US 2016 (iv): Grandfather Mountain, Charlotte and Georgia Aquarium

I've been extending my stay at the Blue House for the subsequent trips. For this trip, it was a couple of days shy of 2 weeks. Sila's 'Jangan balik' (Don't go back) pleas seem to be working :D.

It had been an amazing stay - The entire family treated me like family. The kids still enjoyed having their uncle Zarin around [I hope :)]. Food and sodas were at a surplus. We went on an awesome 5-night roadtrip. Too bad the weather was a downer on the last two days that we had to do without the trip to Kings Island. I just felt bad for Yaya because she was looking forward for it since 2 years ago. But Sila and Vin assured me that they'd take her out to 'the fair' (that's what she calls the theme park) one of these days.

So Wednesday came, and I had to leave with a heavy heart.

The gang minus Vin sending me to the airport; Vin went to return the rental van. I'm gonna miss you guys

Foggy morning... so does that mean my flight is cancelled? Haha, wishful thinking

The flight to Atlanta was on schedule, but the connecting flight to Raleigh was delayed by a plane switch. We had already boarded the original plane when the captain announced that the engineers still could not find the root cause to the weather system issue even though they had replaced the entire weather radar. They needed it to be functioning at 100% because a severe weather system was approaching Raleigh later in the day.

Engineers replacing the weather radar

Time to change planes

It was a non-jacket weather here

The next day, PS and I embarked on a roadtrip that would take us to GrandFather Mountain near Linville NC, Charlotte NC and Atlanta GA. The rest of the family stayed back because school was still in session.

We left before the sun was up, hoping that we that could reach GrandFather Mountain before it got hot. It was still going to be a 200-mile (~320km) drive.

Road trip (Purple line): Cary-GrandFather Mountain-Charlotte-Atlanta-Cary

At around 5:30-ish... Yes, it was that early :D

That's fog... not haze :)

One of the view points on the Blue Ridge Parkway

GrandFather Mountain is where you'd find the 228-foot Mile High Swinging Bridge, America's highest suspension bridge. No hiking is necessary. All you need to do is to drive your car up to the parking bay. We did ask the lady behind the cash register if we could drive to the top. She said "You MUST drive your car."

Driving up to the swinging bridge

The Mile High Swinging Bridge

228 foot (~87m) suspension bridge

Awesome view

One mile high

I didn't dare to go where PS went, knowing well how clumsy I am. Hehehe.

Joker :D

GrandFather Mountain... Gunung Datuk like in Rembau? :)

Holding onto the railings to avoid falling off... Wuss :D

When we checked that Charlotte is 110 miles (177km) away, we knew we wouldn't get there in time for the final time slots for the whitewater rafting. So we took our time at GrandFather Mountain to do some hiking and explore the small zoo.

To the Arch Rock

Membawa diri :D

We think this is the Arch Rock. We turned back before reaching the GrandMother view

Bald eagle in its cage

Male and female?

The bears' den

That one is avoiding us

Waiting patiently for their play materials

Here comes another one

A reminder not to feed bears :D

Cougar

The US National Whitewater Center was a really cool place. You could do water (whitewater rafting and kayaking) and land (climbing, biking, ropes and ziplines) activities. If we had a full day, we would have gotten the day pass. I'd skip the kayaking though because the slalom looked scary, especially when I couldn't swim to save myself. Hehehe.

I don't dare to attempt this on my own

Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream...

Conveyor belt

The girl got stuck before reaching the platform, so she had to be rescued. Perhaps she was too light and didn't have the momentum to carry her to the platform?

A trail running event was taking place

Climbing area

That evening, before heading towards our hotel, we dined at Hooters at Uptown Charlotte. Our first time in any Hooters outlet :D. We did drop by at the outlet in Miami when we were there in 2001, but I just bought a couple of t-shirts for my brothers :).

Time for dinner :)

Waiting patiently for our food

Wait, where are the Hooter girls at?

Shrimps in a 3-star hot sauce that you could feel it on your lips! And it's not even a 4-star

Fish and onion rings

With Charr, our waiter. Haha, ignore the tummy! I was on holiday remember? Excuses, excuses :D

We stayed at a hotel near Carowinds, a themepark in Charlotte. If only we had known this, we could have set some time for some rollercoasters -- I didn't bother asking about our accommodation because PS did all the booking via hotwire. Next time then...

This didn't pass as a sad face :D

Right outside of our hotel. So close yet so far

Off to Atlanta

Once you cross the South Carolina border, you'd see fireworks warehouses

That's one nasty accident, but the front car is drive-able

Atlanta, baby!

Downtown Atlanta... we're here

Since we arrived in Atlanta kinda late, so we saved the visit to the World of Coca Cola for tomorrow together with the CNN Studio tour. Hence, we could take our time at the Georgia Aquarium.