This afternoon, my wife and I are heading up to North Carolina for a mini-vacation. I call it a mini-vacation because we’ll only be there until Sunday. I would love a 10 day vacation, but it will still be nice to get away.

We’re going to the Asheville area, where my parents have a vacation home. They’ve been at the house all week and will be there with us through Sunday. For those of you that don’t know the North Carolina area well, we’ll be just east of the Great Smoky Mountains (about an hour and 15 minute drive).

We won’t be making it into the Great Smoky Mountain National Park this trip, but there are still a ton of things to do in the area. We don’t have any plans set in stone, but here are a few things we have on the radar:

- White Water Rafting down the French Broad River
- Visit the Biltmore Mansion
- Visit Chimney Rock (where they filmed Last of the Mohicans)

In addition to that, there are tons of hiking trails and waterfalls within minutes of the house.

If you recall a few posts ago I mentioned purchasing a Vado HD camera. Well, the camera came in last week and we’ll be using it for the first time on this trip. Hopefully I have some cool footage to bring back and post.