We Went to Gatlinburg! And Took Pictures! Saturday/Sunday Review

Saturday was a great day! After eating pizza in the night before, we headed out for an early morning walk and could swear we saw blue sky! We took off for the Donut Friar, which had rave reviews on Trip Advisor. Wow - were they right. They were fantastic donuts! Plus, it was a very casual place for us to eat and fast.

We did a little shopping around the town and hit up a nice, local shop for the girls - Claire's Boutique. :) They were thrilled. New headbands and Nerds lipgloss. We meandered our way back to the hotel to plan the rest of the day and let the kids play a little. (I forgot to mention that on Friday, we found a store that had all kinds of stuff for a dollar. It wasn't a dollar store, but seemed more like someone had ripped off a Hallmark truck and was unloading stuffed animals. Either way, the kids loved their toys!)

After a quick lunch at a biker bar (we were desperate not to go back onto the main drag because of the crowds - once again food OK but not fantastic), we headed into the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The drive in was beautiful!

I wanted to make sure the girls got to the visitor's center by 2:00 for a Junior Ranger program. We got there a little early and went through the museum. They had a great collection of native animals and a nice exhibit on bats, which coincidentally, Josie had just studied in school. Very educational! :) We also told the girls that at the end of the day, we would count up all the good pictures we took and give them that many Jelly Beans. So, they insisted on posing by each of the stuffed animals.

 This one is probably my favorite of the whole trip! Josie's face cracks me up!!!

After checking out the museum, we went outside for the Junior Ranger program. It was on furs and the different types of animals that lived within the park. I think both girls really enjoyed it and learned new things. Josie, though, was particularly interested and I don't think the Ranger knew quite what to do with her. She was very interactive saying things like, "Hmmm, I didn't know that." And, asking pretty detailed questions. It was really fun watching her interact and learn new things on her own.

Finally, it was time to head in for our hike. It was about a one mile hike and took us about an hour and a half. :) Everyone was having a grand time and we got some great pictures! I think this is the first hike we've done as a family and we'll definitely be looking for opportunities to do more.

Heading onto the trail! (Jack wanted nothing to do with the backpack and really did a great job of keeping up.)

Cracks me up that Jack just looks like one of the gang!

Pretty Tessa! Notice the new headband!

Jack loved the little signs talking about the different types of trees. They were right at his level!

The girls practiced their balance beam skills and Jack wanted to play along.

Cute sisters!

Such a cute baby!

More sisterly love. :)

They had fun on this log that was bouncy and just high enough off the ground to be scary.

The end of the trail took us to Cataract Falls. Josie took the map from the Ranger at the beginning and led the way. (She's her mother's daughter, that's for sure!) But, she was adamant we were heading to Collect Falls.

Mama and Jack when he started seeming a little worn out.

We handed the good camera over to the girls. Josie took this one and I think it's really good! It's going on the Christmas card!

And, Tessa took this one. Not bad Tess!

This could be a school pic!

Yes, this was as dangerous as it looked. Everyone did a good job though and the girls were holding on tight! Jack didn't start to squirm until the very end.

Jump!

Camoflaged Jack!

After our hike, we took a little drive up to the Elkmont Campgrounds. It took us a little higher into the mountains which was great! We also saw some turkeys!

The drive back down was beautiful!

Once we were ready to leave the park, it was back to reality - traffic! Oh, it was really bad. It took us a long time to get back to the hotel and I was glad that Tessa and Jack took a little snooze. At one point, I jumped out of the car, ran 25 yards or so and into Wendy's for dinner for the kids and came back out to Tom sitting right in front of the restaurant.

Hit the pool again for the evening and then Tom and I ordered in. This time the food was really bad. It didn't help that there was a wreck downtown and it took an hour and half to arrive. It wasn't bad enough to ruin the great day though! What fun!

Sunday was time to pack up and the girls and Tom hit the game room and finally each won a toy out of the crane machine. The rest of the day was filled with travel and, you guessed it, traffic!

I will say again how much I loved the hotel. It was the perfect place for a family like ours. It had some nice features, like the pool, a cool lobby with a checkers table and a game room. And, the amount of time we were gone was just perfect. I was a little afraid it would be too short, but it was just right. Now, if those city planners could just do something about all the people and cars... :)

It really was a great trip and some great, quality family time!

We Went to Gatlinburg! And Took Pictures! Thursday/Friday Review

I have been dying for a family vacation for a long time and I finally got a chance to plan one over this year's fall break! I decided about six weeks ago that we would go to Gatlinburg. It seemed like the perfect trip for four days and a family like ours. I was right, with only a few exceptions. Here's a quick photo review of our trip.

We left town on Thursday morning. I was hoping to take off around 7 and we actually were on the road by 7:20, which really beat what I actually thought would happen. The kids did great on the ride down and so did the adults. :) We stopped for a quick breakfast/early lunch at Cracker Barrel. I decided it's a great place for me to have a Four Hour Body meal - tons of sides from which to chose. We hit the exit for Seiverville/Pigeon Forge off the main highway about 2-2:30PM which was right on time. The natives were getting restless and I assured them we were only about 15 minutes away. Boy, was I wrong! This is my one, albeit large, complaint about the area. The traffic is horrendous! It probably took another hour and a half to get to Gatlinburg! We got to the hotel, The Holiday Inn Vacation Club, around 4 or so and decided the girls and Tom would hit the pool while Jack and I unpacked and checked out the hotel. We loved the hotel! It was just the right amount of space for us. This is a pic from later, but you get the idea...

We then made a critical vacation mistake - going out to a late, sit-down dinner. Whoops. We went out in search of a barbeque joint and landed on Calhoun's. We got sucked in by the "Best Ribs in America!" on the sign. The ribs were good and the pulled pork was good too. The rest of the food was just OK. And, the service was really bad. I mentioned it was a late dinner for our family, but our server did not help the situation. Flaw #1 - did not come to our table, even to take drink orders, within the first 10 minutes. 10 minutes is a long time with grumpy, hungry kids. Flaw #2 - did not bring straws when he brought the drinks, then took about another 10 minutes to get them. The food did come out relatively quickly once we ordered it, but we had to grab silverware off another table in order to eat it. (And, it's not really that type of place.) Flaw #3 - just wasn't friendly. I know that seems silly, but he seriously came to our table maybe three times and each time was rushed and didn't say welcome or thank you.

After a good night's rest, we decided to try another meal at the Log Cabin Pancake House. Tessa was kind of in one of her moods which didn't help. Jack was in typical style and didn't want to sit down. Tom and I decided this would be the last of our sit down meals. Food was OK but probably not worth returning. Here's a few pics we snapped that makes it look fun - I assure you it was not.

After breakfast, the real fun started! We got the car and headed to Ripley's Aquarium. I was a little concerned that the price was high for a "Ripley's" attraction. I was wrong. It was totally worth it! Tom and I had as much fun, if not more, than the kids did. We loved watching the kids interact with the exhibits, but also saw some new things ourselves. Here are some pics from the visit.

The entry had some cool floating skeletons. I think this is a sea turtle.

 Iguana - up close and personal!

 This is a poison dart frog - it was cool because Josie had just read about these in her new Frog book!

 The thing in the middle is an electric eel - I was surprised at how well camouflaged it was with the coral.

 I loved these pics - this is Tom and Tessa (notice the headband) in front of the jelly fish.

 These are "school fish." Tessa thinks she found the teacher. And, she wondered if this was a TV.

Tom and Tessa checking out the flounder. I took one picture of a flounder hiding below the sand. You seriously cannot see the fish! You could only see the eyes.

 I don't remember what these are, but they were cool. They stuck right out of the sand.

 Sea horse! These things also camouflaged nicely among the coral.

 These are probably the coolest things I saw that day. They're dragon fish. They didn't look real at all. So cool!

 More dragon fish...

These pics are from the shark lagoon. This was really, really neat. A moving walkway took you underneath the shark pit. Tessa freaked out and Josie was a little hesitant, but then wanted to go back through a second time. Here is a great pic of a saw fish.

 See the giant sea turtle? Not a great pic.

I think this was Tessa before she started to freak.

Big old shark!

Another shark!

We then came across stingray bay...

Saw some barracudas...

Mama and Jack!

Finally, we made it to the play area!!!!

I loved the viewing tubes for the kids. They could get surrounded by 360 degrees of fish!

 Jack checked out the diving gear.

And, then the vibrating fish. It was a favorite of our kids.

Not quite sure what to think, but I think he liked it!

Tom caught some shots of Nemo for the girls.

No idea what this is, but it's a pretty fish!

More jellies...

And, more stingrays!

 I love this pic!

Finally, we made it to the penguins. This was another viewing tube but this one put the kids right in the middle of the penguins. They loved it!

Pretty stream outside of the aquarium.

Josie posed with a few cute penguins.

Tessa just wanted to hang out in the cave.

This guy got up close to my camera. I took a few shots to make him happy.

Jack finally wore himself out!

All in all, we had a great trip to the aquarium. I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone traveling to the area. It was a nice bonus that it was rainy and yucky outside while we were warm and indoors.

We grabbed a quick lunch at a general store close to our hotel. Once again, it was just OK. (I won't even mention how horrible my "grilled chicken" salad was. I put it in quotes because there is no way it was actually grilled chicken. But, in their defense, I should have known better - the grilled cheese was apparently great.)

Despite the rain, we walked down to the NOC, an outdoor center for hiking, camping, etc. Tom bought a few things and the kids had a great time looking for "clues" (they did butterflies and animals around the store for kids to find) and playing on the suspended bridge upstairs. This was a great place to spend the afternoon!

After that, we hit another general store to pick up some adult beverages and snacks for the kids. They loved being able to pick out their own snacks. It's the small things you know. :)

Hit up the pool again and then ordered take out from Mellow Mushroom. Once again, the food was OK but nothing to write home about. We did all love that the restaurants around town all had soft pretzels on the menu. The kids thought that was cool!

In summary, the first full day of our Gatlinburg vacation was a great success!

Aquarium - awesome - not to be missed!
Hotel - We loved it! Clean, classy and a great indoor and outdoor pool.
Food - just OK - didn't find anything I could have lived without, but nothing really bad either.
Traffic - Blech! Really bad! Probably would have been better to just walk if the weather had been nice, but that wasn't really an option.