From the grand finale in the Emerald City…

The characters were so much fun at the Land of Oz. We saw them several times around the park, and they never, ever broke character. So much fun.

When we got to the castle of the Wicked Witch of the West, I loved seeing this sign. When Clara was little after she watched the movie for the first time, she insisted on carrying a glass of water with her everywhere she went, in case she ran into the witch, so she could melt her. Such funny memories.

When we got to the Emerald City, the doorman who was there to keep people out or let them in was so entertaining. It was just such a fun place.

I have wanted to go to this event for years and years, ever since I first learned about it from an insert in an electric bill that came to the office at Baird Engineering for Joe’s cabin in the mountains near there. Yesterday Bennie Yarbrough – Addie’s mother-in-law – and I finally made it happen. We finally found the parking lot & rode the ski lift up to the Land of Oz on top of Beech Mountain. It was very cool – we were riding over mountain bike trails, and there were bikers riding right underneath us, but I never got a picture of those. The guys in front of us, though, had their bikes with them riding up the ski lift – the bikes were on a special holder in a sort of separate car in front of them. That was pretty neat seeing that, too.

Land of Oz was originally a theme park built on top of Beech Mountain, but only operated for a few years before arson destroyed a good part of it. The history of it is very interesting, but it is now open three weekends in the fall every year for people to come and go through Oz. This revival was actually started by the former employees who worked there when it was a theme park. I thought that was pretty cool. In the first part where you walked through, there were lots of signs about the park, including this one about the man who first came up with the idea.

One of my favorite parts – well, I had many favorite parts 🙂 – was the Gale House. You walked through the house upstairs, & it was all fixed up like an old farmhouse would have been at the time of the story. Then you walked through this part that was all windy and black lights that was the tornado, and then in the basement there was a complete replica of the house, with the rooms all destroyed like it had been through a tornado. It was just such a great idea.

Thursday evening we were at York High School to see Adam and his Rock Hill High 9th grade Bearcat teammates in action on the field. We think it was the best game Adam ever played. RHHS won 49-6. Adam made 5 of the 6 extra points he attempted, all but one of his kick-offs were great, and he was in on several tackles playing on the defensive line. That’s what he’s doing in this picture – #50.

After the game – worn out but so happy, with his very proud family.

Yesterday was actually Charlotte’s birthday, but we went out today to celebrate with lunch at the Surefire Neighborhood Market in Rock Hill. I had heard that their hotdogs were just delicious, and we actually had tried to go last week, but the kitchen was closed for remodeling when we got there. Then we planned on going to Captain Steve’s Fish Camp for lunch today to celebrate, but found out it was closed on Wednesdays. I’d seen that the Surefire Market had their soft opening Monday, so we decided to go back and give it a try. It is absolutely just a hole in the wall, but the food was fantastic – especially the pizza. I got this picture of Charlotte while we were waiting on our lunch.

And this one of the guy who took our order and fixed our lunch, with the delicious milkshake Charlotte ordered. I know it was delicious, because I got one just like it. Yum.

Andy & Amy got here early Saturday afternoon & brought lunch for us to enjoy, and then mid-afternoon Meg & Mike picked us all up to ride together in their suburban, and we headed to Charlotte to PNC Pavilion, to take in Willie Nelson and the Outlaw Music Festival. It was a great show – so much fun. We got this picture at the photo booth when we were walking in,

Our seats were not covered, and it did start raining before the night was over, but we knew it was predicted & had brought out ponchos. Then, alas, my camera battery died before Willie Nelson came on. I did get this picture of the screen earlier in the day, though, when his son Lukas Nelson, on the right, was performing with String Cheese Incident. It was a great show all the way around.

The super Biscuit Baker brought an entire box of biscuits that he made out to Meg for her birthday.  So on our way out she went up and asked him to autograph the box.  His co-workers were roaring.  So, so much fun.

Yesterday afternoon we were back at the golf course to see Clara in action. I had hoped to have a picture of Adam to post with this from his football game this afternoon, but alas, it got rained out. Hopefully next week.