Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2017 - 30

Top left: John Tennis, Joe's son, gets ready to make a splash in Hampton Lake at the High
Hampton Inn of North Carolina.
Left: Hailey Howard serves coconut shrimp at Cornucopia's in Cashiers, North Carolina.
Above: Morgan Haas leads horseback riding tours at Primland Resort in Patrick County,
Virginia.
brrr-cold. But this 30-foot-high
slide, still, will make you feel like
a kid, with nature scooting you on
her watery way.
No room at the High Hampton
Inn? Then check into the Hampton
Inn & Suites of Cashiers/Sapphire
Valley (blueridgemtnshotel.com), a
picturesque property close to Cornucopia (cornucopianc.com), where
the staff does more than simply
cook food. In Cashiers, this longtime, must-see eatery makes art out
of coconut shrimp, standing them
on sticks. So bring your appetite
and your camera: This is frameable
food, hand-cut by co-owner Roy
Pfund and served by the affable
Hailey Howard.
Wanna slide? From Cashiers at
the intersection of U.S. 64, follow
NC-107 south for 1.9 miles. Turn
right and go west on Whiteside
Cove Road for 2.8 miles. Cross a
bridge, and park on the right. Follow the trail to the right for 100
yards to Little Sliding Rock.

30 BlueRidgeCountry.com

Virginia
It's Thursday morning, and I'm
blasting the gas on a dirt trail at
the Primland Resort, a sprawling property just off Busted Rock
Road-and not far from the Blue
Ridge Parkway. I'm driving a Polaris ATV beside high grass, across
a creek, dodging trees, taking
turns and climbing high to a lookout of Primland's lodge.
"It's a good way to see the property," says ride guide Noel Chaney.
"We stop at some overlooks.
And it's a beautiful tour through
wooded trails and ponds."
This four-wheeling run is fun,
because kids can ride along with
the parents. But it's only the first
lap of options at Primland (primland.com/276-222-3800),
where
you'll also find archery, air rifles,
tomahawk-throwing, geo-caching
and horseback riding. At age 12,
kids, too, can go hunting here
with their parents.
"We don't necessarily have a

kid's program," says Julee Midden,
director of sales and marketing
at Primland. "We have programs
that families can do together."
The resort includes an 18-seat
theater and game room-perfect
places for the kids while Mom
and/or Dad visit the spa, staffed
by massage therapists skilled in
gently wrestling wrinkles of tension from aching backs.
Dip your toes in the indoor
swimming pool. Go paddling at
the Talbott Reservoir. Ride a horse.
Then shoot for the stars with an
evening tour at the resort's upstairs observatory, housed in what
looks like a silo at the main lodge.
"What do families like the
most?" asks Lauren Peery, the astronomy supervisor at Primland.
"Why, I find that families really
enjoy the planets and the moon,
because kids are still learning
about the solar system. Everybody
has kind of a different take, depending on their interests. Some
people prefer the deep space ex-
http://www.blueridgemtnshotel.com http://www.cornucopianc.com http://www.land.com/276-222-3800 http://www.BlueRidgeCountry.com
Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2017

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