  I just giggle at the "all majors" part.  Gee, they'll even take me if my major is accounting?  Spectacular!

Onward to Chimney Rock State Park!   The drive was scenic, but not 100% spectacular.  There's still a lot of green and not as much brown, orange, blue, and yellow quite yet.  Blue?  Just checking if you're paying attention or not.

The elevator at the park was closed for renovations.  The walk up all the steps was grueling.  My knees felt like they were on fire.  We took many breaks to catch our breath and rest our legs.  We made it to Exclamation Point.  This excerpt from their website sums it up:

"At an elevation of 2,480 feet, Exclamation Point is the pinnacle of the Park. It exceeds Chimney Rock’s elevation by 200 feet. Standing here, you can feel proud and justifiably weary because you have just driven and hiked over 1,400 vertical feet from the entrance to the Park, which you can see way, way down in the valley."

Awesome views, tired bodies, empty stomachs.  It was already 2 and we were hungry.  Unfortunately we decided to skip the waterfalls.  The good thing is that on the way out of the park, we upgraded our passes to annual passes for $11 more per person.  So sometime in the Spring, we'll make the trek back to see the falls. 

Here’s the day’s photos:

Chimney Rock Photos VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

For a late lunch, early dinner we ate at LaStrada Italian restaurant.  Italian sounded good to us AND they featured outdoor dining overlooking Lake Lure.  We over heard a server talking about a Charlotte location.  We confirmed with the guy at the hostess desk which turned out to be the owner/manager’s son.  They do indeed have a location here but 45 minutes away in the Wesley Chapel/Matthews area.  The food was delish.

That’s all I got!