Day 3--Last Day of Gatlinburg

We ate at one of the many pancake or Flapjack houses in Gatlinburg for breakfast.  I indulged myself with blueberry pancakes.  Afterwards we went on a scenic drive in the Smoky Mountains.  I loved it!  Trees everywhere. 

 We were driving along when cars started pulling off to the side.  We wondered why, then we saw the...BEAR!  Right there!  Nels jumped out of the car with the camera and started to walk down the road towards the oncoming car (pictured below).  Nels tried to get a picture of the bear.  He got a little bit of it in the woods.  Can you see the black spot about an inch across from the car?   

 

I zoomed in a bit on the picture to see it better...This was the first bear we saw together out in the wild!

 In total we saw a dear and 2 bears!!  The second bear crossed right in front of our car! I was too shocked and slow to take a picture of the one crossing in front of us.

Cabin in the woods:

This little cabin was interesting.  The background on this home is that the family wanted some color and so they used all the paint colors that were available at the time from Sears.  This included the blue/teal color, white and yellow.  We nicknamed it the Swedish house because it's the same color combination as the Swedish flag.

 Nels: Proud Swede.

 Isn't it cute all nestled back in the woods?

 The whole reason we went on the drive was to see the "Place of a Thousdand Drips."  There were so many cars that we didn't get a chance to stop right by it.  So the next place we could park was downhill about a quarter of a mile.  So we parked and hiked up the hill.  (We were both pretty sore from the hike the day before...there may have been some murmurring.  But that's okay.)
Here it is...You can kind of see all of the different places water is dripping from. 

 Since I made such a big deal about seeing it, I thought I better take a picture of myself in front of it. 

 Nels made it, and climbed up closer to the water for a photo.

That was the last stop on the Scenic drive.  It was almost noon and time to head back to Memphis.  We made it home safe and sound.  We even had time to unpack and get settled for the week. 

Finally, I'm done with the trip that happened over a month ago!  Oh well, stay tuned for more updates.  :)

Day 2--Hiking

After eating a huge breakfast of bacon, eggs and the best French toast ever, we headed to the Smoky Mountains.  We wanted to hike to a waterfall.  After researching waterfalls here: http://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/waterfalls.htm

We decided to hike to Ramsey Cascades.

Here’s the description:
Ramsey Cascades is the tallest waterfall in the park and one of the most spectacular. Water drops 100 feet over rock outcroppings and collects in a small pool where numerous well-camouflaged salamanders can be found.

The trail to the waterfall gains over 2,000' in elevation over its 4 mile course and the 8-mile round trip hike is considered strenuous in difficulty. It follows rushing rivers and streams for much of its length. The last 2 miles pass through old-growth cove hardwood forest with large tuliptrees, basswoods, silverbells, and yellow birches.

Picture of us fresh and ready to start our hike:

The description was very accurate.  The hike was strenuous and difficult.  But it was very much worth it.  Nels and I loved hiking and talking.  

Bridge and trail leading deeper into the trees:

We often saw streams and huge rocks.  

Many of the trees had these little pretty white flowers.

This is one of the bridges.  Just one side had the railing and it was super narrow.   

We asked one of the hikers to take our picture on the narrow bridge. 

This was taken when we had about 3 miles left to get the waterfall.  We're pretty exhausted at this point. 

 We didn’t talk much the last two miles to the waterfall.  We were too busy panting our way uphill and climbing over huge rocks.   It was amazing though, as we hopped on stones to cross a stream, and climbed on top of a huge boulder to see the beautiful waterfall cascading down.  We changed our shoes to our waterproof Teva’s and soaked our feet while we gazed at the gushing waterfall.   

Ramsey Cascade.

Teva's.

Kissy, kissy.

Chillin' on one of the big rocks near the waterfall.

Nels is thinking, "Take the picture."  There were people watching and I think he got a little camera shy.

But he quickly put his shyness away and ran through the waterfall.  Brrrr.

More of the waterfall:

Going downhill was a lot faster and we made great time.  We were thoroughly exhausted.

But BBQ Nachos helped revive us from our hike.  We literally “pigged out.”  Mmmm, love that barbecue!
Silly pictures of us while we were waiting for the food to come.
Tired...

 Fishy Faces...

 "The Puckering Pig" Barbecue sauce... 

The restaurant was close to our hotel so we walked. 
Random picture from downtown Gatlinburg...I think it was about $12 a person to ride on the ski lift!  We didn't ride it.  

We ended the evening with a movie in bed all snuggled up with the AC running and the fireplace a blazzin’.  Aw, what a perfect day!

Day 1 Gatlinburg

Over the 4th of July, Nels and I went on a little vacation.  We decided to check out East Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains.  The trip was wonderful.  I'm so glad we went.  So here's the story of our adventure with pictures.

Day 1
We strategically packed the car.  Nels bought a huge cooler for the trip.  So I thought I better take a picture of that.  We packed sandwiches and other goodies for the road trip. 

 

Once we were packed then we were off...Wait!  Quick picture first.  Is that a fake smile Nels?  Oh you're hungry?  Okay, let's see....

Aw, now that's better.  McDonald's will put a grin on your face.

We spent most of the day driving.  It is a beautiful drive with trees and rolling hills.  As we got closer to the Smoky mountains there were more twists and turns.  We arrived in Gatlinburg in the late afternoon.   My boss got us a room at the Hilton Garden Inn.  The room had a king bed and a fireplace.  Very cozy and perfect.  For dinner, we went to the Alamo Steakhouse.  Oh my!  It was delicious. 

Here's Nels getting to know the locals.

 We ordered the 22 oz Porterhouse steak and shared it.  I loved the filet part and cooked medium.  This is new for me.  I used to always get my steaks well done…then I started to order them medium well.  But now, medium is awesome.  I loved how the steak just melted like butter in my mouth.  I don’t know if I’ll ever eat steak medium rare though. But who knows.

The Huge Steak!

We ate it all!  Except the bone of course!

After dinner we enjoyed a nice walk downtown.  They had live music going at several places.  So we just enjoyed walking and people watching. 

This is the outdoor area of the hotel. Cozy eh?

We slept extremely well and were well rested for our next day of...

To be continued.