June 3: Packrafting and family

I woke up early with the grand plan of packrafting the French Broad before it got too hot.  I made it as far as the kitchen before I was stopped dead in my tracks by a "oh no you don't" by mom.  Mom was calligraphying the names of every guest on the gift bags while dad was trying to arrange them by hotel.  My services were quickly commandeered.  The first thing I did was sort the Excel file of guests by hotel to make the piles easier to manage.  The 80+ gift bags were everywhere!  We checked and double checked names and places. 

Around 11:30, I finally managed to escape.  My dad helped me run a shuttle, but I couldn't find the take out so I deposited my car at a farmer's market.  There were 6 people around my age getting ready to shove off at the put in at Bent Creek and I quickly joined forces with them.  It was 12:00ish and it was hot.  My plan to stay cool backfired as the river was a little to murky for me to consider swimming.  I felt like I was burning and kept slathering on the sun screen.  By the end I was coated in thick white and looked ghastly, but still got too much color.  So much for Chilean sunscreen.  The water was slower than hoped and a head wind picked up slowing me down to a crawl.  I could not keep up with the kayaks in my inflatable.  My new friends were kind enough to wait for me near the take out and one of them offered me a tow for the last 300 yards which I unabashedly excepted.  I packed up my gear and prepared to walk the mile or so to my car, but was given a ride.

I returned to more mayhem in my brother's rental house as the bride's sister and her 2 young kids had arrived.  I quickly showered packed my things, and headed over to our hotel room for the weekend near the Biltmore.  I was not prepared for the amount of family that had arrived that day!  It was great to see everyone.  I had another calm dinner with my cousin Fred and his daughter Bella and was immediately thankful for the one on one time.

I dropped Fred and Bella off at the hotel and jumped in the car with my brother and other cousin to meet my parents at the Grove Park Inn piano bar.  The GPI is gorgeous and is set on a hillside overlooking the Smokey Mtns.however, we were in the basement in a dueling piano bar that was best described by my cousin Janah as "cruise shippy".  My brother's friends from Miami and from college along with an assortment of family and family friends were there, and I think all drank heavily to drown out the tacky music.