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Gatlinburg-Day 3

The next morning wasn't nearly as bad as Dh and I thought it would be. We were both able to get out of bed and make it down the stairs anyway.;) We ate the last of the waffles and made our sandwiches for our picnic that day and headed out. We decided to do Cades Cove first.I guess I just wasn't overly impressed. We saw 3 of the sickliest deer that we've ever seen and one wild turkey!LOL But there are buildings to look at and the history of the cove is interesting. We stopped at the Methodist church and Joey requested that I take this pic:

We stopped for our picnic here:

Yes, both boys fell in that water..........;)

We had decided that after our strenuous hike yesterday, that an easy hike made sense.;) So we went to Laurel Falls for an easy 2.6 mile roundtrip hike. It's even PAVED!

I thought this tree was neat:

It did rain on us after we got to the actual falls. DH had brought an umbrella (far more useful than that dt pepsi bottle!ROTFL!) and so I used that on the way down since it was a nice, light rain heading back to the truck. Mat has pics of that on his camera.

And, of course, since it was the wildflower pilgrimage and I had YET to see a trillium, I really wanted to hike Trillium Gap Trail But it didn't quite turn out that way. We knew that it ended at Grotto Falls so we wound up doing that instead. But I did see a Trillium so I was happy.;) We did  have to wait 10-15 minutes for a parking space at Grotto Falls. We actually we driving off to leave and Dh saw ppl coming out so he backed up and we got a spot. They said there was a mama bear and 2 cubs in a tree! Boy did that light a fire under us! Unfortunately, about 10 minutes before we got there, we got word that the bears were at the base of the tree. So we didn't get to see them, but we did hear them! That was neat!

A truly horrible pic at Grotto Falls:

That wrapped up our hiking adventures. But I really think 4 hikes, over 10 miles, in 2 days is pretty good! ;)

That night we saved for the Aquarium. It was open until 11 so we went back to the cabin (it was late that night) and ate supper. Then, much to the boys delight, we headed out about 8 for the Aquarium.

They have these tiny aquariums that you can stand in the middle of them:

Petting the stingrays:

Can you tell who belongs to our family (only 3 of us!)?

And then we did the final walk back to our truck. We were so fortunate to be able to  find free parking each night (saving us $5/time) and we usually just walked along the main road to see stuff. They have this 10,500 lbs 'marble' in front of the Ripley's Believe It or Not and it 'rolls' on 1/254 of water. Mat really was able to stop it, turn it, etc.

We got home about 11 that night. Put the boys to bed and DH and I fell into the hot tub again!LOL