A Smoky Mountain Vacation

So we just got back from what was supposed to be a relaxing family vacation in the Smoky Mountains. Not much relaxing when you have kids, right? They always want to be doing something. I guess it was supposed to be relaxing for Nathan, I had my relaxation in Minneapolis. And it was relaxing for him I guess, not having to deal with work for a whole week, which is hard since he has a company phone and has emails going to it all day and all night.

We left Wednesday morning and arrived to our cabin in the woods in the late afternoon. It was definitely nice to bring our own food and cook a little. Although, I learned after frying bacon for 1 hour on Thursday that I wasn't going to do that my whole vacation while everyone else was in the hot tub. So I guess it was nice to have a fridge and microwave and room to eat the food.




We saw a few shows: The Dixie Stampede, but can't say I was impressed. It's a dinner show, with yummy food, but you're supposed to eat and watch at the same time, while it's dark. Not so hard for me, but my kids hardly ate anything. And there was no silverware.


Of course we took a ride through the park in Cade's Cove. Really just to find bears, and we were not disappointed.




According to Brooke, the best part about the vacation was riding a tram up the mountain. Nathan thought it was a waste of money, but really, it's not something you get to do everyday when you live in Indiana. There was a whole other town up the mountain with rides, restaurants, shops, etc. The workers there left much to be desired. Pretty rude and unhelpful actually. I left a very long negative comment card with guest services. But I would do it again just to ride up the mountain...we'll avoid the rides the next time!






Oh, and we just HAD to go to a go-kart track. (Can you sense the sarcasm?) All we had to do was spend a bazillion dollars and we could ride everything we wanted all day long. Woohoo!!








We can't talk about how our 5 year old will go on the roller coaster, but our 8 year old won't. It's a pretty touchy subject so don't ask her. (the 8 year old)

Overall, it was a great trip. I think we're done traveling for a bit now since school is staring Wednesday!! Yippee!!