Random Day

Today was a rather random vacation day.

As most days we didn’t really have a plan when we left and ended up pulling off the road at a pull off by a bridge that I had seen multiple times and thought was neat and wanted to go get some pictures of. Dave decided that he was going to give some fishing a try in the area also. So he fished, I walked the trail and took some pictures. Then before we left I made him do a couple pictures of us on the bridge and down by the water.

We then started driving and looking for a place to pull over for some more fishing. I was going to leave him there and come back for him but I decided to just stay and sit in the car and read. Didn’t want to have to worry about turning around, coming back and finding him, etc.

We then came back to town to look for the Post Office and then back to the condo for spaghetti and meatballs for dinner.

After dinner we relaxed for about an hour and then we decided to go walking through Gatlinburg.

We found The Village which has a lot of really cute stores to walk through, and even made a few more purchases! We stopped for a coffee and a carmel apple cider.

On the way back we stopped and listened to a live Bluegrass band for a few before we came back to the room for the evening.

Only one more day…and it is supposed to be rainy L Oh well we did have good weather for most of the time!!

Cades Cove

This morning I got up bright and early at 7:30.WHAT is up with that. I am on vacation, I KNOW Dave will be sleeping in so WHY can't I? I watched some TV, made cinnamon rolls, realized I needed to shower, took a shower, watched some more TV and then Dave woke up. And I ended up taking a 30 minute nap!!

Yeah I know, me, nap, ODD! But it was nice!

We ended up leaving here around Noon, stopped by the Visitor Center, and decided that we wanted to head off to Cades Cove today. So off we went.

On the way we stopped at a pull off to take some pictures and check things out then we got back on the road.

We got to Cades Cove and before we started the loop we stopped to use the restroom and had our lunch. We took all of our stuff down and realized that all the picnic tables had been taken. So we sat on a log and had our lunch.

Dave wanted to head into the water to get some pictures, but found that the water was deeper than he thought so we left and started the loop.

It is a one way loop, that they said would take about 2-3 hours. There are a bunch of little pull off's on the way and we stopped at a few of those. We saw a few deer out in a field, I thought they

seemed a little on the small side from what we see in Ohio!

Towards the end of the loop we saw a rather large buck out in the field! We pulled off and took some pictures.and then Dave decided to head out into the field to the side of the deer to see if he could get a good picture. Well he did get some.and also got 2 Park Rangers coming out to visit him and another guy that had gone out to do the same time. The Rangers just asked them to get out of the field.

On the way back we stopped at The Sinks since we missed them on our way. And then headed back to the room.

We both just wanted to chill so we warmed up some BBQ pork sandwiches, saw the bear again and are just hanging out now.

A calm end to a calm day!

Out and About

Today was Dave's pick and he decided he wanted to go to Oconaluftee which is at the OTHER side of the park!

So off we went this morning down the Newfound Gap Road. It was a VERY slow start out of Gatlinburg, the traffic was very backed up, but once we got on our way it went pretty fast, well as fast as you can when the speed limit was only 25 and 35 MPH.

We stopped at a few different road side stops on the way to take some pictures.

We arrived at Oconaluftee and it was gorgeous outside. Warm, sunny, blue skies, it was great! First we hit the gift shop and picked up a book on waterfalls and also our Christmas ornament.

I don't think we ever ended up on the actual trail there because Dave was, of course, drawn to the stream. Which worked out good we got some great pictures and it wasn't very busy.

Before we left we decided to go ahead and eat some lunch. We sat the chairs up behind the car in the parking lot and made out sandwiches and watchedthe people go by. It was a good time!!

Next we headed toward Cherokee to go to Mingo Falls. Can't say much about Mingo Falls because we never made it there!

We ended up going to Harrah's Casino to check it out. Dave hadn't been to a casino in 15-ish years so he wanted to see what it was like.

We ended up not even gambling while there.Yeah I know, weird, but that is us!!

We walked back to our car instead of taking the bus back and it was a nice stroll next to and over a stream.

We needed to make a stop and fill up the tank for a few reasons - we would be in the middle of the part in the evening/after dark, I wasn't really even sure how much gas we had as the gauge had been bouncing around all day. So Dave filled up the car and I went in looking for something to drink. I saw a pop called Cheerwine and mentioned it to Dave, who decided to pick up a

bottle. It was SOOOO good, so now I will be on the lookout for it!!

Next stop was Clingman Dome for sunset, but we got there VERY early! We decided not to go all the way up to the top but stop at the overlook by the parking lot. We set up the tripod and waited, and waited, and waited. We got to talk to some of the other people waiting for the sunset also.

It was beautiful and I am glad we did it, even if we only got a few pictures out of it!

Now the drive back wasn't as nice. We left before most of the people, which meant they all caught up with us on the LONG and DARK drive back. To say the least it was rather stressful and I was glad to be back!

We ended up going to Bubba Gumps for dinner. Dinner was yummy and the service was good. But the waiter for the table behind us drove us crazy! He spent more than half of our meal sitting talking to the table behind us. Story after story going on and on!! Ahhhh well, what can you do!

We walked around a little and came back home for the night around 9:30 and then the FUN began. We have been bear watching/tracking for awhile now. We have now seen 2 bears up close and personal. They are walking around outside out porch area and also in the hall in front of our door! Dave had to wait in the stairs area waiting for one to go the other way when he was coming back to from the parking garage as the bear was between the elevator and our door. I went to check it out when he called and the darn bear was right outside our door! Talk about an exciting end to a fun day!!!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our 1st Anniversary! I can't believe it has been a year already!!

And I am counting my blessings for how lucky we got on the weather, people thought it was chilly last year and it was in the low 60's. This year it was in the low 40's!!!!!

Being the good wife that I am I made Dave pancakes and sausages for breakfast to start his day. (I was up at 7:30-ish, he got up a little after 10.) We had decided yesterday to go to the Aquarium today since it was still supposed to be a on the cool side and the rest of the week it was

supposed to be a little warmer.

We walked down to the Aquarium and stopped at a few little shops on the way. WOW it is crazy how many little stores they have!! The Aquarium was nice, it had a really good glass "tunnel" to go through and we had a fun time taking pictures!

We then headed off to see if we could figure out where the restaurant was that I had picked to have dinner at. I had sent the address and phone number to Dave via an e-mail since my phone was dead and I wasn't planning to take it with me. What I didn't know was the e-mail I sent it from didn't really send because I am not on the RoadRunner network. Opppps!! I had looked at the map and THOUGHT it was near the aquarium so we kept looking. After about 30 minutes of wander we decided to head back to the hotel to get the correct info. On the way back we saw a Visitor's Center that included Gatlinburg and also The Great Smoky Mountains so we decided to

stop in. As we looked around we saw a phamphlet about the restaurant! Come to find out it was back the other way just past our hotel. So we headed back that way and decided to just do an early dinner.

We got to the restaurant about 3:30 and found out they opened at 4 and there was already a line. We decided to walk around to a few stores and then came back to wait for them to open. We went to Cherokee Grill which is part of a local "chain" of restaurants. We might have to try another one later in the week :)

We had a WONDERFUL meal including a great dessert! Our waitress was great, she took a picture of us, suggested that we take a picture in front of the fireplace (but that one didn't come out to good!) We decided to call it an early evening and head back to our "home for the week".

Dave got me 2 cards - one funny and one romantic and a gift card to REI and said that we would make a trip to Pennsylvania soon to actually go to the store!!

It was a WONDERFUL 1st Anniversary and start to our vacation!

We Made It!!!

To Gatlinburg that is :)

We ended up leaving town about 11 AM. A little late for me, but I said I was just going to go with the flow and I did. Until I got a HORRIBLE headache and felt sick after being in the car as a passenger for 15 minutes. It might have been because I was trying to do Sudoku but I'm not sure.

I ended up going to sleep before we even got out of Columbus!! I woke up right before we got to Kentucky and to hear the "better" part of the OSU game!

I was OK the rest of the drive, but the most looking down I did was to check out Facebook every once and a while.

We stopped for lunch about 2:30 in Kentucky, and I think it was colder than we left home. The average all day was about 43 degrees - UGH!

We then stopped in a small town in TN to get some groceries at Wal-Mart. We got enough food for most of our meals to be in our room and sandwiches to take out with us when we go hiking.

Everything was going good for a 7 PM arrival..til we got to Sevierville!!

It took us about an hour to go 17 miles!!!!

I was driving at this time and it was horrible..slow and people going every which way. NOT happy!!

We finally got to our hotel about 8 PM and got checked it. Everything went well with check-in, which we had some worries about since it was a timeshare with a name change can at times cause problems.

As we checked in the woman told us that the last few nights a small bear had been coming to the area. Yep, from everything I have read there are is a good chance we should be seeing a bear.

Our room is great! It's very nice and even has a whirlpool tub!!

We got everything unpacked, put away, and now we are trying to decide what we want to do tomorrow!