Dearest Colt and Jackson,
This year's vacation took place from August 7th-13th. Aunt Heather & Uncle Billy came up with the idea for our destination & they chose Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. It was a first for our family!
We left on Friday, August 7th and drove to Jackson, Tennessee. We must've been exhausted because, after we got back on the road the next day, Dad asked, "Did you take a picture of the boys by the Jackson, TN sign?" and my mouth dropped! I totally forgot! That's when I realized that I actually hadn't taken a single picture yet (!!!) so I snapped a quick one during our lunch break!
A few hours later and we found ourselves in front of our home away from home, our cabin, Above the Mist.
We arrived first so we ran around scoping out the place.
Y'all found "your spot" pretty quickly and broke it in immediately.
Heather & Billy arrived at dinner time. We made dinner for them and spent our night looking through numerous brochures in an attempt to make the most out of our short trip.
We decided to do some hiking on our first day. We started at this trailhead and hiked the mile and a half to Grotto Falls.
We were in awe once we reached the falls!
Grotto Falls is unique as it's the only waterfall in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that people can actually walk behind. So, of course, we did!
We even found some rocks and had ourselves a picnic lunch!
And some people did a little more exploring...
From there, we went into Gatlinburg and explored this adorable village. It all seemed very German as we strolled up and down the street visiting various shops.
We all headed out to dinner that night at a place that made us nervous when we pulled up! The front of "The Old Mill" looked like it was about the fall over -- but the line that wrapped around their porch told us to stay.
SO glad that we did because look at this beauty from the other side! As if that weren't enough, the food knocked our socks off! I am wanting more of their corn chowder & biscuits!
The Old Mill general store is where you two ended up getting souvenirs. You picked out a pop gun (that I didn't take a picture of but it's already broken!) and a slingshot. You both played with your new things until it was time for bed.
That night, like the others, went late with us adults sitting around the kitchen table. We played cards, snacked, and laughed louder than we should have! We got up when y'all did the next morning since we knew we wanted to head to Ober in Gatlinberg. Ober in the only ski resort in Tennessee. In the summer months, when it isn't being used for skiing, it becomes an amusement park.
We rode the tram up the mountain.
Then we rode the chairlift even further up to the alpine slide.
We repeated these steps over and over again...only breaking for lunch.
Then we gave your dad's fear of heights a rest and did some of the fun stuff at the base of the mountain.
We knew the trip wouldn't be complete until we went to the tippy-top though...so off we went!
I tried to capture just how far up the mountain we were after being on that lift for almost 20 minutes!
I was so proud of your dad for making it to the top (even if he did refuse to ride the lift with anyone else and took an entire seat for himself!)!
A bluegrass band greeted us up on Mt. Harrison & Billy knew every song they played!
And that called for some dancing!
The view up there was way more spectacular than our iPhone camera could capture!
Aunt Heather & Uncle Billy returned the favor and cooked for all of us that night. Then we all felt like exploring the area around our cabin so we went for a mini-hike. We found a cabin up the hill that wasn't being rented and we *might* have sneaked onto their porch to take in the gorgeous view (as our porch had quite a few trees blocking our view).
We kept working towards our explorers badges on Wednesday by visiting this cavern that was about an hour away. We didn't think much of it when we pulled up...
But we were amazed once we hiked down below!
Our laughter filled the cave as our guide told us about this stalactite that is supposed to bring you good luck if it drips on you...and I wasn't willing to have us all stand around waiting for this little drip of water -- so I said, "C'mon boys - we don't need luck, we have Jesus." and this old lady who hadn't said a thing turned around and shouted "Amen!" HA!!
After lots of walking and hiking, a soak in the hot tub was the perfect way to get ready for dinner!
We went to a dinner show that night at this fun place pictured below:
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| Confession: I borrowed this pic from the internet but I can't remember where I got it! |
We went to a Lumberjack Feud where we watched a bunch of competitions.
There was more bluegrass music so Billy was happy ; )
(Over cards later that night, I said, "Billy could sing a bluegrass song in the middle of a lumberjack feud. And that's not even an insult." and thus it became what your dad has deemed our slogan for this vacation.)
We had 1 last breakfast together the next morning before saying our goodbyes. Y'all gave their dog, Rusty, a little more love & then we hit the road!
We drove straight from Pigeon Forge to Flower Mound - all 14 hours...but left the camera out of it. You were both awesome travelers & the vacation was even more fun than I had hoped!
