Exploring Cherokee!

Derrick turned 27 on Saturday! Happy Birthday to my love! To celebrate we traveled with friends to Cherokee, NC for Derrick to participate in a big poker tournament. I know very little about poker, but I do know he is very good at it! Luckily Rebecca went also so we were able to hang out away from the casino for a bit while Derrick, Kevin, and Michael were there all day. Here is Derrick opening his birthday presents!

We drove down on Friday night and we were up bright and early on Saturday. I have not been to very many casinos. I've walked through the casinos on cruise ships and even won on the slots and the one round of roulette I've played but that's the extent of my experience. I don't know what I was picturing in my head but it was much different then I expected.

Derrick, Michael, and Kevin started out on some cash games and Rebecca and I went and explored a little bit. There is not much in Cherokee. Mostly just gimmicky gift shops that all have about the same thing in them...including these rad head dresses!

We also made plans to go horseback riding while were there! I used to ride competitively. And in middle school and high school I probably averaged 5 hours a day at the barn.  It's very weird to me that Derrick never knew me as a rider. It will always be a part of me and I hope to pick it up again someday but it is strange to me that it's not really a part of my identity anymore. Derrick is in for a shock when I finally get back into it...it's a whole other world :)  Rebecca had never ridden before so it was fun to experience her first ride with her! We did a 2.5 hour waterfall ride in the Smokeys and it was beautiful!

I was happy to see the horses were well taken care of. Sometimes on these types of group trailride things the horses are skinny and it's really sad. These guys actually seemed quite happy. They were definitely plod along followers though...not much actual riding involved, but it was still fun to be back in the saddle! I'm cringing seeing my tennis shoes in that picture....definitely makes me look like like I am not a horse person. Rebecca was riding Apache and I was on Chief.

The ride was about an hour to the waterfall and an hour back. The waterfall was very disappointing...not a waterfall at all really.  Just some white water over rocks.

 

 

When I told Rebecca to pose with her horse this is as close as she would get! She really did awesome though! She seemed very comfortable and even trotted on accident a few times. She was not interested in getting to know Apache though. 

 

After Rebecca and I recovered from our ride we headed back to the casino and met Blue there!! I was so excited that she came to visit! She lives in Asheville and I don't get to see her very much but since Cherokee was just an hour away she came to the casino to have dinner with us! We also were able to drive through Asheville on our way home and meet her for brunch!

 

There was an Italian restaurant called Brio in the Casino where we ate for dinner. The boys poker tournament started at 7:00 so we caught an early dinner and got Derrick a birthday cake. The restaurant was lazy though and didn't cross his T or dot his I in birthday so his plate says  "Happy Bulldog".

Then, after dinner it was the whole reason we were there! The poker tournament! There were hundreds of tables set up in the poker room and there was even an upstairs viewing room that Rebecca and I sat in.

Derrick, Kevin, and Michael were all at different tables. See Derrick there in the bottom right with his red Wolfpack pullover?

And here's Kevin at the top of the first table and Michael at the bottom of the second table. 

Unfortunately the tournament did not go quite as planned. Derrick got extremely unlucky and was knocked out pretty early on a hand that had a 90% chance of winning. Kevin went out next a couple hours later and Michael followed him about 30 minutes later. None of them made it far enough to win any money but they had a good time and it was very interesting to watch. The craziest thing was the noise in the room! It was just filled with the sound of people playing with there chips. Tons and tons of people flipping through their chips.

It was a great, but exhausting weekend. I was very happy that we could do something fun for Derrick's birthday that I know he enjoyed doing. He always tells me he doesn't want to do anything or he doesn't need anything so I especially like knowing he had a good day. Happy Bulldog Derrick! I love you!