Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Our trip to the Smokies

We took a mini-vacation over the weekend to Gatlinburg, TN. This was our first time back in 2 years. We rented a fabulous cabin that was one minute away from the main street in Gatlinburg. It had a great view.

We drove out on Friday night but had time to grill burgers and enjoy the hot tub. It rained on Saturday morning so we went to the Aquarium and ate lunch out in Gatlinburg. After trying to get Maddie to nap at the cabin we went to the club pool. The next day we drove into the mountains. I had my heart set on a 2.6 mile round trip hike to a waterfall. Jon, being the wise one, advised me that it'd be too far for Maddie to hike. Well, since Jon is so wise, he gave me my way and we set out in search of the hiking trail. Well, it turned out that the road to the trail was closed. We spotted another hiking trail on the way into the park so we backtracked and did that one instead. It wasn't a complete waste though because we saw a black bear as we were driving around looking for the waterfall trail. Luckily it was from the safety of our car. After we started hiking with Maddie I realised that Jon was right about the 2.6 mile loop and that it would have taken forever. After a picnic lunch we headed home. I would have liked to spend more time in Gatlinburg but it was a great trip and we'll definitely go back next year!

Caitlyn loves this doll.



Watching the cable car that goes to Ober Gatlinburg.


Yes, Caitlyn was there too.








Yes, Caitlyn was there too.





Crawling through a fish tank.



Two years ago with a 6-week-old Maddie







Our big hike.







We kept Maddie happy on the drive home with a blue slushy.

2 comments:

Daniela said...

Hahaha, glad Caitlyn could join you all! Great idea and it's awesome you did all that with a newborn and toddler. I wish we were closer b/c I'd love to do a trip like this and Lew has always wanted to go to the Smokies. Maybe one day!

betsy said...

your trip looks like so fun! do you recommend the place you stayed? will you mind giving me the info on where you found it!