Gatlinburg Getaway

This past weekend, we were able to get away to Gatlinburg, TN and meet up with my sister, Teresa, and her husband, Rob. They had been to a conference at the Billy Graham Conference Center in NC and we met for a night in Gatlinburg. It was great to catch up with them and see family!


The cabin we rented was out a ways from the hustle and bustle of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge which was very nice. We enjoyed eating our meals outside on the deck.


Here's a view of the cabin from down the lane. We were blessed with good weather the day that we wanted to be outside :)


Saturday morning, we took a drive to Cade's Cove and stopped at the stream for a rock skipping break. The weather had been too wet and rainy to go hiking, so we just took our time.


We saw bear!!! This isn't a very close-up shot, but he was a cutie. I have additional pictures with my big camera, but haven't put them on the pc yet. We also saw a mother with two cubs, but were not able to get pictures of her.


Nice waterfall along the main road into Cade's Cove.


There is a visitor center and some old buildings in the park area. Here is an old grist mill - they had it actually working for demonstration purposes.


The gang under an old barn.


My sister Teresa and I at the cabin.

After we said our goodbyes, John the kids and I walked around downtown Gatlinburg. We first went to a scenic lookout spot in the mountains, but the visibility was just about zero with fog and drizzly rain. Bummer. When we go with our home group in February, the road to the lookout is closed for winter.


Big pile of BIG pumpkins near the aquarium entrance.


Quaint little section of Gatlinburg that I had never been to before - cute little shops tucked in and around between the streets. We found this cute phone booth and someone offered to take our picture.


Giant marble rolling in front of Ripley's Believe It or Not. They had fun trying to get it to stop.


Hee - inside a "stuff-a-bear" store. They couldn't see what I saw, so I took a picture for them.

In other news:
It's been raining for what seems like weeks and we are finally getting a break from it. Whew! We are very thankful to not have flooding, but are still just a little tired of rain.

When Savannah saw this, she said, "What are you and Dad building Mom ... a moat?" This is in front of the house for the front porch area.

And in even other news ...
With a team effort, we got the car good and stuck ... in the trench that was dug for the electrical conduit. Because it was raining, I drove the car as close as I could to the camper ... which meant parking the front wheels on top of the recently dug ground. When John tried to leave for work ... the car sunk.

Team effort getting it stuck, but it was also a team effort getting it unstuck.


Thanks for reading. Have a great day!