BRYSON CITY, NORTH CAROLINA

Our wedding anniversary is in mid-June, so we usually have a low-key celebration with dinner at a nice restaurant (where the waiter keeps watch and immediately picks up the wrapper as soon as we finished eating the crackers, then proceed to clean the crumb off the table with a tiny comb he keeps in the front pocket of his vest).   The first time we were at this restaurant, I looked around the dining room to see all the paintings and also checking if there were any "movers and shakers of St. Louis", each time I conducted my "surveillance", the waiter kept coming over asking what I needed.  So I learned not to look around nor making any eye contact with the servers.  My husband always sends me flowers (well, except one year but we won't talk about that) for the special occasion.  We would give each other little gifts and then do something special when we go on our annual July 4th road trip.  This year, my husband rented a caboose (like the one in the photo below) for a ride on the Great Smoky Mountain Train Ride.  We had the whole caboose with lunch, drinks and snacks just for the two of us, instead of being in the other cab with the masses - haa haa!

The modern Bryson City is a premier spot for many outdoor activities.  The Nantahala River offers lot of fun to those wanting to raft, kayak, hike (along the Appalachian Trail to Wesser Bald - 2.8 miles or a little harder and longer 12-mile to Cheoah Bald), mountain bike (you could try riding out-and-back the hilly 18.5 mile of paved road to the Road to Nowhere) or trout fishing.  It might be one of those fish stories but we were told that a lucky person caught a 30-inch brown trout and a 24-inch rainbow trout and all he did was dropping his fishing rod in the river! 

From the comfort of our caboose, we enjoyed the view through the Nantahala Gorge (the Cherokee called it "Land of the Midday Sun"), and watched the rafters crowded on the river.  We stopped at a campground for a break and only when we dipped out feet in the river that we realized that the water was so cold, probably in the lower 50s.  I wondered how the kids could be playing in the river and not turning blue!