Smoky Mountain Getaway

We're back from our wonderful vacation to Gatlinburg, TN - nestled in the heart of the lovely Smoky Mountains. We had a relaxing and invigorating trip, and managed to both "take it easy" and see the sights during our week in the hills. As you can see from the picture on the left, the views were quite breathtaking at times! This picture was taken as we rode a ski lift up to the top of a mountain which overlooks the town of Gatlinburg and a western view of the Smokies.

Our basic plan for the week was to "wing it", as we wanted to make sure to get plenty of time to just hang out at the pool or kick back with a glass of wine and a good game. On our way to Gatlinburg, we stopped at Tim's parents' house in Greenville, SC and had a nice visit before dropping off the pooch (poor, sad Nala :-) ). We got to see all of the pictures from their recent cruise to Nova Scotia and also got to babysit our niece Emma for an evening while her mom and dad were off for dinner and a show.

We headed to Gatlinburg on Monday morning, and enjoyed a very nice ride through the foothills and the surrounding areas of Asheville, NC. And then...BOOM. The right rear tire on the old Corolla decided that it had had enough of the winding mountain roads and quit. So, we pulled off and put on the donut and went on our merry way. The donut did a nice job (especially since you really can't go faster than 40 mph on the mountain roads anyway) until we got the tire replaced on Tuesday.

We got into the town on Monday afternoon and spent much of the day walking around and getting the lay of the land. Our first (and lasting) impression of Gatlinburg was that it reminded us of Interlaken, Switzerland which we visited on our honeymoon and last summer with Traci's parents. It's quite a bit more commercial and "hillbilly", but the city sits in a valley between mountains and on a river and the streets are narrow and quaint with plenty of little family-owned shops and eateries. After a dinner at Bennett's BBQ (where we coincidentally got a seat under the SC flag), we began our epic mini-golf tournament with the front 18 holes at Ripley's Davy Crockett Golf. Traci won by 3 strokes, more on that later.

Tuesday was "town-day", when we rode the ski-lift and spent more time downtown. Our views on the way down from the ski-lift were dampened when a sudden thunderstorm rolled in and forced us to get down the mountain. In fact, we were the last customers on the ski-lift before they closed it due to thunder/lightning. Kind of scary to think about, really! So, we got soaked and spent a while drying off under an overhang waiting for the rain to stop. Then it was off to the Old-Timey Picture studio (we had our choice of probably 50 different locations, no joke) where we got gussied up as the Cowboy and the Saloon Girl (ooh lala). The pictures turned out great and we bought a few. Here's one of them (below) for your viewing enjoyment. No wisecracks, or we'll have to throw ya' in the slammer. We finished the day with an excellent meal at the Alamo restaurant and a few games back in the resort.


Wednesday began with a drive out to the Little Pigeon river for a 2-hour Whitewater Rafting Trip. The water was really good due to recent rain and the guides were all raving about what a good rafting day it was. We got selected for a raft with Anthony, the "leader" of the guides and the most experienced rafter. He was also the loudest person in the Smoky Mountains, but a very funny and personable river companion. He made our trip very enjoyable. We rafted through some class II - class IV rapids, but the trip was really pretty smooth and easy compared to some of the recent kayak trips we've taken. The family from Michigan who shared our raft was a lot of fun (thanks Pete, Michelle, Paige, and Tanner) and we all got soaked. After rafting we headed to Pigeon Forge, TN (about 5 miles down the road) for a dinner show called "Fiddler's Feast", which featured bluegrass and hillbilly folk music with silly skits and a decent meal. Our mini-golf tournament continued with Davy Crockett Back-18 (Fort Crockett), which ended up with a tie score. (Traci leads by 3 strokes).


Thursday was time to chill out. We got some coffee at the Coffee Loft (a cute little cabin near the resort) which backed onto a creek. We took our coffee out to the creek and saw our first muskrat. He was swimming downstream and didn't pay us one bit of attention. Very cool! We spent the afternoon between the pools, the sauna, and the room playing games (for those who care, we played Blue Moon, Odin's Ravens, and Ticket To Ride: Markin) . Dinner was out on the balcony at Crawdaddy's Restaurant, followed by the final round of our golf tournament at Hillbilly Golf. It was a unique course, in that you rode up the mountain on a lift to get to the first hole and then played down the mountain. This one looked like a blowout at first (Tim had a bit to drink at dinner, but refused a handicap...), but the score ended up close with Traci winning by 3 strokes. This made Traci the overall vacation Mini-Golf champion, with a total stroke victory of 6. We finished the evening with a return to town for ice cream cones.

We already had a plan for Friday since the weather was looking to be good, and we headed over to Dollywood's Splash Mountain, a waterslide park associated with Dollywood. (and for those of you not from the SouthEast, that's Dolly Parton's theme park. Yes, Dolly Parton. Yes, Theme Park. Yes, "mountains". Insert Joke Here.) The park was really excellent, with a variety of waterslides and rafting rides, a wave pool, a lazy river, and a giant bucket that dumped a bazillion gallons of water onto those standing below every few minutes. Whee! We got a bit of sun and were pretty waterlogged by closing, but it was a delightful day. Dinner was at the Apple Barn in Pigeon Forge, followed by ice cream for Tim (Traci opted out) at the Creamery of the Apple Barn, and then the drive back to Greenville, SC.

That's a good summary of our wonderful vacation. Thanks for reading this far, and please post a comment if you want to!