If we'd had twins, this is what our family might look like! In actuality, the baby on the left is my college friend's son, Gabe, who is two months younger than Soren but who looks remarkably similar. They have the same skin and eye coloring, the same amount of hair, and are approximately the same size (at least for now). That's enough similarities that we were twice asked, "Are they twins?" on the day we got out and about around Charlotte, N.C. They happened to be both wearing navy sweatshirts, too.
Here's another view of the two cuties. From the nose down they have their own personalities! It was really fun for Soren to share toys and baby babbles with Gabe.
Gabe's parents Maggie (my
Williams-Mystic classmate) and Mark took us out to eat at their favorite BBQ joint. We stayed two nights with them in Charlotte, and were inspired by a short video his parents made and posted to YouTube -- it's a "cry for help" from Gabe's puzzled baby perspective, similar to our fun with the SorenTalks blog. Maggie and Mark gave us permission to share
this video link; we highly recommend taking 2-1/2 minutes to enjoy it.
Then it was on to Marshall, N.C., near Asheville in the western mountains, to stay three nights with our 2006 trip friend, Lorna. You can read about our fortuitous meeting in
this post of our sabbatical blog: Scroll down just past the Fourth of July pictures in the narrative and you'll see a paragraph that begins: "Back in the hills of western North Carolina, we reconnected with a 'music angel' named Lorna who had introduced herself to us at a music festival we’d attended in early June."
This photo shows Lorna introducing Soren to the beautiful blooming Carolina buckthorn in her yard. Soren is her honorary grandson; they fell in love with each other. More about our many musical adventures with Lorna, and her charming guest cottage, in another post!
And lastly, Soren got to meet the "Songbird of the Smokies," the inimitable
Laura Boosinger. She is the voice behind Soren's favorite CD of mountain music, called "Sing It Yourself," and he was awed to hear the melody to HIS FAVORITE SONG, "Old Groundhog," coming out of her mouth. Jeff met Laura at a banjo camp on the Olympic Peninsula in 2005 and we visited with her in 2006 at her home in Asheville. Now she is the director of the
Madison County Arts Council, which happens to be housed at the county seat in Marshall. I repeat, fortuitous!
We came away with Laura's newest CD,
"Most of All." Like all her music, it's wonderful!
Pink and white dogwoods are in full bloom right now, as is the "redbud," with its delicate purple froth of flowers. The elegant house above is on the main street of Concord, near Charlotte, N.C.
At Old Fort, N.C., we stopped at the Mountain Gateway Museum and Soren checked out this log cabin and relaxed on the banks of the Catawba River.
And in a gift shop in the same town (on the same day, wearing the same pajamas -- we really do change his clothes daily!), Soren got to try out his first rocking horse!
We fly home tomorrow (April 15) and as soon as the travel dust settles, I'll be reporting on the last leg of our journey, visiting the relatives in east Tennessee on Easter weekend. Until then!
