1st day in Gatlinburg

We are on vacation and it has been wonderful.  We arrived on Saturday around 12:30 thinking we would reach our place in about an hour.  We didn't know that downtown Pigeon Forge was crammed with cars.  It took us 2 hours to get to the cabin.  It was a little frustrating.  Once we got here it was great just to go to the pool and relax the rest of the evening. 

On Sunday we headed out to do some hiking.  We headed to a falls called Abrams Falls.  It is located in Cade's Cove.  I loved it.  I was so proud of the girls.  It is a 5 mile hike and they both made it without any problems.  I will add pictures later, do not have my cord to upload picture with us.

On Monday we headed to another waterfalls.  This time we went to Grotto Falls.  It was really neat, because we got to actually walk behind the falls.  I never thought we would be able to do that.  Emma was my little dare devil.  She wanted to climb every rock and reach every area that she was able to go. 

We almost saw a bear.  If we would have been a few minutes faster we would have seen a bear.  Not that I wanted to see one up close and personal it would be neat to see one while we are out an about. 

After hiking we headed to the craft section of Gatlinburg.  One of the first shops we went into was a rock shop.  Emma's eyes lighted up.  She was in her own personal heaven.  She found two rocks and quickly bought them.  The lady was really nice and told us some info on the rocks.  After all of this I was exhausted.  We headed back and went swimming.  We played Marco Polo with the kids which was really fun.  Seems like a basic thing to play but it was great to just be funny. 

Today is Tuesday and it was a crazy day.  We got up early because we knew we were trying to cram a lot into one day.  We left the condo by 8:00.  We headed up to Clingman's Dome.  Wow, what a view.  It was amazing.  We could see at least 50 miles from where we were.  I think maybe even 70 miles. 

After that we headed towards Cherokee North Carolina.  We stopped at the visitors center.  We walked through a reenactment village.  There was a guy there that answered some questions about cooing in a dutch oven.  It is my goal to cook in a dutch oven over a fire this year.  I am going to do it.  He was making cookies and it really did not look that hard. 

Then we headed to Mingo Falls.  It was a really quick walk but it was so gorgeous.  The falls is 120 feet tall and magnificent.  It was really located in a weird location.  We pretty much drove through a trailer park and found the parking lot for the falls.  We weren't sure if we were in the right place.  We climbed the stairs and then there it was, gorgeous. 

After there we headed to Bryson City, NC.  There was a loop that included three different falls.  Juney Whank falls, Tom Branch Falls, and Indian Creek Falls.  They were all a short distance but beautiful.  The girls played in the water some and we got to just watch, which was great. 

After all of that we headed to the Indian Museum in Cherokee.  We had about an hour before it closed.  Emma really wanted to go so we decided to go in.  It was pretty neat, but we were all so exhausted that I think if we stood in one place too long we would have fallen asleep. 

I can say that so far our vacation has been amazing.  Tomorrow we are going to take it a  little easy.  We are going to hang out at our condo until after lunch and then hit the aquarium.  It is suppose to rain, praying it holds off or doesn't rain at all.