Vacation - Trout & Caverns

One of Ron's happy vacation memories from his childhood is when his family caught their dinner at a trout farm. He's mentioned wanting to do that with our kids every time we visit the mountains, but usually we are just there for a couple days and don't want to "waste" a day away from the national park. Since we were there for a week, we decided to fit that in on this trip. Ron's brother had the same idea because they went to the same place just a few weeks earlier!

We went to the English Mountain Trout Farm. It was small and took less than a minute to catch a fish. But it's all about the experience, right? Tyler caught the biggest trout. The boys enjoyed their fresh trout for lunch. I thought it was ok, but I'm not a fish fan. Danielle had the chicken strips.

The farm only accepts cash, which would have been fine if the ATM in their lobby hadn't decided to malfunction after we had caught our fish and eaten our lunches. Ron tacked on two buckets of "gems" for the kids to mine while he drove back to town to find an ATM. It passed the time. Overall we had a nice time, but I wouldn't go again.

After our trout lunch we went to the Forbidden Caverns. I don't think it was as large as the Tuckaleechee Caverns, which we visited on a previous trip, but it was nice. They recently changed their policy and don't allow photography in the caverns. They blamed it on liability issues, but that just encouraged folks to hang back until the tour guide was looking the other way to snap pictures. Thankfully no one walked off a cliff or into a stalactite. It was very hot the day we went, so the 58 degree caverns were a welcome break. This was another place where I'd say we had a nice time, but I wouldn't go again.

After the fishing and the caverns, we went back to the cabin and enjoyed a cook-out and more smores, and then finished the day off in the pool. It was a good day.