The Great Smoky Mountains

Last week we decided to take an on-the-fly trip back to the Smoky Mountains. Last time we went was Sept of 2007. That was another on-the-fly trip and we had a great time. We went back to the same hotel and had minimal plans.

Friday: We arrived in Gatlinburg right after noon. We made a quick stop at McD's... Ava had been "starving" for the last 30 minutes when we were on some back roads into Gatlinburg. We had promised her food at the first decent place we saw. We really didn't want McD's, but alas, it was the first decent place. The kids were happy about it. Kevin and I, not so much, and even less so as we got back in the car and rounded a curve to see tons of decent local restaurants, oh well. We went to Ripley's Aquarium next. The kids had a blast looking at all the fish. They've always loved going to the aquarium. I'll have to say I'm much more a fan of the NC Aquariums than the Ripley's variety, but the kids still had fun. We were able to catch the dive show in the coral reef and the dive show in stingray bay. The kids were pretty fascinated watching the diver feed the fish and the rays. After the aquarium we headed up to Sevierville to our resort. We unloaded, had a quick snack and headed down the pools. The big pool was nice and warm, but we got out to do the lazy river and all ended up freezing. The kids didn't seem to care much, but Kevin and I were cold and unable to get warm even going back to the warmer pool. We drug the kids inside, all got cleaned up and headed out for dinner. We ate at No Way Jose's mexican cantina. And there's no way jose that we'll ever go back. We hit a gem mining place after that and let the kids pan for gems. We got a decent load, but it's such a rip-off it's comical. Gotta love tourist traps.


Saturday: We got up and headed out to Flapjack's for breakfast, a place we will definitely be visiting again! After breakfast we headed out to do some geocaching. Since we planned this trip fairly quickly, I didn't get a good chance to scope us out some good caches. I just got us a quick dozen in Pigeon Forge. It turned quickly into a bust. We got the first one really quickly and easily. After that we struck out over and over. We've learned that we prefer the outdoorsy, hidden in the woods type caches over the urban hidden in a street light caches. Unfortunately almost every cache I got us was hidden in an urban and high muggle area (geocaching speak for non-geocachers). We tend to give up quick when we find ourselves being watched and starting to look suspicious. So after a few strikes out we gave up caching. Instead we headed for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We wanted to climb to the top of Clingman's Dome. It's the highest mountain in the Smokies, and the 3rd hightest mountain east of the Mississippi. Kevin had read in some brochure that is was an easy .2 mile hike to the top. Yeah, that brochure was really wrong. It was probably the brochure that made all it's maps with South at the top. Turns out it's very steep half mile hike to the top. It was paved though. The kids were cold, it was 25 degrees cooler, but we headed out. We quickly had burning calves (we ascended over 300ft in that half mile) and had to stop a few times for the kids, but we eventually made it to the top. There's a big observation tower on top and fantastic views. The kids got a big kick out of being higher than some of the clouds. The way down was much easier and faster, albeit a bit hard on my wonky knee. The top was a "virtual" geocache so that was a bonus as well (virtual meaning there's no hidden cache, as there are no caches allowed in the park, you take a picture and send it to the cache owner to get your find).
Taking a quick break...

The Observation Tower....

Snagging the virtual cache...

On the highest part of the Appalachian Trail...


We drove back to the resort afterwards for more pool time. Kevin offered to take the kids by himself so I got to relax a bit in the room on my own. I went down to take a few pictures after awhile, they had already gone to the indoor pools by that time. We took our hungry kids to Fuddruckers across the street for dinner. Such yummy burgers and the kids absolutely devoured them! Then we headed over to the outlet mall to get Ava her promised fudge and Kevin some shoes. We were going to putt-putt as well, but it started to rain, so we took our time shopping and headed back to the resort.



Sunday: Breakfast at the Apple Barn. I love their apple fritters, but this will likely be our last visit. They are so overpriced it's ridiculous. They even wanted to charge us for sharing our monstrous plates of food with the kids, I hate that. I didn't order extra food so what exactly are you paying for? The extra plate? geesh Plus, the pancakes at Flapjacks were way better. But I still love the apple fritters. I'm finishing off our leftover ones as I type. I knew there was a cache across the street along the river so we decided to go for it. I found it pretty quickly in the base of a tree while the kids and Kevin tossed sticks and apples in the river. Next we were off to play putt-putt. The kids had a ton of fun, but man was it hot! We were all sweaty by the time we finished.




It was time to head home. We drove through the park and stopped at a cool mountain stream on the way. The kids didn't mind the icy water one bit and spent a long time splashing and throwing rocks. The water was so cold! It was so nice and refreshing after our sweltering putt-putt.


We stopped in Cherokee for ice cream. Ava was a bit disappointed that all the indians weren't what she expected. LOL I think she was expecting your cliche dressed in feathers, riding horses, living in teepee indians. I tried to explain that they live like we do, yadda yadda, but she just didn't get it. It was kind of comical.

Then began the rest of the trek home. We came home tired but satisfied and refreshed. None of us slept well. We had a one bedroom suite, but that still meant we all slept in the same room together. Where we all quickly learned that we have a snore-monster among us... and it goes by the name of Maddux. Maddux has always snored when he has a cold, but lately he snores all of the time. And quite loud at that. It disrupted all our sleep. I think it's going to have to be a point of conversation at his well-check in a few weeks.

Arriving home was nice, until I stepped inside... Ramble had apparently climbed onto a counter and into a small window out in the back hall area. He knocked down the antique glass decanter that sat in that window. It came crashing down, denting our new bar sink as it hit and shattered. There was glass everywhere! All over the counter and all over the floor all the way to the laundry room. There were shards of glass in the cats food bowls and covering the floor around them. I'm not sure how the cats managed to not get glass in their feet, but they don't seem to have. That was fun to clean up.

And now I have a good pile of laundry waiting for me. It was really nice to get away, a great way to start the summer!