weekend recap...(lots of pics)

my weekend started out with a quick trip home friday evening....we live on main street, downtown & the town parade runs right in front of our house....i have to beat it home or else i'm stuck until the parade is over....i made it in time! :0)

my sis & her son (that live 2 blocks away) came down and sat with us....it was sooooo hot (it's been in the high 90's for the last week and may even reach 100 degrees today!).....i think we all ate about 6 freezer pops each while watching the parade go by! ~lol~

saturday, we decided it was time to pick some cherries....we've been eating them here & there as we walk by, but corinn had been begging me to make "cherry salad" - her own creation that pretty much is just cut up cherries in a bowl :0)

we really had to hunt for some red ones - all of the really red ones were getting eaten by the bugs & birds

one of our cherry trees is on the side of our house - between our house & this really old brick building next door.....well, when we were picking cherries off that tree, we made another discovery!


right up against that brick building is a blackberry bush! these berries remind me so much of my grandma (my dad's mom)....as kids, she'd take us on long walks near her home in WVa to hunt for these berries.....they'd grow thick along all the back roads & we'd come home with our bellies & buckets full.....when i told the girls what they were & that we could eat them, corinn literally squealed & said, "now we can make fruit salad!"


which looks like this...

until me & my girls dig in....then it looks like this...

~lol~

last night after dark, we saw our landlords out back, picking away....they must have remembered the cherry trees & discovered that this year, they produced fruit! like i mentioned in another post, this is our 3rd summer living here & the first time we've seen actual cherries.....then this morning, we walk out to leave for our day and discover that over the weekend, the hot sun has ripened a bunch more! look how red now!


so we'll be out picking some more this evening (before the bugs & birds get em all) - this time, we're going to try & make a pie or cobbler! anyone know of a good recipe?

after cherry & blackberry picking on saturday, we headed to cole's 2nd birthday party.....cole is the son of my girls' daycare provider & is so darn cute! he LOVES gabby & she's always looking out for him.....he had an outside party with water play - which the girls were THRILLED about!


gabby eating one of the krabby patties that i made for the party...


then sunday, we went on our all-girl road trip to Mountain Lake Resort! it's where they filmed half of Dirty Dancing - my fav movie of all time!

my sis drove & my mom came along for the 2 1/2 hour drive....the girls & i rode in the back, which was a little cramped, but not bad


it's called Mountain Lake, cause it really is 7 miles up a mountain! once you reach the resort, you actually drive by the hotel, before realizing it.....then when you turn around and come back, you see the view that baby & her family first saw driving up


here's the same view as in the movie - when they drive up to the sidewalk & are greeted by max kellerman (the hotel manager) & billy (johnny's cousin) helps unload their bags


of course, a lot has changed - which is kind of disappointing.....you'd think it would have been really beneficial to the resort to keep certain areas & buildings looking just like in the movie.....the biggest bummer was the lake - it's actually going dry! :0( read more about that here


here's a pic of the girls on the boat dock....you can see the water that's left in the far distance - no where near the dock any more.....the dock is where baby & neil (the dork grandson of the hotel manager) were standing at night (with the gazebo in the background) when they see lisa (baby's sister) & robbie (the jerk waiter that got penny pregnant) come out of the woods


to the right of the dock, is where the famous water lift was filmed....in that shallow area


me, my sis kelly & the girls on the boat dock


here's the gazebo where several scenes were filmed....again, the water is no where near it any more - it used to come right up to it

near the gazebo, with the hotel in the back


the virginia cottage is where baby & her family (the housemans) stayed - it overlooks the lake


the girls sitting on the chain fence that was installed by the movie makers & then left (in the movie, johnny, baby & billy step over the chain when they're running to the kitchen to find penny)....you can see the virginia cottage & lake in the background....in between, is the lawn where the activities were held during the movie....now there's a pool, tennis court, etc. there


one of the staff members said this is where the dancers stayed in the movie, but we're not so sure....they might have been changed, but they don't look too much like the ones in the movie


one of the spots i was most looking forward to seeing was the stone steps & white bridge that baby walks/dances over many times in the movie.....unfortunately, that part was filmed at Lake Lure in North Carolina - where the other half of the movie was filmed.....kelly insists this is our next road trip (6 hr drive!)....i'm game, as long as we spend the night & no kids are allowed ;0)

since we couldn't recreate the dancing bridge scene on the actual bridge, we pretended here...


here's the sign that baby passes on the path that leads to those famous steps & on to the staff's quarters....here, the path is just a hiking trail, but the sign is still there


the dining room....it's now closed in (the houseman family had breakfast on the open porch in the movie), but looks very much the same otherwise


the stone tunnel out back that johnny speeds through after breaking the car window in the the rain (cause he locked his keys inside).....he was actually driving the wrong way on a one way street


here's the barn where all the dancers had their own party (where baby first finds out about dirty dancing - she carried a watermelon ~lol~)


the inside of the barn is totally restored & now set as a stage for the special performances they have coming up for their dirty dancing themed weekends


"nobody puts baby in the corner!" the ballroom scene was actually filmed on a set, but we were pretending in the hotel's ballroom ;0)


there were gorgeous rhododendrons all over the property! i didn't notice these in the movie (especially since it was filmed in september & they weren't in bloom)....but last night, we watched the movie again & i could see the bushes here & there in the background


we had a great lunch at applebee's before heading home


then, as we got closer to home, we passed grandpa (my dad) on the interstate! it was really cool, because my kids don't really get that truck driving is grandpa's job....corinn was asleep, but gabby got to pump her arm & have grandpa honk his horn - both gabby & grandpa were grinning ear to ear!

apparently, my sister was told wrong - they don't actually give out tours.....but we used a map they had made last year for the 20th anniversary, to point out the different filming locations.....it was hot & i wore the wrong type of shoes to do a lot of walking, but overall - it was a GREAT trip! i'm glad we went & it made me love the movie even more (if that's even possible! ~lol~)

the girls enjoyed it too! gabby was able to see the different spots and relate them to scenes in the movie.....i think corinn kinda got it, but she kept saying "i wonder where baby is" and "do you think we'll find baby?".....it was so cute.....i tried hard to explain to her that baby & johnny just came there to make the movie, then they went home to their real houses.....but even after we got home, she told curtis that we had gone on this trip to "find baby" ~lol~

LOVE it! :0)