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Day 4 of vacation

We woke up to rain. And the night before we had learned that both FIL"s uncle had passed away on Friday as had DH's cousin's 3mo son. They believe it was SIDS. So we were trying to grasp that still.

We got all packed up and ready to head out to Bowling Green. Boy I was missing that cabin and we hadn't even left yet! It was just such a GREAT vacation!!!!!!!!! We drove the forever that it took to get to BG. Along the way tho, I called my sister and jokingly said asked her if she could get DH to eat ANYWHERE other than Burger King. That's about the ONLY place he'll eat. So we ate at this place called Buddy's BBQ. YUMMY!!!!! I got this thing called 'Hawg Back Potato'. It's a huge baked potato w/your choice of BBQ meat and cheese on it! YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!! Then on to the hotel. We got there and the DVDs that we brought wouldn't work in DH's laptop and no DVD player at the hotel. That shot the movie and pizza night. Dh took off for the pulls and the boys and I headed to the pool. They played for a long time and we ordered pizza. This is something new for me. I can count the number of times in my life that I have ordered a pizza a had it delivered! We did it occasionally in college, but not even much then. We survived the night. It was just hard cuz Mat and I sat in the dark for an hour while Joey fell asleep (cuz, what else were we going to do????). DH got in at 2:30. He was thoroughly unimpressed and said that he will never go back to that pull again. But we got my brother's weights (that he bought) and got up the next morning. Actually Mat was up early (and he was up until at least midnight when my brother and I got off the phone) and he and I went to eat and hit the pool while Joey adn DH slept. Joey joined us much later and Dh went back to the room adn got ready. We loaded up and headed out. It was a nice, uneventful drive home. We stopped for Sonic (something new for all of us) for lunch. Not cheap, but tasty! Mat was VERY cranky at this point and I"m hoping for rain so that we don't even have to leave for his ball practice tonight.

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

Gatlinburg-Day 2

We woke up to a beautiful day! The weather was amazing almost the entire time truthfully! So we ate our waffles for breakfast and made our sandwiches for our picnic lunch and headed off to Clingman's Dome, the tallest peak in the Smokies. We stopped by the Sugarlands Visitor center and I grabbed the Smokie Mountain Start pack of guides. I HIGHLY recommend this $5 purchase because it has all the guides to the popular sites (Cades Cove, Clingman's Dome, Newfound Gap, etc), and the auto driving guides and the day hike guides! The auto driving guide was great because it told you were to turn off to get to the different spots!

So on the way, I realize that we are going to pass the trailhead to Chimney Tops . THis is a hike that I have wanted to do since my 1st trip to the Smokies and have never done. I read that it was a 4 mile round trip strenuous hike. We were concerned that it would be too much for Joey. I mean he is only 5 afterall. So I convince DH to give this a whirl and that we'll just quit when Joey's too tired. We get out about 10:45 and DH asks if we want to take our lunch. Naaa, we'll eat after this hike. We had 2 full size bags of chips and a small cooler w/our drinks and sandwiches and I didn't want to lug that. So we head out. A little ways into it, we start seeing ppl w/hiking poles, backpacks and looking rather 'outdoorsy'. It made me pause, but I told myself that they just had a big day of hiking planned for themselves. The 1st mile was gorgeous! Lots of creek crossings, etc. We get to the halfway point and I was starting to wonder what exactly that we'd gotten ourselves into. Both boys were going full steam ahead. The trail got treacherous (for a 5yo) at this point. We were way up on the side of the mountain and at one point we passing thru the trail (that was maybe 2ft wide) and complete mud. Solid rock up and solid rock straight down. They had put up a cable wire to hang on to to help pass over this part. So Dh was gripping his dt. pepsi bottle and we were both hanging on to Joey for his dear life (literally). Still the boys were both going full speed ahead. Somewhere in that mess, I realized that I was gasping for air and wishing I had an O2 tank and someone to carry it! We made it to the base of the summit. That was VERY rewarding! However we were looking up at solid slate!!!!!! Mat was dying to get to the top and there was just NO WAY that we could possibly get Joey to the top! Slate is a dark, crumbly type of rock that is VERY SLICK (think of chalkboards!). We went up them a bit, but we stopped. Of course, I was a bit dissappointed not to go to the summit after all of that, but oh well. We were all safe and alive and still had to get back down the slate. We were also told that the view where we were was much better than the top. Not sure how, but........I tried to convince myself of that!LOL  Oh, did I mention that we reached the summit a little after NOON!!!!!!!!!! We literally had NOTHING (but DH's empty bottle of dt pepsi at this point--which was a thorn in my side on that slate since I had it in one hand and Joey int he other. Didn't leave any hands for ME to hang on to!). We got back down the mountain at 1:30!ROTFL!!!!!! ANd you know, we saw NO OTHER CHILDREN ON THAT HIKE!!!!!!!LOL

About as high up as we got:

We let Mat go a bit farther up. You can see how close we were to the summit, but this pic is VERY decieving in how easy it looks! And those are just straight drop offs on either side! THAT was our biggest fear! One wrong move and you are GONE!

This was AFTER the hike!

We headed back out on our drive to Clingman's Dome and ate lunch here:

We finally made it to our original destination: Clingman's Dome ! We were so fortunate that it was a clear day and we had a GREAT view!

This was at the base of Clingman's Dome:

The traditional geeky vacation pic:

We came home and DH and I weren't sure if we'd ever be able to use our legs again. So we thought that night in Gatlinburg that we should do the Gatlinburg Sky Lift . We went up in the daylight and came down after sunset! NEAT!

That was a wonderful day. We came home and put the boys to bed and Dh and I fell into the hot tun in hopes of it eliminating all achiness from our bodies!ROTFL!

Gatlinburg-Day 1

Well, we got loaded up and on the road about 10. Dh sat in the truck to pull out and was looking at the atlas. Where is Gatlinburg? Slight panick is what I felt..........LOL Turns out he thought Gatlinburg was more centrally located and no where NEAR Bowling Green!!!!!!!!!! We moved this trip so that he could go to a truck pull in BG on that Saturday! It's about 4 hours away for those wondering. Oh well. We head out and were very excited about our upcoming trip!  We had booked a cabin in the mountains outside of Gatlinburg and I had some SERIOUS hiking plans for us! I had been to the Smokies before and hiked, but no one else had.;) Our cabin was GORGEOUS too! Two bedrooms w/king size beds, 2 full baths, fully stocked kitchen, wrap around porch (w/hot tub) and gazebo area off the deck w/dining table. We ate every meal outside while in Gatlinburg except for the last breakfast (it was raining)! Dh and I had the entire loft area to ourselves! The bedroom and full bath w/2 chairs (one nestled in a nook against hte glass wall looking out into the mountain!), 1 couch and a desk (overlooking the moutains!).

So we made our first meal in the cabin and just enjoyed being there.

Then we decided to go look around Gatlinburg a bit. We opted to do Hillbilly Golf So much fun!

Mat got a hole in one here!

So this wrapped up our 1st day of vacation!