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.