December 19th - Unless we want coastal, which we do not - or mountainous, which we already have (hello Park City) we have come to the conclusion that North Carolina is not going to be our spot.

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This week's activity:

Bear Lake Reserve is nice, but much like all of the places we went to around Tuckasegee Lake and Lake Lure it is too wooded. We went to Waynesville which is a darling town, but it does not have the type of communities we are looking for. We also drove through Lake Junaluska while we were in that area - interesting.

Entertaining the idea of just living on a lake with no golf course, we went to Chatuge Lake, which sits on the boarder of Hayesville, North Carolina and Hiawassee, Georgia.

Nope - we want the golf course community. We did, however have a good lunch in Hayesville at Nocturnal Brewery.

This is Sylva - it is a cute little town with a main street full of shops and restaurants and a very impressive courthouse! And yes, we did run those stairs. #rockymoment

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This state is so pretty, and we have enjoyed our time here including some very good hikes.

But...NC will be for beach vacations for us - not a second home.

Check out this guy shoot the rapids.

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Apparently there is already a C&J Smith in North Carolina anyway...(check out the license plate). We have never seen an ampersand on a license plate before.

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I must admit - the views in North Carolina are probably even prettier than I know, as this is my view a lot of the time.

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Even though we are heading to South Carolina right after the holidays we did venture down there on Thursday for the day. We visited The Reserve at Lake Keowee. It is a very pretty place. We really like the architecture and the look of the community, but we are concerned that it could be too small. It only has one golf course and limited options for dining.

We looked at a lot for sale that overlooked both the golf course and the lake from the back as well as the lake from the front.

Wouldn't be a bad view...

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We are looking forward to exploring all of The Cliffs Communities on Keowee Lake after Christmas.