A Short Getaway

We decided to have a short little 3 days away in Gatlinburg since we haven't had any other time for vacation and we have quite a busy fall coming with work and little baby boy coming along in September.  It was very nice and a good change of scenery for hubby and me.  We stayed at the end of town and walked down the strip at least twice each day for shopping and food.  The mornings were cool and beautiful and the afternoons were pretty much unbearably hot.  Couldn't stay out much during that time. Evenings were great and we spent time out on our balcony looking at Mt. LeConte and the moon and a planet....I think it was Venus....who knows.  But it was pretty.

There were lots of people in the mountains...maybe because the beach is not the best option this summer because of the oil spill.  But I have to tell you....I have never seen so many really HUGE people in one place. Goodness! I was just plain skinny there compared to those folks.  We seemed to always be seated by a window while we ate our meals. Just made me want to go home and get on the treadmill after I people-watched for a while during supper.

Seemed like on every corner there were small little bands playing.  Usually a man with a fiddle, a man with a banjo and a woman singing or playing a washboard. Haha. It was nice though. They all were quite talented.
We bought fudge from the Ole' Smoky Candy Kitchen for the pregnant daughter..and some for us of course. I also had my traditional caramel apple. I have to do that once on each visit.  And, of course, we had to visit the Pancake Pantry for breakfast. Wonderful buttermilk pancakes and hot chocolate (diet coke for me also)!

We visited Cades Cove down near Townsend.  It's always gorgeous in that valley.  This was a village of about 600 people back in the 1800s. The government bought all the land from the settlers and they moved away. Now it's a park. There is an 11 mile loop that you drive through to see all the old buildings and beautiful scenery.  Here are some pics from Cades Cove:

    Such an isolated place, so peaceful though. But driving through helps you imagine the hardships those settlers in the valley had especially in winter there in the mountains.

 So we're back now to the real world.  Can't wait to see what the next few months hold within our family.