Our Smoky Mountain Vacation, Part 1

We were lucky enough to have Grandma & Grandpa Smith come out to visit us this summer!  We decided we would grab the chance and see something new!  We road tripped out to the Smoky Mountains!  (This is actually a picture of us on the last day)

July 6, 2014
We started our trip out with PRESENTS - yep!  It was my birthday so I opened some presents from my parents & my hubby and the kids.  Morgan was so thoughtful and bought me some stuff for my new hobby - biking.  My best friend and I are training for a 100 mile ride so top on my wish list was padded shorts, bike lights, a phone mount, etc.  Morgan really came through - perfect! No cute picture of me with a birthday cake or blowing our candles - sorry!  P.S.  I turned 39!  Yeah!  I am so excited to be turning 40 this year - making it count with some new adventures for sure!


Our first stop was the National Museum of the USAF - we had been there before but we knew my Dad would love it!  We all loved it - there was a lot to see but somehow the only pictures we took were of us in these space suits - sorry! They had airplanes from every time period as well as a great IMAX movie (that I saw half of because someone had to go potty - MARIN!) and a great interactive center for kids.  We really did not have enough time to see it all but it was really fun!   Oh, I found one more picture - a cute one of Marin!

That night we drove into Louisville, KY.  We ate dinner at Olive Garden and had the nicest experience of good customer service and just nice people!  When Morgan's pizza burned, they made a new one and gave it to us free.  Then they gave us a big dessert on the house.  So if you are ever in Louisville, eat at Olive Garden - super nice staff!

With full bellies we crashed at our hotel - tomorrow more adventuring!  :)

July 7, 2014

Day 2 had us in Louisville, Kentucky and how could you travel through Louisville and not stop at the Louisville Slugger Factory!  It is right in the old downtown and a great museum & factory tour.  It was fun to see how they were made and they gave you free mini bats (the best part).  The kids loved this huge bat and all the baseball items!  The huge bat outside was quite the picture spot but we managed to grab a good picture of us all together!

We kept on going and made it to the Smoky Mountains - I can't say that I like the towns surrounding the area - too many tourist traps and tons of people.  The only other time we came through the Smoky Mountains was late September when Hattie was a toddler so it has been awhile.  It was still beautiful but the amount of people was crazy!  We twisted and turned and made it to our cabin in the woods - it was a nice cabin but I would NEVER stay there in the winter, I think someone in our trip had an upset car sick stomach ever day!!  :)

July 8, 2014

Just a few pictures of the cabin as we loaded up for the day - we were heading into the park and we were all ready (of course, I realized later that we never had enough water).  It was nice enough weather but we were always thirsty.

We promised the kids some "short" hikes so we started off on the North Carolina/Tennessee border to do some hiking on the Appalachian trail - I learned that it is said appa - latch - in trail. I guess I have been saying it wrong my whole life.  Anyways - we were able to hike up quite a ways for our unprepared little family and it was lots of fun!  We took some of my favorite pictures here!

Our next stop for the day was another hike up a trail to the top of Clingman's Dome (a pretty high viewpoint).  It was a paved trail but it was steep - we were proud of our kids because they kept going and frankly, there was not much reward - it was so foggy and gloomy you couldn't see anything from the top but oh well.  With promises of lunch - we practically ran down the pathway!

After lunch our next stop was into Cades Cove - this is a beautiful open valley within the Smoky Mountains.  It has a one way 11 mile road around the area (which the whole time we were driving it, I was wondering how they got any help into the cove during an emergency).  While we were driving toward the loop, Morgan spotted a mother bear and her cub crossing the highway behind us.  We were able to stop and see it through pour rear window.  Like at Yellowstone, everyone stops to look and we always wonder if it terrifies the animals.

Our first stop in Cades Cove was to see an old homestead, while we were walking toward the house we were blessed us with an close up with a deer - so fun!  Along the loop, we made a nice stop at a church but then it started raining and I mean pouring rain!  I thought we had some pictures of the rain but it was crazy and the traffic on this one line road was all going as good as expected.  Every time it slowed we assumed it was another animal sighting but mostly it was slow traffic - we were pretty happy to get out of the loop and on our way back to the cabin.