Long over due blog update

I cannot believe I have not gotten to posting all the fun stuff about our trip! We are definitely all in summer time mode. We stay up late at night watching tv, we sit outside in the evenings while the kids play, we do as little housework, yardwork, cooking etc, as possible! So I just have not been really motivated to even update the blog!

But, back to updating on all that has gone on. We had a wonderful trip. It was long overdue! I will let the pics do most the talking now.

Well, here we are heading into the mountains. The pics taken from a moving car are not that great, but you get the idea!

So here are our two navigational tool! We used the gps on the phone for the most part and it was almost spot on every time! We did have a few wrong directions from it. I think overall the gps made the trip easier though and I did not have to try so hard to understand the map!

This is the beautiful, tree covered roadway that led to the mountain road to the cabin!

Here is a pic of the cabin we stayed in.

This is the view from our back porch. The lighting was not really good but it was beautifully dense with trees. It made for a nice private area in the back.

Our first adventure was to go for an 11 mile bike ride through Cades Cove! It was incedible in many ways. It was incredibly beautiful, incredibly challenging, and incredibly rewarding to finish it! We drove through Cade's Cove when we were on our honeymoon but biking is definitely the way to see it!

Here are some pics of the things we saw through Cade's Cove as we rode...

We completed the ride in 2 hours and 45 minutes. I did not think that was too bad for to non-bike riders! We really did have a great time doing it.

After our long bike ride we went to the cabin to clean up and nap for a while. We went to downtown Gatlinburg that evening and had a wonderful dinner at The Melting Pot. After dinner we walked all through downtown and did some shopping. We also road the sky lift to the top of the mountain. Here are the pictures of that...

The next morning we went to walk up to Clingmans Dome, highest point (6,643) in the Smokies. We attempted to walk up to it on our honeymoon but I chickened out! So I was quite determined to do it this time!

Accomplishing this was one of the most exciting experiences of my life. It is absolutely breathtaking at the top!

After Clingmans Dome we went back to the cabin and cleaned up and began packing. This was our final day on our trip. We went that evening to a dinner show, The Hatfield and McCoys. It was so very funny! The food was really good too. It was fried chicken and all the good southern fixins! Outside of the theater they had all kinds of crazy things set up, including chicken coops! Here are some pictures of the crazy things...

They had this outhouse set up and Jim decided to sit in it!

Then Jim decided to act like he was actually USING the outhouse!

So we had a wonderful trip! We are already planning a trip back next year with the boys.