Tag: family

Wes Anderson’s film The Royal Tenenbaums on the Torg Stories Podcast

Welcome to the Torg Stories Podcast. Last week, Anne and I talked about 100 movies because we talked about the New York Times list of the best films of the 21st Century. This week, we’re just talking about one film: Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums.

click above to listen to the podcast

Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums. Anne, this was #21 on the New York Times top 100. Neither of us had seen it. What were your first impressions? 

  • My first impression: the very famous actors playing distinctive characters were in clothes that bordered on the outlandish. 

What were our expectations going into The Royal Tenenbaums? What did we know already? What did we know about Wes Anderson? 

  • Anderson wasn’t a director or storyteller I’d connected with. I thought really visually stimulating. Seen some of the Grand Budapest and thought, look at all that. By which I meant vibrant colors and a lot to notice. 
  • A loaded up cast of actors I enjoy watching. 

The Actors: It’s a big cast with a lot of well known actors. Let’s cover them first in this way. I’ll say an actor’s name and you tell me what film or show you think of when you hear their name: 

  1. Owen Wilson:    Wedding Crashers 
  2. Gene Hackman:   Hoosiers 
  3. Ben Stiller: Meet the Fockers 
  4. Luke Wilson:   Old School 
  5. Gwyneth Paltrow:  Ironman or Shakespeare in Love 
  6. Bill Murray:   Groundhog Day Caddyshack, Ghostbusters
  7. Danny Glover: Lethal Weapon 
  8. Alec Baldwin:   Here’s the Thing podcast, Trump on SNL, Bourne movies 
  9. Angelica Huston: I didn’t know her but I see Morticia Addams in 1991. 

What stood out to you as good or interesting in this film? 

  1. Cinematography. Every once in a while there was a shot on the screen that you could put on the wall it was so interesting and beautiful. 
  2. Quirky distinctive characters: Eli in his cowboy hat, Royal’s butthead personality even when he was trying to get back with his family, Margot in the bathtub all the time
  3. Being in Anderson’s edition of the city of New York. 
  • Brownstone, streets, old hotels, roof tops, bodegas 
  1. Two of my favorite scenes: 
  • Royal and Ethel walking in what might be the Ramble in Central Park. Royal says, “Loving every minute with this dam crew,” meaning his family. 
  • At the end, Chas says, “It’s been a rough year, Dad.” 
  1. Clothes: Eli cowboy look, Royal in his suits, Chas in his track suits, Richie in his FILA tennis gear, Margot in her fur coat
  2. Surprisingly hit me emotionally in the end. 

The Characters. Let’s try and come up with an adjective for each character before we talk about each character: 

  1. Royal played by Gene Hackman. 
  • Self absorbed. Blunt without empathy. 
  • Mean to most of his kids, went to prison, lived in a hotel, prominent litigator until mid 80s. No has spoke to him in 3 years
  • Royal gets people to be on his side. Pagoda. The bellman. Chas’s kids who are his grand children, 
  1. Eli Cash played by Owen Wilson. 
  • Lonely. Outcast. 
  • Assistant professor, wears the cowboy hat. English lit. Old Custer second novel. 
  1. Chas played by Ben Stiler 
  • Driven. 
  • Trauma from wife daying. Tests his family fire alarms. Wife Killed in a plane crash. Felt sad. My first emotion so far. 
  • Said to be depressed but seems less so than Richie and Margot. 
  • Favorite moment when his boy climbs down from the bunk bed to sleep next to him on the floor. 
  • Adidas track suits 
  1. Richie played by Luke Wilson 
  • Broken. 
  • Alone on ocean liner, seen all the poles
  • Always reading something written by his sister Margot 
  1. Margot Tenenbaum played by Gwyneth Paltrow
  • Intelligent. Depressed. 
  • Laughed about her secret recording studio. 
  • Fur coat 
  • Her real family lives in Indiana. WOODEN FINGER. 
  • NYT article on Paltrow selling stuff. Click here. 
  1. Raleigh St. Clair played by Bill Murray 
  • Academic. 
  • Writer and neurologist. 
  1. Etheline Tenenbaum played by Angelica Hutson 
  • Motherly. Organized. 
  • archelogist 
  1. Henry Sherman played by Danny Glover 
  • Practical. Generous 
  1. Pagoda played by Kumar Pallana 
  • Loyal. 
  • Sweet pink peach pants. 
  • He does hand stands 

Alec Baldwin narrates the story. 

What themes do you see in the film? What is it about? What is the story’s impact on our thinking? 

  • Family. Invest in your family. 
  • Redemption 
  • Forgiveness 
  • Trauma, especially with the death of Chas’s wife. Eli’s addiction, Margot’s addiction to cigarettes

Questions for discussion: 

  1. The Tennenbaum kids struggle as adults. They had a great mom. Let’s go over the ways in which they are healthy and troubled. Why do you think they are like this? 
  2. Which kid is the most mentally healthy? 
  3. Why did Margot marry Raleigh? 
  4. Margot is married to Raleigh. She is cheating on him with Eli. Why did Eli tell Margot that her brother Richie loves her? 
  5. Why is Raleigh around at the end? 
  6. Henry is the family accountant. What do think of the fact he just shows up at the house every morning? Is this a wealthy family and normal for that? 
  7. Why are Eli, Raleigh, and Dudley there at Royal’s funeral at the end? 
  8. Royal says about his not real dying, “I’ve had a good run.” Anne, have you had a good run? What’s left? 

Director Wes Anderson has a distinctive style.

  • We might say he has a directing movie “voice” or “fingerprint” that is pretty distinctively his. What are the features of that? 
  1. Lush color palettes
  2. Cast 
  3. Symmetrical Cinematography: central character consistently framed in the middle of the shot.  
  4. Deep space composition. Multiple layers in focus in a shot  
  5. God’s eye close up 
  6. Long tracking shots on one character 
  7. Visual absurdity – mouse, the emergency room
  8. Bold clothing choices. 

We need to attach Robert David Yeoman to Anderson when we talk about Anderson’s cinematography. Yeoman worked with Anderson on all of his live action films from 1996 to 2024. 

  • Yeoman also worked on Johnny Be Good, Dogma, Bridesmaids, 2016 Ghostbusters

He’s not particularly subtle. He likes the big effect, the very dramatic camera move, the very theatrical device. I love that! 

-quote from Anderson to Matt Zoller Seitz about Orson Welles: 

Here’s some additional information on the film The Royal Tenenbaums and director Wes Anderson: 

  1. Richie’s tennis melt down happens in Forest Hills. I used to live one train stop down from there. I loved looking at the grass courts and walking around Forest Hills. 
  2. The 375th St. YMCA is a thing in the movie. I got up to around 240th street when the street numbering stopped. That’s in the Manhattan University, Van Cortlandt golf course, Yonkers and New Rochelle area. Anderson has Norwegian ancestry. There is the 92nd Street Y that hosts events such as with John Oliver and Charlie Sheen, who wrote a book about being eight years sober.  My guy Rob Sheffield talking with Debbie Gibson who has a book Eternally Electric. 
  3. Mescaline is a psychedelic. 
  4. Anderson attended the University of Texas and roomed with Owen Wilson in 1989. Graduated with a degree in philosophy. 
  5. Director Wes Anderson was one of the tennis match commentators. 
  6. Bill Murray is the godfather of his daughter Freya. 
  7. A gypsy cab is licensed only to respond to advance bookings but nevertheless cruises for prospective fares. 
  8. Andrew Wilson is the oldest Wilson brother and was also in this film. I think he was one of the Indiana farmers.  

Which of Anderson’s films are you most likely to see next? 

  • Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, Life Aquatic, Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, Grand Budapest, Isle of the Dogs, French Dispatch, Asteroid City, Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, The Phoenician Scheme 

Keywords Related to The Royal Tenenbaums: 

  • Forgiveness, trauma, visual rhetoric 

Influence on Anderson writing The Royal Tenenbaums: 

  • Salinger’s Glass family. The Glasses: Beatrix “Boo Boo” Glass Tannenbaum

In the conversation: 

  • @CinemaTweets1, @donwinslow, @ThePCCLondon @owenthecreator_    @BenStiller  @GwynethPaltrow
The Royal Tenenbaums Wes Anderson Podcast Gene Hackman

Thanks for checking out this episode of the Torg Stories Podcast!

Coaching Influences, Basketball Analytics, and Coaching Our Daughters with McDowell’s Zack McCartha

In this episode I talk with the North Carolina Basketball Coaches’ Association 2024-2025 Women’s Basketball Coach of the Year, McDowell’s Zack McCartha.

click above for audio post or listen on Apple or Spotify / video podcast below

Coach McCartha and I discuss some of the keys to his team’s undefeated season, our coaching influences, how we use analytics to aid in our coaching decisions, and what it’s like to coach our daughters on our respective teams.

There are even some book recommendations at the end!

Coach McCartha with his daughter Clara and son Everett

Coach, you’re at McDowell High School in Marion, North Carolina. Your team went undefeated in the regular season last year. What are a couple things you’d point to that made your team so successful? 

  • Torg: Best player in the state, Pace, the three point shot, basketball IQ which goes with game planning on both sides of the ball

Is there a Zack McCartha brand of basketball? To what degree do you have a way of playing that you try and install vs. adapting your way of playing depending on the players you have? 

  • Torg: shooting in practice, custom scheme for the group, adaptability for each opponent, limited fundamental reps and high on Small Sided Games SSGs.
Coach McCartha at the Final Four in Winston Salem 2025

I’d like to hear about your education in basketball, your coaching influences if you will. Could you look back and start naming coaches and maybe telling me what you took or adapted from them to get you to the way you think about basketball now?

Torg Influences:

  1. Coach Knight at Indiana: game planning with film and walk through, motion concepts, the phrase “surprise and change” when it comes to defense even though that isn’t what Coach Knight believed.
  2. Don Meyer from David Lipscomb – comprehensive skill development, mini solutions to fundamental problems such as traveling with poor footwork. 4-out motion offense. Could pair this with Majerus.
  3. Rob Irwin who I assisted at Carroll High School in Indiana: gave me 1 min three shooting drill. Just one thing but it was a big one that we do almost every single time we come together.
  4. Laura Barry who I assisted at Watauga: teaching transition def, teaching the 1-3-1 defense, intro me to PGC where I found a modernized version of a lot of what I liked about Don Meyer. Footwork especially but also things such as lighting your team up with enthusiasm. Coach Barry gifted me the Legacy book which I take the term blue head from.
  5. Bill Belichick – game planning. From his book The Art of Winning: “We did what any winning team should do: we looked at our opponent, and we adapted to what we saw.” ALSO… “I’ll say it again: not the same plan; the same planning.”
  6. Brian McCormick – mostly for small sided games SSGs. Read quite a few of his books but 21st Century Guide to Skill Development is one that sticks out as memorable.
  7. Doug Lemov – author of The Coach’s Guide to Teaching. Coach Barry also pointed me to this one. Focused feedback. Short term memory processing while you might be trying to listen to a coach and read the defense.

Has your coaching style changed over the years and how so?

  • More shots per practice. Brief on reps heavier on small sided games. I am more calm and patient. I used to to stay with things in practice until we got every detail right. I think I used to spend a lot of time on getting something right that wasn’t going to matter that much. Now I get in what I want to get in and I keep coming back to it with hopes of cleaning up.

How much influence do you put on analytics when it comes to the high school game?

  • What do we mean when we say analytics? Torg answer: using numbers and probability to aid in decision making about practice and games
  • we shoot a lot of threes in practice and we are trying to shoot a lot of threes in games. Last season we averaged 9.4 threes made per game on 27.4 attempts for 34.2%. (that’s up over 4 made threes per game over a 4-year period. When I started at Wataga as an assistant, I think we averaged something like 2-12 per game. We had games of 18, 16 and 14 twice made threes.
  • I like to look at our defensive points per possession depending on what defense we are playing.
  • I look into when to call timeout. For example, after a made free throw. Also, is it really advantageous to foul up 3 with less than 10 seconds to go? The execution of this can be really shaky and even when executed, it’s an incredibly slight advantage to foul. Another: Should I take a player out in foul trouble?
  • Don’t know but think yes: should most of our players take the wide open 15 footer? How much should we practice it?

Do you have any thoughts as it relates to load management throughout the course of a high school season? This could be in practice and/or games. If so, is this a change?

  • The is Coach McCartha’s question. For me, not much thought about load management other than that was a tough game last night. I know you once asked me if Kate practiced.
  • Also, playing 2-3 games in a day. I def just take my lumps if I have to and I don’t play anyone big minutes.
  • We do things like take charges and dive for balls.
  • More film and rehearsal than live
Coach McCartha and daughter Clara competing for McDowell HS in Marion, NC

We each coach our daughters. Let’s try and talk about that a little bit:

  1. Are there parts of it we enjoy? Chance for them to know me and see how I am everyday instead of if I went off to work for 12 hours a day and saw them once in awhile. Riding to and from in the car. We’re sometimes working on a project together.
  2. What’s difficult about it? People, including teammates, treating my kids in a different way because of things I do. Incorrect assumptions about what my kids know. She must have told Coach X whereas people come to me all the time with good and bad they think about what our players do.

What is one non-negotiable that you have for your teams?

  1. Torg: non-negotiable and culture are not phrases I use. The best I can do is to share what I emphasize. I call these things out when we fall short and I find as many ways as I can to praise them when I see them: enthusiasm, team first attitude, 9 and 7 shots on offense, sportsmanship, positive body language, being a blue head, bolting, the extra pass

We’ve got the NCAA exposure event coming up in June at the RISE facility. Let’s talk about that, recruitment, and then travel basketball. Is your daughter playing? 

What is a book or a movie possibly that you feel like all coaches should read or see?

  1. The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov. Click here for Torg’s post about the book.

Please consider subscribing to this website and/or to the podcast on Apple or Spotify. Thanks for checking out the episode!

Knicks Pacers, Indiana Fever, Mission Impossible, and Ted Lasso Season Three, Episode 11

We talk Knicks-Pacers series, give report on the Indiana Fever, Mission Impossible Final Reckoning, and talk second chances from Ted Lasso Season 3, Episode 11 on this edition of the Torg Stories Podcast.

You can click on the audio player above to listen to the episode, or you can watch it on YouTube at the link below:

The Pacers have a 2-0 lead at the time of the recording. Anne, what has been the keys?

  1. Balanced attack, more scorers than the Knicks that can lead to Nesmith going 8-9 from 3 and Siakam scoring 39 in game 2.
  2. Haliburton has some Harden in him in that he’s a hub that can spray the ball around everywhere and put pressure on the defense with his pace and vision.
  3. Timely shooting: Brunson and Kat were great but big misses late while Haliburton and Nesmith hit huge shots.

Report on the Fever:

  1. Off to a 2-2 start. Hammered the Sky and Clark and Reese got into it. Lost by 1 and had a chance to win it on the final play vs. Atlanta. Came back and beat the Dream in Atlanta. Lost by 2 after blowing a 12 point lead in the second half to the Liberty. Clark had the ball with a chance to tie or win at the buzzer.
  2. Noticeably harder for Clark to get a good three point look. She’s Curry from a standpoint of how defenses are playing her. No three vs. Atlanta in win. She missed 12 threes in a row before hitting one and getting fouled in the 3rd quarter vs. Liberty. Then hit one at the buzzer to end the third.
  3. Clark draws so much attention. People are open. Elite vision and ability to deliver, especially in setting pace. Kelsey Mitchell really benefitting. Still getting a lot done finishing and in mid range.
  4. Fever are more active on defense. Vision and hands on balls.
  5. Outscored Liberty 30-13 in third quarter.
  6. Looks like a group that roots for each other.
  7. The rotation of Howard, Boston, and Bonner among the post looks really good. Cunningham coming through the two and three spots good as well.
  8. The offense ends of games. Need actions, 1v1 can be tough vs players like Jones.

Three of the new Fever players and what they bring:

  1. Sophie Cunningham: mix it up defensive mentality, shooting, enthusiasm talking leader
  2. Natasha Howard – upgraded inside scoring punch, wanting her own shot for a Fever player more than I’m used to. I’m hopeful.
  3. Dewanna Bonner – length on defensive, championship experience, I’m assuming a good relationship with the coach

We both went to see Mission Impossible Final Reckoning:

  1. Let’s talk about what the theaters were like. I went to the AMC in Johnson City, TN.
  2. $20 for a ticket. Tom Cruise hangs off two planes. Really can I ask for more than that?
  3. We hear from Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise before the movie starts.
  4. Too much talking. Too much tech talking.
  5. Best part from Cruise escaping the underwater sub to the end.
  6. Dislikes: exposition for us as viewers. The action along with more natural dialogue should show us. 25 minutes of previews plus 2hrs and 50 mins of movie is a long time to be in the theater.
  7. Likes: music, Tom in shape, familiar characters, guy in charge of Navy sub, listening station couple and their dogs, the underwater scene, the lady who sticks the pen in Benji’s chest, Cruise and the planes

Ted Lasso: There’s only 1 more episode! Season 3, Episode 11 Discussion Questions:

  1. Why does Nate’s girlfriend Jade act like she does, for example disappearing. Let’s assess what Nate did. Let’s talk about if we bring him back.
  2. What’s Ted’s deal with Ted and his mom? Ted doesn’t seem to want his mom around. Then let’s walk through our mom showing up. She tells him his son misses him. Ted is scared to get close to him because he knows he’s going to leave.
  3. What’s wrong with Jamie? Where are my wings, Roy? Return game. Roy and Keeley follow Jamie to his childhood home. Now that he doesn’t hate his dad, he is lacking for motivation.
  4. What’s with the Wizard of Oz? We get Ted playing a Wizard of Oz pinball machine. We get “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” in a Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks movie. Is it, You’ve Got Mail?
  5. There is a town called Tooting. Some weird town names you can think of? French Lick, Chili which is right by Denver, Mexico, and Peru. Santa Claus. You like Seven Devils, North Carolina. We went to Duck. There’s a Bat Cave. Meat Camp is in the same Watauga County I live in.

Memorable Quotes from this Episode of Ted Lasso. We’ll see if Anne can tell us who said it about what:

  1. Shouting is Roy’s love language. -Trent Crimm when Roy calls Jaimie into the boot room
  2. Your mom and dad F you up. They don’t mean to, but they do. They fill you up with the faults they had and they add some extra just for you. -Mae to Ted in the pub about his mom coming for a visit.
  3. I’ve literally never thought about work after work. It’s weird how good of a waiter you are. -Jade to Nate about how he is always trying to be good at what he is doing.
  4. Hurt people hurt people. -Ted to Jamie talking about his dad and Freddy Krueger
  5. I hope that either all of us or none of us are judged by our weakest moments, but rather by the strength we show whether and if we are given a second chance.-Ted to Beard about judging Nate for ripping up the sign.
  6. Your son misses you. -Ted’s mom to him
  7. All we can do is keep playing. -Ted’s mom again, about being a parent
  8. No truth bomb this year. – Rebecca to Ted

Thanks for checking out this episode of the Torg Stories Podcast!

The Basketball Season Ends, Post-Game Process, and A Coach’s Exhaustion

I coach a high school girls basketball team in North Carolina. Our season ended last Friday and when that happens, at least for me, there’s a feeling of not knowing if I could make it through another season. Maybe it’s like finishing a marathon and then being asked as you cross the finish line, “Do you want to do that again?” In this episode, my sister Anne talks me through the end of the basketball season.

The Notes below guided my discussion with my sister Anne about the end of the basketball season:

Big Picture the End of the Season:

  1. The players enjoyed each other; I can point to ways that each of them grew, and I believe the team played to its potential. These are big successes.
  2. The players wanted to make a return to the final four, and we believed we could win a state championship. We didn’t accomplish those things, but there is not a feeling of “we blew it.” for me. I think we all did everything we could. Making the final four has a lot to do with what teams are where in the brackets. We could beat the team that we lost to, but that team is really talented and played well on their home court in order to beat us.
  3. Our final record was 22-6. We won the regular season and conference tournament championships. It’s the fourth year in a row the team has won or shared the regular season title and the fourth year in a row the team won the conference tournament. The players on this team played well under pressure to accomplish these things again.
  4. We lost in the elite eight at Lake Norman to a team that’s 28-1. We led after the first quarter and we were down 43-40 at half. I thought the players were fearless in the big game and made lots of winning plays.

The Coach’s Exhaustion at the End of the Season:

  1. If we think of a season as an academic school year, there was a lot of loss and sadness in this year’s season. I’m not talking about winning or losing games: my oldest daughter went six hours away to college. Our dad broke his hip, there was a lot of care for him, and he eventually passed. Hurricane Helene hit the Boone, NC area where I live the day of dad’s funeral, and then there’s the end of this run with this group of players that has been so committed and successful.
  2. I think as these things happen in life, what I mostly do is briefly acknowledge them and then get back to work. Is this healthy? What’s going on with me that I might not be seeing?

The Post Game Process, especially during the conference and the playoffs. Games are usually on Tuesdays and Fridays. Here’s what I do after most games:

  1. Post the results of the game on a website called MaxPreps. Upload the game video to HUDL. Post the results to social media or re-share something that has already been posted that nicely summarizes the result.
  2. Open a new Google Doc and start taking notes on personnel. Who has made the most threes? What percentages does each player on the opponent’s team shoot? I’m preparing to watch video of the opponent and know a little bit about each player.
  3. I watch at least two videos of our opponent. I pull clips that will be used for my planning and some of which I will show to the team. Before each game, I’ve tried to get game video of the next opponent. That often involves videoing a television upstairs at our house with an iPad.
  4. Put together the game plan for the next game. This involves a lot of moving magnets around on a board imagining game situations and drawing diagrams on my iPad.
  5. At some point, the stats come back from HUDL. This is usually the next morning or later in the day. I watch all of our baskets and at least check to see if the assists seem right. Does every player’s point total match what is in the book? I down the file from HUDL and upload it to Max Preps. I type up a box score of the positive stats from the game and share it on social media.
  6. I type up the notebook pages for the following day that point out significant statistics. I create a player scouting report, keys to the game, and scripts for the players to read that go with video clips we will watch.
  7. I put together the next day’s practice plan. These are usually 5-7 pages with screen shots and/or diagrams. I wonder if any other coaches would even recognize what I use as a practice plan. I feel like it’s a pretty unusual way of working.
  8. I check social media almost everyday to see if there are posts that need to be shared. I post a game day post.
  9. This process repeats itself on most Tuesday and Friday nights. So Tuesday and Friday nights are often work sessions that last beyond 1AM. I share my process to think about the work I’ve created. Is it the right work? Is it the most efficient way to do the work?

Where I’m at as the season ends:

  1. My mind clamps down–it feels like a tight clenching–on the topic of our team and the teams we will play. So I don’t sleep well once the season gets going. I assume I have a lot of company on that front with other coaches and lots of other people with all kinds of jobs. I wake up and my mind is working on something to do with the team. I feel addicted to the work. It takes several weeks, maybe over a month, to break the addiction of the work.
  2. The season is over. There is the feeling every second of…I should be doing something. What should I be working on now?
  3. I’ve developed this process (notebooks, the way I plan practices, the way I scout, the way I do social media) that has created so much work. Maybe too much work? Is there a better way?
  4. What’s left undone: there are at least 75 pieces of mail sitting on the desk next to my desk at home. There’s a tree down in the yard that has been there for months. The culvert under the driveway is blocked. One of the garage doors doesn’t work. The truck isn’t running well. Mom’s car still has a messed up bumper. I have ignored these things during the season.

What’s left to do after the last game?

  1. Social media promotion for things like all conference and all district teams.
  2. Collecting and organizing gear. Overall equipment assessment including new uniforms.
  3. Hopefully designing a shirt to celebrate this team’s accomplishments.
  4. Attending an all star game in Wilmington.
  5. Planning and executing the awards banquet.
  6. Maybe in three weeks there is a break at the end of March that lasts something like 6 weeks. In mid May, it’s probably time to get ready for the June games and camp.

The above notes were talking points for my sister Anne and I on this episode of the Torg’s Stories Podcast. Thanks for checking it out!

Grandfather Mountain Hike

We Torgs used a day off from school (thank you for your service, Veterans!) to drive east and hike at Grandfather Mountain near Boone and Blowing Rock, North Carolina.

Upon our arrival, we were told the top of the mountain, where the swinging bridge and most of the trails are located, was closed due to high winds. Warning to anyone who is interested in going: it’s $20 per adult and $9 for kids to be admitted to the park. Also of note: you can park on the Blue Ridge Parkway and hike in if you’re up for it. That’s what I’ll do as soon as our kids can handle the hike. We were admitted for half price since the top of the mountain was closed.

After about an hour inside the park, the top was opened. Here are some pictures and video from our visit:

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the bridge at Grandfather Mountain

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it was still windy on the bridge

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ladders were fun and scary

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a video from the ladders

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Grandfather Mountain, hiking, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
My wife Megan started to get nervous here.

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Grandfather Mountain, Blowing Rock, Boone, North Carolina, Hiking, Blue Ridge Parkway
We did it!